Is There Really a Sex Recession? Period and Cohort Effects on Sexual Inactivity Among American Men, 2006–2019

Abstract

There has been a growing concern among researchers and media commentators that men in the United States may be increasingly less sexually active, creating a form of a “sex recession.” Using 14 years of survey data from men in the National Survey of Family Growth (2006–2019), this study assesses whether such concerns are warranted. Cross-classified mixed-effects models are estimated to ascertain whether there is evidence of a population-wide sex recession among men due to secular conditions specific to different time periods, or if birth cohorts that comprise the male population at any given point in time are exhibiting distinct patterns of sexual behavior. The analysis finds no evidence of a population-wide sex recession among men. Rates of sexual inactivity among men have been constant across the time series, but those born between 2000 and 2004 had significantly higher rates of sexual inactivity than previous birth cohorts did at the same age. Additionally, men who are unemployed and/or living at home with their parents are more likely to refrain from sexual intercourse than their peers who are employed and/or living independently of their parents.

Psychosocial Characteristics of Involuntary Celibates (Incels): A Review of Empirical Research and Assessment of the Potential Implications of Research on Adult Virginity and Late Sexual Onset

“…Adult virgins have greater odds of being overweight (Halpern et al, 2005;Halpern et al, 2006;Haydon et al, 2014), or at least perceive themselves as being overweight (Donnelly et al, 2001). For males, living at home with one's parents, being non-Hispanic Asian, experiencing later than average pubertal development, being rated as physically unattractive by others, and being unemployed were other factors that significantly decreased the odds of initiating sexual activity (Bozick, 2021;Haydon et al, 2014). Among females, being overweight, having lower cognitive performance and reporting frequent religious attendance also decreased the odds of having sexual experience.…”

“Even though I’m not an incel, I’m still an involuntary celibate”: A journey in and out of inceldom.

“…Demographic data also suggests those lacking experience with higher education, unemployed, or living with parents are disproportionately likely to be incels (Costello, 2022). This may be explained by them also being more likely to be i) highintensity internet users (Feng et al, 2019) and ii) sexually inactive (Bozick, 2021). The former is consistent with isolation predicting online activity among young adults (Primack et al, 2017;Smith et al, 2021), and the latter could be due to their low self-esteem decreasing their selfconfidence (Bale & Archer, 2013), social status influencing women's attraction (Walter et al, 2020) or practical considerations like the cost of going out.…”