From Library Journal
Based on the National Health and Social Life Survey, a 1992 nationwide survey of 3432 American men and women between the ages of 18 and 59, this is one of two books reporting on the findings. This book is intended for professional social scientists, counselors, and health professionals, while Robert T. Michael and others' Sex in America, just published by Little, Brown, anticipates a more general audience. Beginning with the theoretical foundations, rationale for, and design of the methodology, the authors put the work in historical context as they assert its accuracy and generalizations, urging caution about interpretation and implications of their sometimes surprising findings. Though the study was designed largely to "fill significant gaps in our knowledge of sexual behavior associated with the acquisition of the AIDS virus," this book achieves a refreshingly readable examination of masturbation, sexually transmitted infections, cohabitation and marriage, fertility, and homosexuality. The text throughout is buttressed by graphs, charts, tables, diagrams, appendixes, bibliographic references, and author and subject indexes (not seen). For academic collections.
James E. Van Buskirk, San Francisco P.L.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From the Back Cover
The Social Organization of Sexuality, a report on the nation's most comprehensive representative survey of sexual behavior in the general population to date, finally offers that basic information. Conducted by a research team centered at the University of Chicago, the National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS) was designed to determine the incidence and prevalence of sexual practices and to place them in their social contexts. Based on personal interviews with a probability sample of 3,432 American women and men between the ages of 18 and 59, undertaken by the National Opinion Research Center, this study explores the extent to which sexual conduct and general attitudes toward sexuality are influenced by gender, age, marital status, and other demographic characteristics. The results of this survey both allow us to better understand how sexual behavior is organized in American society, and offer significant implications for policymakers struggling with many of the nation's crucial health problems. In exploring the rate of new partner formation, for example, the researchers discovered that about 80% of American adults had only one or no sexual partner in the past year. By concentrating AIDS awareness information on the 20% of the population that had two or more partners. AIDS strategists would be better able to target and persuade this segment of the population to modify their sexual behavior. Other topics covered by the survey include early sexual experiences, masturbation, contraception and fertility, abortion, sexual abuse, coercion, sexual health, satisfaction, and sexual dysfunction. A wide variety of sexual practices and preferences are also explored in the questionnaire, including specific questions on homosexual desire, identity, and behavior, the appeal of various sexual practices, and their frequency and incorporation into sexual lives.
About the Author
Edward O. Laumann is the George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago. He is coauthor of The Social Organization of Sexuality and coeditor of Sex, Love, and Health in America, both published by the University of Chicago Press.
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