Trend Analysis

Although investigations of college student sexual attitudes al.d behaviors have appeared in the literature since the 1960s, assessing long-term attitudinal and behavior patterns is difficult when comparing studies which have employed different populations and different settings. In an attempt to provide information about such long-term patterns while controlling the population and setting, samples of incoming freshmen at the University of Maryland in 1972 (N=750), 1983 (N=460), and 1987 (N=285) completed an anonymous questionnaire assessing their sexual attitudes and beliefs. The results revealed that students in all 3 years were personally more conservative than they believed others to be. Students in recent years expressed more liberal views about homosexuals but were also more likely to indicate that, if they were homosexual, they would want this fact hidden from others. Reported levels of sexual intercourse were lower in recent years. Male'. in all years reported more liberal personal sexual codes than did females, attesting to the stability of gender differences in sexual attitudes and behaviors. (Author) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. r