Predictors of College Students’ Participation in Hookup Culture

“Hooking up,” defined as engaging in non-committal, physically intimate relationships, is a common behavior on college campuses. We surveyed students to determine the effects of alcohol usage, personality traits, and attachment styles on college students’ participation in hookup behaviors, as well as their perceptions of hooking up. Based on previous research, we expected to find that perceptions of and participation in hookup behaviors would show significant, positive relationships with extraversion, narcissism, anxious and avoidant attachment styles, and alcohol consumption, and a negative correlation with secure attachment style. Our results generally were consistent with our hypotheses. However, our sample was skewed toward first year students, so additional research will be needed to expand the diversity of the pool of participants to give us a more accurate view of the phenomenon