Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T15:32:35.263Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Decline in Coital Rates with Spouses' Ages and Duration of Marriage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

William H. James
William H. James
Affiliation:
MRC Mammalian Development Unit, University College, London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Cross-sectional and longitudinal study of a large sample confirms that mean marital coital rates decline very rapidly over the first year of marriage. They seem to halve over the first year of marriage, and then they take perhaps another 20 years to halve again. This pattern of decline is interpreted as evidence against the suggestion that coital rates are closely related to female hormone levels.

The higher correlation of marital coital rates with wife's age than with husband's age, it is argued here, is because wife's age is more closely associated than husband's age with duration of marriage (here seen as the most important of these three variables in the determination of coital rates). This is because of the substantially smaller variance of wife's age at marriage than husband's age at marriage.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , January 1983 , pp. 83 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Gartrell, N.K., Loriaux, D.L. & Chase, T.N. (1977) Plasma testosterone in homosexual and heterosexual women. Am. J. Psychiat. 134, 1117.Google Scholar
James, W.H. (1981) The honeymoon effect on marital coitus. J. Sex Res. 17, 114.Google Scholar
Kinsey, A.C., Pomeroy, W.B., Martin, C.E. & Gebhard, P.H. (1953) Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female. Saunders, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Martin, C.E. (1981) Factors affecting sexual functioning in 60–79 year old males. Arch. Sex. Behav. 10, 399.Google Scholar
Persky, H., Lief, H.I., Strauss, D., Miller, W.R. & O'Brien, C.P. (1978) Plasma testosterone level and sexual behavior of couples. Arch. Sex. Behav. 7, 157.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Udry, J.R. (1980) Changes in the frequency of marital intercourse from panel data. Arch. Sex. Behav. 9, 319.Google Scholar
Udry, J.R., Deven, F.R. & Coleman, S.J. (1982) A cross-national comparison of the relative influence of male and female age on the frequency of marital intercourse. J. biosoc. Sci. 14, 1.Google Scholar
Udry, J.J. & Morris, N.M. (1978) Relative contribution of male and female age to the frequency of marital intercourse. Social Biol. 25, 128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar