Sexual Choices Now Can Make a Difference
The Love and Fidelity Network is pleased to be running an intercollegiate advertising campaign with the prominent tagline "My sexual choices now are making a difference." This campaign--presented by 19 colleges and universities (including five Ivy Leagues) through 9,000 total posters--sends the message that college students' current sexual choices can increase their confidence in achieving other desirable life goals (higher income and better physical and mental health, in addition to greater marital sexual quality, relationship satisfaction and stability). Specifically, that is, when their sexual choices counter the hook-up culture and the predominant mentality of testing sexual compatibility.
We present each ad below with the stats supporting it. To better understand the theoretical and statistical support for the campaign, please visit Dr. Jason Carroll's "Sowing Your Wild Oats: Is it Helping or Hurting Your Future Marriage?"post on our blog, State of Affairs. (To view a larger image of any given ad, please click the ad number listed above the image. It will link you to a full-sized image on our blog).
 Headline: I want to be 34% less likely than my peers to experience separation or divorce.
Tagline: My sexual choices now are making a difference.
Body copy: Women who had their first sexual encounter prior to first marriage have been shown to be about 34% more likely to experience marital dissolution. Translation: The sexual choices you make now may make the difference in your marriage and family life later.
loveandfidelity.org/blog
Direct source:
“Model 3 includes a dichotomous variable measuring premarital sex and indicates that women who had their first sexual encounter prior to first marriage are about 34% more likely to experience marital dissolution at each point in their marriages (and for each year that they delay sex, the risk of marital disruption is reduced by about 8%).”
p. 450 of Teachman, J. (2003). Premarital sex, premarital cohabitation, and the risk of subsequent marital dissolution among women, Journal of Marriage and Family, 65, 444-455.
Another source demonstrating a tie between sexual choices and marital stability (though demonstrating a different statistic than the one in this ad):
“For women who cohabited two or more times, the odds of divorce were 141% higher than for women who cohabited only with their first marriage partners. Interestingly, the risk of divorce is also greater among women who did not cohabit with their husbands but with someone else prior to marriage.”
p. 872 of Lichter, D. T., & Qian, Z. (2008). Serial cohabitation and the marital life course, Journal of Marriage and Family . 70(4), 861-78.
 Headline: I want to earn 20-30% more than my peers as an adult.
Tagline: My sexual choices now are making a difference.
Body copy: Among a number of desirable life outcomes, married men ages 25-49 have been shown to have a 21-34 percent earnings advantage over never-married, separated, and divorced men. Studies have also shown that marital stability is negatively associated with one’s amount of sexual experience in college and the time prior to marriage. Translation: The sexual choices you make now may make the difference in your financial security later.
loveandfidelity.org/blog
Sources:
“Using the March 2004 Current Population Survey (CPS), we estimated standard human capital regressions, expanded to include race, Hispanic origin, and presence of children. Among men, ages 25-49, the coefficient on being married implied a 34 percent earnings advantage over the never-married, a 25 percent advantage over separated men, and a 21 percent advantage over divorced men. These marriage-related differentials are extremely high, about two to three times the differentials associated with a year of schooling.”
p.2 of Ahituv, A., & Lerman, R. I. (2005). How do marital status, wage rates, and work commitment interact?, IZA Discussion Paper No. 1688.
“Antonovics and Town (2004) sought to estimate a causal effect of marriage on wage rates by using data from 136 pairs of monozygotic twins from Minnesota to deal with the problem of unobserved heterogeneity. Assuming that both members of a twin pair have the same unobserved individual specific earnings endowment and family-specific earnings endowment, the authors found a 26% marriage wage premium within twin pairs.”
p. 265 of Ahituv, A., & Lerman, R. I. (2007). How do marital status, work effort, and wage rates interact? Demography, 44(3), 623-647.
**The assumption in this ad, as well as in ads 3 & 4 is that because sexual choices (number of sexual partners prior to marriage, number of cohabiting partners, etc) have been shown to be related to marital stability (with those who have fewer sexual partners and enter less cohabiting relationships experiencing higher marital stability--see sources for Ad 1), that college students who observe greater sexual restraint now have a greater likelihood of receiving the benefits of marriage (though getting and staying married) later. The message, then, in Ads 2-4, is that since marriage is linked to several aspects of individual health and well-being, such as better financial status, improved physical health, enhanced mental health, college students who observe greater sexual restraint now have confidence in receiving these benefits in the future.**
 Headline: I want to experience better physical health than my peers as an adult.
Tagline: My sexual choices now are making a difference.
Body copy: Among a number of desirable life outcomes, married adults have been shown to be less likely than other adults to be in fair or poor health, to be limited in activities of daily living, and to suffer from health conditions such as headaches. Studies have also shown that marital stability is negatively associated with one’s amount of sexual experience in college and the time prior to marriage. Translation: The sexual choices you make now may make the difference in your physical health later.
loveandfidelity.org/blog
Source:
“Regardless of population subgroup (age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, education, income, or nativity) or health indicator (fair or poor health, limitations in activities, low back pain, headaches, serious psychological distress, smoking, or leisure-time physical inactivity), married adults were generally found to be healthier than adults in other marital status categories. Marital status differences in health were found in each of the three age groups studied (18-44 years, 45-64 years, and 65 years and over), but were most striking among adults aged 18-44 years. The one negative health indicator for which married adults had a higher prevalence was overweight or obesity.”
p.1 of Schoenborn, C. A. (2004). Marital status and health: United States, 1999-2002, Advance Data, 351, 1-36
Additional source:
Heritage Foundation report on familyfacts.org
 Headline: I want to experience better mental health than my peers as an adult.
Tagline: My sexual choices now are making a difference.
Body copy: Among a number of desirable life outcomes, married adults have been shown to report less depression, less anxiety and lower levels of other types of psychological distress. Studies have also shown that marital stability is negatively associated with one’s amount of sexual experience in college and the time prior to marriage. Translation: The sexual choices you make now may make the difference in your mental health later.
loveandfidelity.org/blog
Source:
Overall, married men and women report less depression, less anxiety and lower levels of other types of psychological distress.
Waite, L. J., & Gallagher, M. (2000). The Case for Marriage. New York: Doubleday.
 Headline: I want to experience 20% higher relationship satisfaction and 15% better sexual quality in my future marriage than my peers.
Tagline: My sexual choices now are making a difference.
Body copy: The delay of a couple’s sexual involvement has been shown to have a significantly positive association with a number of relationship outcomes, including relationship satisfaction and stability, sexual quality, and communication. Translation: The sexual choices you make now may make the difference in your married life later.
loveandfidelity.org/blog
Source:
Busby, D. M., Carroll, J. S., and Willoughby, B. J. (2010). Compatibility or restraint? The effects of sexual timing on marriage relationships. Journal of Family Psychology, 24(6), 766-774.
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