Easy college "hookup" reports are overblown.

• Position: YOUR LIFE

"Recent research and popular media reports have described intimate relationships among contemporary college students as characterized by a new and pervasive hookup culture in which students regularly have sex with no strings attached," says Martin Monto, professor of sociology at the University of Portland (Ore.). "This implies that the college campus has become a mere sexualized environment and that undergraduates are having mere sex than in the past. We found that this is not the case."

In their study, Monto and coauthor Anna Carey used a nationally representative sample from the General Social Survey of 18- to 25-year-olds, who had graduated from high school and completed at least one year of college, comparing responses from 1988-96 with those from 2002-10.

"We found that college students from the contemporary or hookup era did not report having mere frequent sex or more sexual partners during the past year or more sexual partners since turning 18 than undergraduates from the earlier era," relates Monto.

Some 55.2% of the 2002-10 students reported having sex at least once a week or mere in the previous year, compared to 59.3% of those from today's supposed hookup era. In addition, 31.9% of the earlier cohort reported having mere than one sexual partner in the past year, compared with 31.6% of contemporary college students. Also, 51.7% of the earlier group reported having more than two sexual partners alter turning 8, compared to 50.5% of the 2002-10 cohort.

In terms of attitudes toward other sexual norms, the...