Sex for You, But Not for Me: Discontinuity in Undergraduate Emerging Adults' Definitions of "Having Sex" (Report‪)‬

Studies by Arnett (1994, 1997, 1998, 2000) have provided strong empirical support for emerging adulthood as a developmental period for 18-to-28-year-olds in affluent, industrialized cultures. Distinctly different from those Erikson (1968) labeled young adults, emerging adults have deferred completing the developmental tasks once deemed critical in the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Arnett's conceptual revision characterizes emerging adults by their high degree of freedom for identity exploration. Central among their developmental tasks is constructing an ideology of coherent beliefs and values (Arnett, 1997, 1998). In the United States, many of the tasks of emerging adulthood unfold for 62% of high school graduates in the college environment (Lefkowitz, 2005). Since 1998, motivated by the national discussion about President Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinksy, several researchers have attempted to define which behaviors undergraduates consider sex (e.g., Bogart, Cecil, Wagstaff, Pinkerton, & Abramson, 2000; Peterson & Muehlenhard, 2007; Pitts & Rahman, 2001; Randall & Byers, 2003; Richters & Song, 1999; Sanders & Reinisch, 1999). Only two of these studies (Peterson & Muehlenhard; Randall & Byers) have explored whether undergraduates' definitions of sex are consistent across contexts. Randall and Byers sought to determine which sexual behaviors participants associated with the terminology "having sex," "sexual partner," and "unfaithful" Peterson and Muehlenhard (2007) investigated whether undergraduates adjust their definition of having sex based upon "the anticipated consequences of applying a label" (p. 257) to themselves.