Recreational use of marijuana makes women more likely to have casual sex during their freshman year of college, a new study found.
The study was authored by Robyn Fielder of the Miriam Hospital’s Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine in Rhode Island. Fielder and her team surveyed freshmen girls on their sexual habits and recreational drug use each month during their first years at college. They found that respondents who smoked pot were more likely to engage in casual sex.
“Our findings suggest hooking up during the first year of college is influenced by pre-college hook ups, personality, behavioral intentions, the social and situational context, family background and substance use patterns –- particularly marijuana use,” Fielder said in a statement.
Prior sexual relationships were an even larger predictor of sexual behavior in college, however.
Race, socioeconomic status, smoking cigarettes, and academic status did not seem to influence college-aged girls’ decisions to have sex.
Fielder also discovered that at least one in four freshman girls participated in oral or vaginal sex, and that they were less likely to use condoms in college than they were in high school.
The study was published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior. It was funded by a $219,000 grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a government agency.
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