SWEDISH OR AMERICAN HETEROSEXUAL COLLEGE YOUTH - WHO IS MORE PERMISSIVE

Theories of human sexuality have proposed that two factors reduce the double standard of sexuality and lead to a convergence of male and fem ale sexual behavior: the degree of social benefits and amount of power women have in basic societal institutions and the extent to which a s ociety accepts permissive sexual norms. As these factors increase, the strength of the double standard will decrease and the convergence bet ween male and female behaviors will increase. Compared to the United S tates, Sweden has instituted more policies to promote gender equality and has been thought to accept more permissive premarital sexual attit udes. The focus of the research reported here is to examine country an d gender differences in sexual attitudes and sexual behavior for a sam ple of university students in the United States (N = 407) and Sweden ( N = 570). Results indicate that Swedish students endorsed more similar sexual standards for women and men and reported more accepting attitu des than did American students. For sexual behavior, American men repo rted the most sexual experience, Swedish men the least, with the women of both countries generally in the middle category. Notwithstanding t his more permissive behavior on the part of American men, gender conve rgence with respect to sexual behavior is stronger in Sweden on severa l of the dimensions examined: age of first engaging in partner-related sexual activities for those who were sexually experienced relationshi p with first partner, number of partners both in the last year and in their lifetime, and affective reactions to first coitus. Gender conver gence, however, is weaker in Sweden than in the United States with res pect to the incidence and frequency of various sexual activities and t he degree of satisfaction with current sex life. Findings are discusse d with respect to the questions they raise about the current theories that framed this research and the differential amount of sex education provided in the two countries.