PARALLEL SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE NORWEGIAN CONTEXT

The purpose of the paper is to describe and analyse the prevalence of parallel sexual relationships among adult Norwegians in terms of socia l background variables, possibility factors and motivational factors. Data stem from two cross-sectional, postal questionnaire surveys in 19 87 and 1992 on two separate representative samples of 10,000 Norwegian s aged between 18 and 60. The results showed that 16% of the responden ts reported one or more parallel sexual relationships. The prevalence of parallel sexual relationships increased with possibility factors, s uch as the number of travelling days and population density. Among mot ivational factors, parallel sexual relationships increased with the nu mber of years married/cohabiting, except for those married the longest . It decreased with increasing age of first intercourse, and increased with the number of partners before the last partnership. Of those not satisfied with coital frequency with their permanent partner, 22% had parallel sexual relationship experience compared to 12% among those w ho were satisfied. Furthermore, more men than women reported parallel sexual relationships; respondents with higher levels of education more often reported parallel sexual activity than those with lower level o f education; and subjects born between 1937 and 1956 reported more par allel sexual activity than the other cohorts. When controlled for the number of years married/cohabiting, the predicted trend suggests that for the cohorts born up to 1970, men and women with lower and higher l evels of education have become more similar as regards parallel sexual behaviour. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.