A University of Minnesota research study sampling 1,300 young adults, ages 18 to 24, found no considerable emotional damage by those who participated in casual sexual relationships, compared to those in having sexual relations within a committed relationship.
Additional details via the Minnesota Star Tribune:
They found no differences in reports of depression or self-esteem, regardless of gender or the type of most recent sexual encounter, she said.
Few other researchers have studied the question, and those who have posed the questions differently and surveyed other age groups. For example, one study found that teenagers whose first sexual encounter was casual rather than romantic were more likely to report psychological distress. Another found that college women who engaged in casual sex were more likely than their male counterparts to report depressive symptoms.
Casual sex can certainly be less painful then when a relationship’s emotional bind comes undone, but casual sex doesn’t deliver the same kind of passionate, satisfying, and hot wet sex that comes from fucking someone you love.
I spent a good portion of my early 20s having casual sex, and while I don’t regret any single notch on my bedpost, those situations usually yield selfish attempts of sexual gratification. But being paired with someone who wants to please you as much as you want to please them, always seems to yield orgasmic results of a higher, more pleasurable, intensity (i.e., dirty dirty dirty sex).
