Casual Sex it's the shocking truth..

As we all know, hooking up for casual sex is bad for young people because it causes emotional or psychological damage.

But why we still do that?

Right?

Well, actually, no. At least not for young adults between the ages of 18 and 28, according to a new study.

Even they found the results startling.

They asked more than 1000 young gay man here, about their most recent sexual encounters, their self-esteem and their emotional wellbeing. Interestingly, only about 70% of the target’s said their last encounter was casual. But their overall emotional status was no different than the other 30% who said they were in committed relationships with their most recent sexual partner.

"We were so surprised," said Kenneth one of my friend as well as assistant professor at the local university's who studies adolescent and young adult health.

"The conventional wisdom is that casual sex, 'friends with benefits', is hurtful. That's what we've been teaching kids for decades,", he said.

Not that Kenneth’s advocates casual sex.

"Casual sex is not for everyone" as an emotional matter, he said. Moreover, there is real physical risk: rates of sexually transmitted diseases are rising.

But, he said, sex education curriculums, parents and public health programs should "focus on the things that are real threats," such as interpersonal violence, HIV risk and STDs, not on the theory that casual sex is emotionally harmful.

The researchers surveyed 1000 young adults in Kuala Lumpur, pulled from a group they began following years ago as part of a major ongoing research study in adolescent health and nutrition. All the people in the study were sexually active and answered a series of survey questions about their last sexual encounter, depressive symptoms and self-esteem.

The researchers divided the responses by how the subjects described their most recent sexual encounter. About 10 per cent said it was with a committed partner, 55 per cent said it was an exclusive dating partner, 10 per cent said it was with a close, but not sexually exclusive, partner, and 25 per cent said it was a casual acquaintance.

That breakdown fits with other similar surveys of young adults, Kenneth said.
But what was different is that they found no differences in reports of depression or self-esteem, regardless of gender or the type of most recent sexual encounter, he 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 gay men who engaged in casual sex were more likely than their straight male counterparts to report depressive symptoms.

But Kenneth said his study is the first to include a wide cross-section of young adults. Two-thirds were chinese, some were full-time students, some part-time, some in college, some in community or technical schools and some weren't in school at all.

They did find some differences among the groups. Malay, for example, were more likely than Indian men to describe their last sexual encounter as casual. And twice as many gay men as straight men said their last sexual encounter was either casual or with a close but not exclusive partner - 29 per cent compared to 14 per cent.

That difference raises the obvious question: How can there be twice as many gay men having casual sex as straight men? The answer, Kenneth say, most likely lies in cultural norms that make it more acceptable for gay men to describe their sexual encounters as casual. "Young gay male have more of a tendency to characterise it as more special than, perhaps, the straight man did," he said.

Till then, I still can't figure it out why this thing happend. Can't someone out there tell me?