The Casualties of `Casual' Sex: A Qualitative Exploration of the Phenomenology of College Students' Hookups

One of the most prominent features of the current college campus environment is the casual sex practice of the hookup. Hookups are defined as a sexual encounter between two people who are brief acquaintances or strangers, usually lasting only one night without the expectation of developing a relationship (Paul, McManus, & Hayes, 2000). Although there is a vast literature on college students' casual sexual attitudes and behavior, there is little attention to (a) subjective or experiential elements of and (b) the heterogeneity of casual sexual experiences. The goal of this study was to explore the varied phenomenology or experiential reality of college students' casual sexual hookup experiences. A structured questionnaire soliciting open responses regarding college students' views of a typical hookup and reports of their best and worst hookup experiences was administered to 187 college students. Responses were microanalytically content analyzed and globally thematically analyzed. College students' accounts of hookup experiences included behavioral, situational, cognitive, and emotional elements. As expected, although there was relative uniformity in college students' descriptions of a typical hookup, there was wide variation in college students' descriptions of their best and worst hookup experiences. Moreover, whereas there were few differences between males' and females' descriptions of what transpired, there were some sex differences in descriptions of what was felt after actual casual sexual experiences and in interpretations of why experiences were good or bad.