Sexual Behavior and Practices: Data and Measurement

Abstract

Sexuality is a broad and complex topic which has been studied from a variety of perspectives and disciplines, including its own discipline of "sexology." It is often difficult to maintain a level of objectivity and scale when thinking of sex. This has made it particularly difficult to conduct research directly about sexuality. This chapter concerns research on sexual behavior and practices as part of the larger study of population, the domain of research and knowledge known as demography. It focuses on the problems and issues related to studying sexuality in representative surveys of the population. The chapter begins by addressing the conceptualization of sexuality and sexual behavior and argues that in order to overcome the resistance to the study of sexuality, it has always had to be justified and legitimated as being a necessary response to some larger pressing social need. This has affected the definition and conceptualization of sexuality which, in turn, has affected how it is measured. The hope is that a heightened awareness of the framing of research on sexuality can improve theory and research in this area. Sexual behavior needs to be treated as a legitimate research topic prone to exactly the same problems as surveys on other forms of behavior; not necessarily posing any impassable barrier, but still subject to the same methodological challenges encountered in any survey. The study of sexual behavior in surveys can benefit from the large body of research on questionnaire design and response error in survey research, which can be used to inform and improve our data collection efforts in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved). (chapter)