734 SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN CHINA range as agreement about other aspects of family life such as spousal violence and relative social status of parents (average =0.27),suggesting that it was not the sensitivity of sexual behavior alone that caused reporting problems. Another 50 respondents had repeat interviews after a gap of two months.In the repeat interviews,the 21 items about sexual behavior had average kappa statistic values of 0.75 across interviews.In the final survey,the biomarker data-the urine sample collected to test for chlamydia trachomatis-helped us to assess and confirm trends in reported sexual behavior. We analyzed both urban and rural trends.We give estimates for urban areas in more detail,both because the cutting edge of social change is in urban areas and because of a purposive oversampling of cities that produced more robust estimates for urban areas.In the urban portion of the sample, 44 percent of respondents grew up in rural areas and migrated to cities,often decades ago.Although these persons differed in many ways from those who grew up in cities,we count them here simply as "urban,"leaving the explora- tion of their differences from other urbanites for a later analysis. Data were analyzed using STATA 8.0/9.2(Stata Corp)svy methods with results adjusted for sample strata,primary sampling units,and popula- tion weights.For Figures 1-3,event history analyses were used to calculate cohort survival curves (the cumulative percent experiencing each event), while for Figure 4,and Tables 1-4,weighted cross-tabulations were used. Tests for trend analyses were also performed using Cox and logistic regres- sion adjusted for sample design.We present our results by cohort-grouping respondents into four or five cohorts based on the year a respondent turned age 20(Figures 1-4,Tables 1-4)or the year the respondent turned age 15 for the initial analysis of puberty. Results To address the first question of whether there has been a revolution in sexual behavior,we investigate transformations in a)the onset of sexual behavior, including trends in age at puberty,masturbation,first sex,first marriage,and premarital sex;and b)commodification of sex (including trends in use of pornographic materials and commercial sex)and concurrent sex. Onset of sexual behavior in urban areas Puberty.In the survey data,the average age at puberty declined.Among urban women,age at menarche declined from a high of age 15.9 years for those aged 15 in 1950 to a low of age 13.6 in 1995,a reduction of more than two years.A similar two-year decline in average age at puberty was observed This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue,3 Feb 2015 11:39:51 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
734 Sexual Behavior in China range as agreement about other aspects of family life such as spousal violence and relative social status of parents (average = 0.27), suggesting that it was not the sensitivity of sexual behavior alone that caused reporting problems. Another 50 respondents had repeat interviews after a gap of two months. In the repeat interviews, the 21 items about sexual behavior had average kappa statistic values of 0.75 across interviews. In the final survey, the biomarker data?the urine sample collected to test for chlamydia trachomatis?helped us to assess and confirm trends in reported sexual behavior. We analyzed both urban and rural trends. We give estimates for urban areas in more detail, both because the cutting edge of social change is in urban areas and because of a purposive oversampling of cities that produced more robust estimates for urban areas. In the urban portion of the sample, 44 percent of respondents grew up in rural areas and migrated to cities, often decades ago. Although these persons differed in many ways from those who grew up in cities, we count them here simply as "urban," leaving the explora tion of their differences from other urbanites for a later analysis. Data were analyzed using STATA 8.0/9.2 (Stata Corp) svy methods with results adjusted for sample strata, primary sampling units, and popula tion weights. For Figures 1-3, event history analyses were used to calculate cohort survival curves (the cumulative percent experiencing each event), while for Figure 4, and Tables 1-4, weighted cross-tabulations were used. Tests for trend analyses were also performed using Cox and logistic regres sion adjusted for sample design. We present our results by cohort?grouping respondents into four or five cohorts based on the year a respondent turned age 20 (Figures 1-4, Tables 1-4) or the year the respondent turned age 15 for the initial analysis of puberty. Results To address the first question of whether there has been a revolution in sexual behavior, we investigate transformations in a) the onset of sexual behavior, including trends in age at puberty, masturbation, first sex, first marriage, and premarital sex; and b) commodification of sex (including trends in use of pornographic materials and commercial sex) and concurrent sex. Onset of sexual behavior in urban areas Puberty. In the survey data, the average age at puberty declined. Among urban women, age at menarche declined from a high of age 15.9 years for those aged 15 in 1950 to a low of age 13.6 in 1995, a reduction of more than two years. A similar two-year decline in average age at puberty was observed This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue, 3 Feb 2015 11:39:51 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
WILLIAM L.PARISH EDWARD O.LAUMANN SANYU A.MOJOLA 735 for urban men-from age 17.5 among men aged 15 in 1950 to age 15.5 by 1995.These trends were consistent with proxies for improved nutrition over the same period:self-reported height increased by 4.5 cm(1.8 inches)among men and by 6.3 cm (2.5 inches)among women in urban areas from 1950 to 1995.The decline in age at puberty implies that both men and women were biologically ready for sexual activity at younger ages in more recent years. Masturbation.Self-reports of age at first masturbation suggest that over time the practice became increasingly common in urban areas.In the earliest cohorts who reached age 20 in the 1950s and 1960s,only about 39 percent of men and 5 percent of women had masturbated by age 30.In contrast,by the 1990s cohort,over 70 percent of men and 30 percent of women had mastur- bated by the time they reached age 30-a six-fold increase for women and a 30 percentage point increase for men.Consistent with more general trends in Chinese society,most of the change in onset of masturbation occurred in the final two cohorts,who reached age 20 in the 1980s and 1990s.(Results appear in Figure 1,where a trend line further to the left implies an earlier and more rapidly accelerating start in the percent of respondents reporting age of onset of masturbation. First sex.In urban areas,median age at first sex (intercourse)moved first toward older and then toward younger ages(see Figure 2).For men,the period of most delayed (farthest to the right)age at first sex was in the 1970s: at the median(the 50th percentile),first sex took place at about age 25.This was a time when economic conditions and administrative policies to delay marriage led both to higher marriage ages and to a later onset of sex,which often did not occur until marriage.There was a sharp shift toward earlier ages at first sex from the 1980s cohort on-indicated by a move to the left in the trend lines of Figure 2.What is most distinctive about men's patterns in the 1990s was a sharp shift to the left at around age 20.Median age for men's first sex in this cohort fell to about age 22.5,a decline of more than two years. Among women,the earliest ages at first sex were found in the 1950s and 1960s,when age at marriage and the first sex that went with marriage remained low.By the 1980s,women's median age at first sex had risen from a low of 21.5 years to almost 24 years,but it fell to about 22.5 a decade later in the 1990s-as in the case of men,a decline of almost two years.It is noteworthy that no more than one-fourth of either men or women had sex before age 20.Chinese urban teenagers,in other words,remained mostly virgins even in the 1990s. First marriage.Among urbanites,trends in first marriage displayed most clearly the effects of tight state regulation of marriage age.For both women and men,the two oldest cohorts had both the earliest (1955-69)and most delayed(1970-79)median ages at first marriage.This is consistent with his- This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue,3 Feb 2015 11:39:51 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
William L. Parish / Edward O. Laumann / Sanyu A. Mojola 735 for urban men?from age 17.5 among men aged 15 in 1950 to age 15.5 by 1995. These trends were consistent with proxies for improved nutrition over the same period: self-reported height increased by 4.5 cm (1.8 inches) among men and by 6.3 cm (2.5 inches) among women in urban areas from 1950 to 1995. The decline in age at puberty implies that both men and women were biologically ready for sexual activity at younger ages in more recent years. Masturbation. Self-reports of age at first masturbation suggest that over time the practice became increasingly common in urban areas. In the earliest cohorts who reached age 20 in the 1950s and 1960s, only about 39 percent of men and 5 percent of women had masturbated by age 30. In contrast, by the 1990s cohort, over 70 percent of men and 30 percent of women had mastur bated by the time they reached age 30?a six-fold increase for women and a 30 percentage point increase for men. Consistent with more general trends in Chinese society, most of the change in onset of masturbation occurred in the final two cohorts, who reached age 20 in the 1980s and 1990s. (Results appear in Figure 1, where a trend line further to the left implies an earlier and more rapidly accelerating start in the percent of respondents reporting age of onset of masturbation.) First sex. In urban areas, median age at first sex (intercourse) moved first toward older and then toward younger ages (see Figure 2). For men, the period of most delayed (farthest to the right) age at first sex was in the 1970s: at the median (the 50th percentile), first sex took place at about age 25. This was a time when economic conditions and administrative policies to delay marriage led both to higher marriage ages and to a later onset of sex, which often did not occur until marriage. There was a sharp shift toward earlier ages at first sex from the 1980s cohort on?indicated by a move to the left in the trend lines of Figure 2. What is most distinctive about men's patterns in the 1990s was a sharp shift to the left at around age 20. Median age for men's first sex in this cohort fell to about age 22.5, a decline of more than two years. Among women, the earliest ages at first sex were found in the 1950s and 1960s, when age at marriage and the first sex that went with marriage remained low. By the 1980s, women's median age at first sex had risen from a low of 21.5 years to almost 24 years, but it fell to about 22.5 a decade later in the 1990s?as in the case of men, a decline of almost two years. It is noteworthy that no more than one-fourth of either men or women had sex before age 20. Chinese urban teenagers, in other words, remained mostly virgins even in the 1990s. First marriage. Among urbanites, trends in first marriage displayed most clearly the effects of tight state regulation of marriage age. For both women and men, the two oldest cohorts had both the earliest (1955-69) and most delayed (1970-79) median ages at first marriage. This is consistent with his This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue, 3 Feb 2015 11:39:51 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
736 SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN CHINA FIGURE I Trends in age at first masturbation among four cohorts of men and women in urban China Men 80 Cohort Significance" ◆1990-2000 ps0.01 ■-1980-89 ps0.01 ±1970-79 40 ◆1955-69 20 10 20 25 30 Age Women 80 Cohort Significance" ◆1990-2000ps0.01 ■-1980-89 ps0.01 +1970-79 ps0.10 40 ◆1955-69 20 10 15 20 25 30 Age NOTES:Cumulative percent of cohort (defined by year a respondent reached age 20)who had first masturbated at each age.Trend lines censored at current age,and for clarity of presentation all results truncated at age 30 because of a plateau in the data after that age. "Significance for whether more recent cohorts differed statistically from the oldest cohort in an event history analysis. SOURCE:China Health and Family Life Survey,1999-2000 torical findings that marriage ages rose sharply in the 1970s when govern- ment pressure to raise marriage ages was most intense and then fell slightly thereafter (e.g.,Banister 1987;Xenos and Gultiano 1992;Wang and Yang 1996;Wu 2003).The data suggest that the effect of government policy was greater on women:while we note little variation in age at first marriage for men(from 24.2 years to 25.2 years)during this period,we note much greater variation among women (from 21.5 years to 24.5 years).Comparing across the results for age at marriage(Figure 3)and age at first sex(Figure 2),the exceptions to parallel trends are most apparent for the 1990s.In that decade, This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue,3 Feb 2015 11:39:51 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
736 Sexual Behavior in China FIGURE 1 Trends in age at first masturbation among four cohorts of men and women in urban China Men 301-1 Cohort Significance3 ^1990-2000 p<;0.01 g 60!.^-*^*-^r^ -m-1980-89 p<s0.01 fc J M-^*""^""^ -A-1970-79 ? 40:.Jjr**.^^-^^^.m.m.m.m.ii _^_l955_69 15 10 20 30 25 Age Women 801-1 Cohort Significance3 +-1990-2000 ps;0.01 - 60. -B-1980-89 psO.01 ? -^-1970-79 psO.10 | 40. -#-1955-69 15 10 20 30 25 Age NOTES: Cumulative percent of cohort (defined by year a respondent reached age 20) who had first masturbated at each age. Trend lines censored at current age, and for clarity of presentation all results truncated at age 30 because of a plateau in the data after that age. Significance for whether more recent cohorts differed statistically from the oldest cohort in an event history analysis. SOURCE: China Health and Family Life Survey, 1999-2000 torical findings that marriage ages rose sharply in the 1970s when govern ment pressure to raise marriage ages was most intense and then fell slightly thereafter (e.g., Banister 1987; Xenos and Gultiano 1992; Wang and Yang 1996; Wu 2003). The data suggest that the effect of government policy was greater on women: while we note little variation in age at first marriage for men (from 24.2 years to 25.2 years) during this period, we note much greater variation among women (from 21.5 years to 24.5 years). Comparing across the results for age at marriage (Figure 3) and age at first sex (Figure 2), the exceptions to parallel trends are most apparent for the 1990s. In that decade, This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue, 3 Feb 2015 11:39:51 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
WILLIAM L.PARISH EDWARD O.LAUMANN SANYU A.MOJOLA 737 FIGURE 2 Trends in age at first sex(intercourse)among four cohorts of men and women in urban China 100 Men Cohort Significance" ◆-1990-2000 ps0.01 80 量1980-89 ps0.01 ±1970-79 60 ●1955-69 40 20 15 20 25 30 35 Age 100 Women Cohort Significance" ◆1990-2000 80 量-1980-89 60 女1970-79 ps0.01 aAne nun 。1955-69 40 20 20 25 30 35 Age NOTES:Cumulative percent of cohort(defined by year a respondent reached age 20)who had first sex (intercourse)at each age.Trend lines censored at current age,and for clarity of presentation all results truncated at age 35 because of a plateau in the data after that age. Significance for whether more recent cohorts differed statistically from the oldest cohort in an event history analysis. SOURCE:China Health and Family Life Survey.1999-2000 men's age at first sex began to move ahead of age at first marriage-implying increased premarital sex.The same is true for women,although the pattern was much more muted. Premarital sex.In urban areas,fewer than 15 percent of either men or women who reached age 20 before 1964 had experienced premarital sex (Figure 4).Subsequently,however,the prevalence of premarital sex began to increase-primarily with her fiance among women and with a greater variety of partners among men.For all types of premarital sex (see Notes to Figure 4),the peak in more recent years was 30 percent for women and 40 percent This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue,3 Feb 2015 11:39:51 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
William L. Parish / Edward O. Laumann / Sanyu A. Mojola 737 FIGURE 2 Trends in age at first sex (intercourse) among four cohorts of men and women in urban China 1001- III! Cohort Significance3 yj^C^^^ "^ ~^~ 1990-2000 psO.01 w 80 ...^..........j^c... _m_ 1980_89 p^o.01 20 15 25 35 30 Age 100|Women-, ?rfr 1 1 1 f Cohort Significance3 jfe^*^ " -^~ 1990-2000 ^ MT 80 _>__ Y 9g0_89 ? 6Q .Sji.... f -*- 1970-79 p<;0.01 / I // J - - 1955-69 20 15 25 35 30 Age NOTES: Cumulative percent of cohort (defined by year a respondent reached age 20) who had first sex (intercourse) at each age. Trend lines censored at current age, and for clarity of presentation all results truncated at age 35 because of a plateau in the data after that age. Significance for whether more recent cohorts differed statistically from the oldest cohort in an event history analysis. SOURCE: China Health and Family Life Survey, 1999-2000 men's age at first sex began to move ahead of age at first marriage?implying increased premarital sex. The same is true for women, although the pattern was much more muted. Premarital sex. In urban areas, fewer than 15 percent of either men or women who reached age 20 before 1964 had experienced premarital sex (Figure 4). Subsequently, however, the prevalence of premarital sex began to increase?primarily with her fiance among women and with a greater variety of partners among men. For all types of premarital sex (see Notes to Figure 4), the peak in more recent years was 30 percent for women and 40 percent This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue, 3 Feb 2015 11:39:51 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
738 SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN CHINA FIGURE 3 Trends in age at first marriage among four cohorts of men and women in urban China Men 100 Cohort Significance? ◆1990-2000 ps0.01 80 1980-89 ★1970-79 60 ◆1955-69 40 20 19 25 27 29 31 33 35 Age Women 100 Cohort Significance" ◆1990-2000 ps0.01 80 1980-89 ps0.05 ★1970-79 ps0.01 60 Ane nun) ◆1955-69 40 20 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 Age NOTES:Cumulative percent of cohort (defined by year a respondent reached age 20)who had married at each age.Trend lines censored at current age,and for clarity of presentation all results truncated at age 35 because of a plateau in the data after that age. "Significance for whether more recent cohorts differed statistically from the oldest cohort in an event history analysis SOURCE:China Health and Family Life Survey,1999-2000 or more among men.And,for the very youngest cohort,which was only age 20-24 at the time of the survey,the percentage having premarital sex was, of course,understated because respondents had not yet reached the median ages at marriage for men and women. In Figure 4,types of premarital sexual relationship range from those that were commercial to those that led to marriage.In the middle were non- commercial relationships of varying length that did not lead to marriage. Also,among the youngest cohorts were some never-married respondents This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue,3 Feb 2015 11:39:51 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
738 Sexual Behavior in China FIGURE 3 Trends in age at first marriage among four cohorts of men and women in urban China 1 oo U r^?- Cohort Significance3 ^J^J^t---* " ' -#-1990-2000 psO.01 ^ 80.^*^p^. -B-l 980-89 | 60|.Jffi.I ^-1970-79 | J/% -*_1955-69 ol??==^=irf?-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 Age Women _ , ^ _. .? I oo_ -^?^?^?g Cohort Significance3 Jj^iMr** T -+-1990-2000 p<;0.01 w 80.*0fc. _?_1980-89 p<;0.05 w j/Jil..... -^-1970-79 psO.01 1 / d/ / -,-1955-69 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 Age NOTES: Cumulative percent of cohort (denned by year a respondent reached age 20) who had married at each age. Trend lines censored at current age, and for clarity of presentation all results truncated at age 35 because of a plateau in the data after that age. Significance for whether more recent cohorts differed statistically from the oldest cohort in an event history analysis. SOURCE: China Health and Family Life Survey, 1999-2000 or more among men. And, for the very youngest cohort, which was only age 20-24 at the time of the survey, the percentage having premarital sex was, of course, understated because respondents had not yet reached the median ages at marriage for men and women. In Figure 4, types of premarital sexual relationship range from those that were commercial to those that led to marriage. In the middle were non commercial relationships of varying length that did not lead to marriage. Also, among the youngest cohorts were some never-married respondents This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue, 3 Feb 2015 11:39:51 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions