Abstract
Over the years, sexual behaviour has changed due to the growing interest in everything related to the sexual sphere. The purpose of the study was to collect information on the sexual habits and behaviours of Italian people of all ages, sexes and sexual orientations and to describe the patterns of sexual behaviour, with the aim of gaining a representative picture of sexuality in Italy, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants completed a survey with 99 questions about their sexual habits. In our group first sexual experiences occurred on average around the age of 15, whilst the median age of the first sexual intercourse was 17. The fantasies that most stimulated and excited our group (Likert scale ≥ 3) was having sex in public (63.9%), having sex with more than one person at the same time (59.4%), blindfolded sex (64.9%), being tied up (56.3%) and observing a naked person (48.6%). As for pornography, we have shown that 80% of our group watched porn at home, alone or from their smartphones. Our results have several practical implications for the areas of sex education and sexual health. It is necessary to safeguard the health of young people and support them increasing their sexual well-being.
Highlights
Sexual behavior has consistently changed over the years
Scientific evidences have underlined that the majority of information on sexuality collected through the internet by young people regard explicit messages including and facilitating sexual practices like autoerotism and masturbation [3]
Exploring patterns of current sexual behaviours is important for several reasons, but mainly because the description of behavioural trends can provide an important empirical context for examining the associations between patterns of emerging sexual behaviour and aspects of sexual health and well-being among young people [4]
Summary
Sexual behavior has consistently changed over the years. there is a growing interest in specific topics that have been considered a stimga in the past, and physicians should constantly pay attention to patients’ preferences [1,2].Scientific evidences have underlined that the majority of information on sexuality collected through the internet by young people regard explicit messages including and facilitating sexual practices like autoerotism and masturbation [3].Exploring patterns of current sexual behaviours is important for several reasons, but mainly because the description of behavioural trends can provide an important empirical context for examining the associations between patterns of emerging sexual behaviour and aspects of sexual health and well-being among young people [4]. Sexual behavior has consistently changed over the years. Scientific evidences have underlined that the majority of information on sexuality collected through the internet by young people regard explicit messages including and facilitating sexual practices like autoerotism and masturbation [3]. Exploring patterns of current sexual behaviours is important for several reasons, but mainly because the description of behavioural trends can provide an important empirical context for examining the associations between patterns of emerging sexual behaviour and aspects of sexual health and well-being among young people [4]. A recent survey by Herbenick et al (2020) observed that more frequent past-year pornography use and a greater lifetime range of pornography accesses were significantly associated with engaging in both dominant and target sexual behaviors among all participants [5]. Sexual fantasies play a major role in influencing later sexual behavior, in reflecting past experiences and these are a core variable in the systematic study of sexual identity and sexuality [7]
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