Tekijät

• Haavio-Mannila, Elina (University of Helsinki. Department of Sociology)

Asiasanat

attitudes, courtship, dating, interpersonal relations, life styles, love, sexual behaviour, sexual harassment, sexual intimacy, sexual minorities, sexuality

Sisällön kuvaus

A survey of sexual relationships, sexual attitudes and sexual behaviour in Estonia. Respondents were asked about sex education in their parental home or in school. Alcohol consumption, the number of times the respondent had been married or had cohabited with someone and the importance of religion were investigated. Steady relationships were charted with questions about the type of current relationship, its duration and happiness. Respondents were asked whether they loved or were loved by someone, whether they found it difficult to talk about sex with their current partner and whether they had had casual affairs outside the stable relationship. Sexual relationships with co-workers were studied. One topic covered respondents' first sexual experiences: the age when started first steady relationship or experienced first intercourse, contraception at first intercourse and whether the respondent married his/her first sexual partner.

The survey contains data on sexual morality. Respondents were asked to what extent they agreed with attitudinal statements relating to sex without love, women's right to take the sexual initiative, homosexual relationships, casual affairs, viewing pornography, free abortion, prostitution and sexual relationships of the young. The total number of sexual partners and the number of partners during the past year were surveyed. Respondents' current sex life was charted: position last used, how satisfactory sex was on the whole, contraception use and erection problems. Respondents were asked whether the risk of getting pregnant affected their sex life, whether they or their partner had had abortions and how did they feel about them. Experiences of oral sex, masturbation and stimulation by hand were charted. Family life was studied by asking who takes care of the children and what were the consequences of having children (e.g. impact on family economy or relations with partner). Sexual orientation, paying for or being paid for sex, experiences of sexual harassment and experiences of violence in a steady relationship were investigated.

Respondents were asked whether they would like to have more sex, whether they reached orgasm/climax at sexual intercourse and how satisfactory their sex life was on the whole. Respondents also assessed their own sexual competence and attractiveness. They were asked what would be their ideal sexual lifestyle (e.g. no sex, casual partners, steady partner, marriage). Background variables included the respondent's sex, year of birth, place of residence, mother tongue, basic education, occupational group, employment status and number of children.