From students’ experiences with cheating on a significant other to porn addiction, here are this week’s top college student insights.
Students’ Dating Lives
A new College Pulse survey of 605 undergraduates finds that almost 1 in 10 (9%) college students say they’ve cheated on a significant other. A majority (54%) say they have not cheated, while more than one-third of students (37%) have never been in a relationship. More than 1 in 10 (12%) male students say they’ve been unfaithful, compared to 6% of female and 4% of nonbinary students.
Among students who have been in a relationship, 14% say they’ve cheated. But male students are twice as likely as their peers to say they have. Nearly 2 in 10 (19%) male students who have been in a relationship say they’ve been unfaithful to a partner, compared to 9% of female students.
Another factor potentially affecting the romantic relationships of today’s college students is the prevalence of pornography addictions. Though the American Psychiatric Association (APA) does not recognize porn addiction as an official diagnosis, a survey of 640 undergraduates finds that almost half (47%) of male students say they’ve been addicted to porn at some point in their life. And male students are four times more likely than female students to say they’ve had an addiction to porn; just 1 in 10 (10%) female students say so. Straight students are also twice as likely as LGBTQ students to say they’ve been addicted to porn (31% vs. 16%).
Percentage of students who say they have been addicted to porn.
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Methodology: All surveys were designed and conducted by College Pulse. Interviews were conducted among a sample of full-time and part-time students attending colleges or universities in the U.S. who are part of College Pulse’s American College Student Panel.
