Casual sex makes you depressed and anxious, finds new study

College students who have casual sex report higher levels of anxiety and depression



Study confirms both sexes are vulnerable to post-sex psychological distress

It's unclear whether existing mental health problems cause young adults to engage in riskier behaviours



Young people who have casual sex are more likely to suffer from depression, according to a new study.



Experts have found higher levels of general anxiety, social anxiety and depression among students who recently had sex with someone they knew for less than a week.

In the largest study of its kind involving 3,900 heterosexual students, 11 per cent - the majority of whom were men - said they had engaged in casual sex in the past month.

In the largest study of its kind, many students who have casual sex report feelings of anxiety and depression (posed by models)

Lead author of the study, Dr Melina Bersamin, from California State University, said both men and women in this group said they were experiencing anxiety and depression as a result of their sexual encounters.



Dr Bersamin said: 'It is premature to conclude that casual sexual encounters pose no harmful psychological risks for young adults.

'The results suggest that among heterosexual college students, casual sex was negatively associated with well-being and positively associated with psychological distress.'

Entitled Risky Business: Is There an Association between Casual Sex and Mental Health among Emerging Adults?, the study surveyed college students from over 30 institutions across the United States about their casual sex behaviours and mental wellbeing.

The researchers also investigated the role of gender in determining mental distress linked to casual sex.



Previous studies have found that women respond more negatively to casual sex than men, possibly because of double standards that allow men to have more sexual encounters with a greater number of partners than women.

Previous research found that women respond more negatively to casual sex than men, however this study found men and women were both vulnerable

In this study - which features in The Journal of Sex Research - however, gender did not have an effect on outcomes.



Researchers have yet to determine whether existing mental health problems cause young adults to engage in riskier behaviours.

This research follows a recent study which found girls were more likely to sleep around at university if they smoke cannabis.

Researchers rom The Miriam Hospital Centre for Behavioural and Preventive Medicine in Rhode Island researchers set out to discover if some students are more likely than others to 'hook up'.