<< Post-marital Outlets and Age >>

Among the males who have been married, but whose marriages have been terminated by death, separation, or divorce, there is sexual activity which in frequency is considerably above that of the single male, and nearly as high as among the married males. The effects of aging are, of course, apparent in this group.

The sexual lives of previously married males who are no longer living with wives, have been a closer secret than the lives of single or married adults. We now have the post-marital histories of 433 white males. The sample is too small to warrant analyses even by age; and it is to be noted that there are not enough cases to allow corrections in accordance with the age, marital status, and education distribution shown in the U.S. Census. Uncorrected figures based on our particular sample are, therefore, the only ones available on these post-marital histories. Nevertheless, the data do seem to indicate general trends in regard to each of the sources of outlet.

Tables 60. Total outlet in relation to marital status and age
Age
Group		 Total Sample Population
Cases Mean Frequency
Single Married Post-
marital		Single Married Post-
marital
Adol.-15 3012    2.91   
16-20 2868 272 46 2.88 4.67 4.08
21-25 1535 751 119 2.67 3.90 3.70
26-30 550 737 182 2.63 3.27 2.93
31-35 195 569 158 2.38 2.73 1.93
36-40 97 390 128 2.07 2.46 1.69
41-45 56 272 96 1.79 1.95 1.49
46-50 39 175 63 1.88 1.79 1.26
51-55  109 42  1.54 1.17
56-60  67    1.08  
Age
Group		 Active Cases in Sample Population
Incidence % Mean Frequency
Single Married Post-
marital		Single Married Post-
marital
Adol.-15 95.1    3.06   
16-20 99.2 100.0 97.8 2.90 4.67 4.17
21-25 99.1 100.0 98.3 2.70 3.90 3.76
26-30 99.3 100.0 97.3 2.65 3.27 3.01
31-35 99.0 100.0 94.9 2.40 2.73 2.04
36-40 97.9 99.7 97.7 2.12 2.47 1.73
41-45 96.4 100.0 93.7 1.85 1.95 1.59
46-50 92.3 98.9 93.7 2.04 1.81 1.35
51-55  98.2 88.1  1.57 1.33
56-60  98.5    1.09  
Age
Group		 Corrected for U. S. Population
Total Population Active Population
Mean Frequency Incidence % Mean Frequency
Single Married Single Married Single Married
Adol.-15 3.17  94.2   3.36 
16-20 3.30 4.83 98.8 100.0 3.35 4.83
21-25 3.04 4.14 97.9 100.0 3.11 4.14
26-30 2.94 3.51 98.6 100.0 2.98 3.51
31-35 2.44 2.90 99.2 100.0 2.46 2.90
36-40 2.00 2.42 98.5 99.9 2.04 2.42
41-45  1.95   100.0  1.95
46-50  1.80   98.1  1.83
51-55  1.54   97.2  1.58

Data for the U.S. population are based on the sample population
which is corrected for the distribution of educational levels
which is shown in the U.S. Census for 1940.
For sigmas of means, median frequencies, etc., see the Table 57.





Figures 50-52. Relation of age and marital status to frequency of total outlet

The post-marital histories are, in general, an interesting combination of items which are characteristic of both single and married groups. The total sexual outlet of the previously married males between the ages of 16 and 30 is about 85 to 95 per cent as high as among married males, which means that it is between 40 and 50 per cent higher than among single males (Table 60, Figures 50-52). At these ages, there is little effect on the frequency of the previously married individual’s sexual activity when he is deprived of a legalized source of outlet. With advancing age, after 30, however, the post-marital frequencies drop more rapidly than those in marriage, to about three-quarters (69% to 76%) of the marital rates; and this actually places them below the rates of even the single groups after age 30. It is not immediately apparent what is responsible for these differences, but the data should be kept in mind.

Many males who dropped masturbation in marriage, return to it after they have become widowed, separated, or divorced. Masturbation is found in a smaller percentage (56% at 16-20 years, 33% at age 45) of the post-marital cases than was true of the single histories; but the post-marital incidence is somewhat higher than it was in marriage (Table 61, Figures 53-58). The frequency of the post-marital masturbation (total population) is about a quarter to one-half of what it was in the single histories, but a little higher than it was in the married histories. For those persons who engage at all in masturbation, the percentage of the total outlet which comes from this source (17% to 36%) in the post-marital period is about twice as high as it was in marriage; but this is only a half to two-thirds as much as it was in the pre-marital period. As in all other populations, advancing age brings some decline in the incidences and frequencies; but the portion of the outlet which is derived from masturbation increases with the years, among these men who live without wives.

Nocturnal emissions (Table 62, Figures 59-64) occur in approximately the same number of persons in pre-marital, marital, and post-marital histories. The incidence is only slightly higher in single histories. The frequencies are highest among single males, two-thirds as high among married males, and somewhere between the two among previously married persons (where the frequencies range from about 0.26 per week at 16-30, to 0.19 at age 55). Nevertheless, while the incidences and actual frequencies go down, the percentage of the total outlet which is derived from nocturnal dreams (among previously married males who have any at all) rises more or less steadily from 10 per cent or 11 per cent between 16 and 25, to 21 per cent at age 50. Only after that does the significance of the dreams in the post-marital picture show any considerable drop.

Heterosexual intercourse is most important in the marital histories, least important in the histories of single males, and midway or higher in importance in the post-marital group (Table 63, Figures 65-70). The number of previously married males involved in intercourse ranges from about 96 per cent in the younger ages to 82 per cent by age 50. The drop in frequency is a bit faster than among married males. With advancing age, prostitutes provide an increasing part of the intercourse, companions a decreasing part of the post-marital intercourse (Tables 64-65, Figures 71-82).

The actual frequencies and the proportion of the total outlet which is derived from intercourse similarly lie between those of the married and single groups. They lie closer to those of the married males when the post-marital group is younger, and are nearly identical with those of married males when the group is older. Males who have ever become accustomed to the coital activities of marriage, keep coitus as their chief source of outlet (80% to 85% of their outlet) even after their marriages are terminated by the spouse’s death, or by separation or divorce. Nearly all males (about 95%), after they have once been initiated into regular coital experience, whether as older single males or as previously married persons, repudiate the doctrine that intercourse should be restricted to marital relations. Nearly all ignore the legal limitation on intercourse outside of marriage. Only age finally reduces the coital activities of those individuals, and thus demonstrates that biological factors are, in the long run, more effective than man-made regulations in determining the patterns of human behavior. The picture probably differs for different social levels, but this breakdown cannot be made with the present-sized sample.

Homosexual activity occurs among many of the males who have been previously married (Table 66, Figures 83-88). It is in 28 per cent of the younger histories, and in a smaller number of the older histories (5.2% at 45 years of age). This group is larger than the group that had homosexual relations during marriage. While the incidence among the younger single and post-marital histories is about the same, it is eight times higher among the older males who have never been married. It is evident in a few of the individual histories that marriages sometimes break up because of the male partner’s developing preference for relations with other males; in a few cases the male is induced by the breakdown of the heterosexual marriage to accept his first homosexual experience; but in a larger number of cases it is a matter of the individual returning to the sort of outlet that he had before he was ever married. The mean frequencies of the homosexual contacts (in the active population) among these previously married males are a bit lower than, or of the same order as among single males; and they are twice as high as among those married males who are having homosexual relations. The percentage of the previously married male’s total outlet which is derived from the homosexual (19 per cent, rising to 22 per cent at older ages) is similarly double that found among married males, but not nearly so high as is found among older single males (where the figure rises to nearly half of the total sexual outlet). With advancing age, the homosexual in the post-marital group definitely drops in incidence, stays more or less constant in frequency, and slightly increases in its significance as a part of the total sexual outlet.

In summary, it is to be noted that the average male who is widowed or divorced is not left without sexual outlet, as the mores of our society and legal codes would have him. On the contrary, and in spite of customs and laws, he continues to have almost as active a sexual life as when he was married. He depends to a somewhat greater degree upon masturbation and nocturnal dreams, and at younger ages he turns to homosexual activity about as often as the single, previously unmarried male, but in most cases this widowed or divorced individual depends upon heterosexual intercourse for most (80%) of his not inconsiderable outlet. His is not the picture of the single male, unless it be the oldest group of the single males with which the comparison is made. Once married, a male largely retains the pattern of the married male, even after marriage ceases to furnish the physically convenient and legally recognized means for a frequent and regular sexual outlet. These data are in striking contrast to those available for the widowed or divorced female who, in a great many cases, ceases to have any socio-sexual contacts and who, very often, may go for long periods of years without sexual arousal or further sexual experience of any sort.

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