Skip to main content

Sexuality across the Life Course

How does sexual behavior change over one’s life-span? How does sexual satisfaction affect the quality and stability of marriage? How has the AIDS epidemic affected sexual attitudes in America over the past three decades?

In this wide-reaching volume, distinguished sociologist Alice S. Rossi addresses these questions and others through fourteen diverse essays on sexual behavior, covering adolescence through old age and studying such groups as singles, married couples, and homosexuals. This extensive study also explores the effects of chronic disease and medication on sexual functioning, recent developments in psychotherapy for sexual problems, and sexual abuse of children, incest, and rape.

"The interdisciplinary nature of the project has resulted in a text that is accessible to anyone with a behavioral science background. Well written, well edited, and well received by this reviewer."—Joan C. Chrisler, Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy

"This is a book that needs to be on the bookshelf of any AIDS researcher."—AIDS Book Review Journal

Table of Contents

I The Biopsychosocial Perspective
1 Eros and Caritas: A Biopsychosocial Approach to Human Sexuality and Reproduction, Alice S. Rossi
II Sexual Diversity: History, Culture, and Lifestyle
2 Human Sexuality, Life Histories, and Evolutionary Biology, Jane B. Lancaster
3 Attitudes toward Sexual Permissiveness: Trends, Correlates, and Behavioral Connections, Tom W. Smith
4 Sexuality among African-American Women, Claire Sterk-Elifson
5 African-American Male Sexuality through the Early Life Course, Benjamin P. Bowser
6 Single Worlds and Homosexual Lifestyles: Patterns of Sexuality and Intimacy, Martha R. Fowlkes
III Sexuality at Selected Phases of the Life Course
7 Getting Started on Sexual Behavior, J. Richard Udry and Benjamin C. Campbell
8 Changing Lives, Changing Genres: Teenage Girls’ Narratives about Sex and Romance, Sharon Thompson
9 Sexuality, Marriage, and Well-Being: The Middle Years, John N. Edwards and Alan Booth
10 Age-Related Variation in Sexual Activity and Interest in Normal Men: Results from the Massachusetts Male Aging Study, John B. McKinlay and Henry A. Feldman
11 Sex and Sexuality in Later Life Stages, Judith A. Levy
IV Selected Health Issues
12 Impact of Chronic Disease and Medication on Sexual Functioning, Raul C. Schiavi
13 Sexual Problems and Therapies: A Quarter Century of Developments and Changes, Richard Green
14 Sexual Offending and Victimization: A Life Course Perspective, Richard J. Gelles and Glenn Wolfner

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press