Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T21:12:49.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Variation Between Couples of Human Coital Rates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

W. H. James
Affiliation:
Gallon Laboratory, University College, London

Summary

Distributions of reported coital rates are positively skewed. The means of such distributions seem to be roughly proportional, not to their variances, but to their standard deviations.

The coefficient of variation of distributions of reported coital rates—at least for relatively homogeneous samples—is of the order of 2/3. It is estimated that the coefficient of variation of the distribution of true (as opposed to reported) values would be about ½ at the time of first conception.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1981, Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barrett, J. C. (1978) La variance de la fréquence des rapports sexuels. Population, Mai–Juin, 747.Google Scholar
Clark, A. L. & Wallin, P. (1964) The accuracy of husbands' and wives' reports of frequency of marital coitus. Popul. Stud. 18, 165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, W.H. (1971) The reliability of reporting of coital frequency. J. sex Res. 7, 312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, W.H. (1974) Marital coital rates, spouses' ages, family size and social class. J. sex Res. 10, 205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
James, W.H. (1978) The length of the human fertile period. Popul. Stud. 32, 187.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kinsey, A.C., Pomeroy, W.B. & Martin, C.E. (1948) Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Saunders, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Kinsey, A.C., Pomeroy, W.B., Martin, C.E. & Gebhard, P.H. (1953) Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Saunders, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Levinger, G. (1966) Systematic distortion in spouses' reports of preferred and actual behaviour. Sociometry, 29, 291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lord, P.M. & Novick, M.R. (1968) Statistical Theories of Mental Test Scores, 1st edn, p. 56.Addison-Wesley, London.Google Scholar
Matsunaga, E. & Maruyama, T. (1969) Human sexual behaviour, delayed fertilization and Down's syndrome. Nature, Lond. 221, 642.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pearl, R. (1925) The Biology of Population Growth. Knopf, New York.Google Scholar
Pomeroy, W.B. (1972) Doctor Kinsey and the Institute for Sex Research. Nelson, London.Google Scholar
Ryder, N.B. & Westoff, C.F. (1971) Reproduction in the US, 1965. Princeton University Press,Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
Terman, L.M. (1938) Psychological Factors in Marital Happiness. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar