How does sexual behavior change over the life course? When do youths begin to have sex? How does sexual satisfaction affect the quality and stability of marriage? With the rise of the AIDS epidemic and the proliferation of sex in movies, TV, and magazines, how have sexual attitudes changed in America over the past three decades?

Distinguished sociologist Alice S. Rossi brings together fourteen diverse essays on sexual behavior, covering adolescence through old age and addressing such groups as singles, married couples, and homosexuals. This volume also looks at 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.

Among the book's findings are the following: women who start their sex lives early remain sexually active longer; by the end of the first year of marriage, frequency of sex drops by almost half; although the frequency of sex declines steeply with age, the level of satisfaction with one's sex life changes very little over time; African-Americans tend to be more permissive than whites on premarital and extramarital sexual relations, but less permissive on homosexual relations; and married women today are just as likely today to complain of "too little" sex as "too much" - three decades ago, such women were more likely to complain of "too much" than "too little."