It looks that way. Stephanie Chen’s CNN article, No Hooking Up, No Sex for Some Co-eds, reports students are choosing to disengage from the often alcohol-fueled hook-up scene that leaves many women with a hangover of the blues even if they manage to avoid getting a sexually transmitted disease.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise. While some researchers have found no long-term harmful psychological damage from hooking-up, other studies, writes Chen, “have shown the instability from hooking up can cause depression. Repeated rejection and detached relationships can also damage self-esteem.” Even researchers who discount psychological damage warn that the hook-up culture has become a “direct route for spreading STDs,” since those who practice this type of sex tend to engage with many more partners.
A growing body of evidence suggests women and men have very different morning-after reactions to friends-with-benefits, hooking up, and similar nonromantic sexual relations.