Extramarital sexual relationships of middle-aged Danish men: attitudes and behavior

This study explored Danish men's attitudes and behavior towards extramarital sexual relations (ESR), seen from two sides: men who had engaged in such relations (involved) and men who had not (non-involved). The participants, 439 men aged 51, completed a questionnaire concerning sexuality (behavior, attitudes and experience) as a part of a Danish cohort-investigation of health risk-factors. Thereafter 100 of the 439 men were interviewed. A high degree of permissiveness toward ESR emerged in both involved and non-involved individuals but approval of ESR was higher among the participants who were involved in ESR. The frequency of ESR increased with higher social rank. Both involved and non-involved participants mostly did not consider the ESR as a serious threat to the marital happiness. Attitudes-behavior discrepancies are discussed seen in the light of the social norms and known attitudes-behavior models. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.