Your Face is Your Fortune: Does Adolescent Attractiveness Predict Intimate Relationships Later in Life?
OBJECTIVE:
A
growing literature documents the importance of physical attractiveness in young
and middle adulthood for romantic, marital, and sexual relationships, but
little is known about how attractiveness in adolescence matters to intimate
relationships in later life. We ask: does attractiveness early in life convey
ongoing benefits late in life, or do such benefits erode over time?
METHODS:
We use
multivariate regression models and more than 50 years of data from the
Wisconsin Longitudinal Study to examine the connections between adolescent
physical attractiveness and intimate relationships (i.e., sexual activity and
access to potential sexual partners) in later life.
RESULTS:
We find
that adolescent attractiveness facilitates sexual activity in later life. This
relationship is largely driven by attractiveness increasing the probability of
having access to potential sexual partners. However, attractiveness is not
related to sexual activity among married couples, even after controlling for
marital duration. Men, those in good health, and wealthier individuals are also
more likely to engage in several facets of intimate relationships.
DISCUSSION:
These
findings highlight the importance of relationship context for later life sexual
activity and begin to explicate the pathways through which factors across the
life course-particularly attractiveness-influence sexual activity in later life.
- 1Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University. karraker@iastate.edu.
- 2Center for Demography of Health and Aging and.
- 3La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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