title: Extramarital sexual relationships of middle-aged Danish men: attitudes and behavior.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Copenhagen County Centre on Preventive Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine C, Frederiksberg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Solstad
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mucic
mesh_terms: D015331:Cohort Studies; D003718:Denmark; D005114:Extramarital Relations; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D012945:Social Values; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors