Mastering One’s Domain, so to speak

The Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy published a study by Aniruddha Das entitled “MASTURBATION IN THE US” that says that people aren’t enjoying themselves as much as others might think they are.  What’s the old joke -  “Those who say they aren’t doing it are lying?”

Sociologists from the University of Chicago’s Department of Sociology and Population Research Center asked 3,116 Americans how often they pleasured themselves over the previous 12 months.  Here is a little bit of what they found:

• Men’s frequency rate dropped a bit after age 50, but didn’t drop completely to nothing
• Women aged 20-39 were most likely to, with lower frequency rates being reported for both women 18-20 and women over 40
• For both men and women, it’s most likely to occur among those with a higher education or a larger number of sexual relationships.
• Those raised in a fundamentalist background reported doing it less frequently than those in more liberal religious backgrounds.
• White people were “the most enthusiastic masturbators”

Other questions had to do with various aspects of life – for example, the status of one’s current relationship, economic background, and health status. 

The end result of the study was that the frequency one partakes in taking matters into one’s own hand depends on any number of personal and socio-economic factors.