Description

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How does sexual behavior change over one's life-span? How does sexual satisfaction affect the quality and stability of marriage? How has the AIDS epidemic affected sexual attitudes in America over the past three decades?

In this wide-reaching volume, distinguished sociologist Alice S. Rossi addresses these questions and others through fourteen diverse essays on sexual behavior, covering adolescence through old age and studying such groups as singles, married couples, and homosexuals. This extensive study also explores the effects of chronic disease and medication on sexual functioning, recent developments in psychotherapy for sexual problems, and sexual abuse of children, incest, and rape.

"The interdisciplinary nature of the project has resulted in a text that is accessible to anyone with a behavioral science background. Well written, well edited, and well received by this reviewer."—Joan C. Chrisler, Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy

"This is a book that needs to be on the bookshelf of any AIDS researcher."—AIDS Book Review Journal

About the Author

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Alice S. Rossi, editor of the volume and author of six of the thirteen chapters, is the Harriet Martineau Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is a past president of the American Sociological Association and the author of many books, including Sexuality across the Life Course, also published by the University of Chicago Press. Both she and the contributing authors were members or associates of the Research Network on Successful Midlife Development, a network supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.