Dan Groberg '11 and Tricia Shimamura '11 presented the results of the "Hook-Up Survey" at the Midwest Sociological Society's annual meeting in Chicago on April 1-3. The survey, which involved both Kenyon and Mount Vernon Nazarene University (MVNU) students, was designed to find patterns in students' social interactions.
The research began as a class study for "Methods of Social Research," a 200-level sociology course, last semester, but Groberg and Shimamura wanted to continue the analysis by taking on the work as an independent project. After submitting a poster of the research to a selection program, the Kenyon students were chosen to present their work at the conference with about 20 other student sociology projects.
"It was pretty exciting," Groberg said. "I have really enjoyed working with all the data and being able to present it to faculty. It's a humbling experience."
The most interesting trend theyfound, Groberg said, was how the social scene and relationships are dependent on students' expectations for life after college. Students at MVNU expected to be married much sooner and said they were much more likely be looking for a life partner than trying to have random hook-ups. Kenyon students, who were mostly planning to be married at an older age, seemed more content, overall, with engaging in non-committal social interactions.
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