Changes in Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles in Britain Through the Life Course and Over Time: Findings from the National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal)
What people report doing and believing about sex changes across generations, age groups, and social contexts.
Orgasmaphoria editorial perspective
About this source
Natsal makes one point beautifully clear: sexual culture moves. Use these results to understand population change, not to turn a British survey period into a universal rule.
Why it matters: This source demonstrates that identity and intimacy cannot be understood through one cultural default. It adds language readers can use to notice whose experience is missing and whose boundaries are being assumed.
Purpose and scope
Measure how sexual attitudes, behaviors, and experiences differ through the life course and change across survey periods.
Three nationally representative British probability surveys conducted in 1990–1991, 1999–2001, and 2010–2012; the latest included 15,162 adults ages 16–74.
Findings or central themes
Sexual attitudes and reported behaviors changed substantially across generations and survey periods, while differences by gender and age remained important.
Strengths
Large probability samples, repeated comparable surveys, wide topic coverage, and public full text.
Limitations
Self-report, Britain-specific social context, changing measures, and limited representation outside the survey age range and categories.
Do not use this source to claim: Individual prediction, causal claims, or generalization to every country and culture
Citation and access
Catherine H. Mercer, Clare Tanton, Philip Prah, Bob Erens, Pam Sonnenberg, Soazig Clifton, Wendy Macdowall, Lewis Jones, Jessica Datta, Andrew J. Copas, Andrew Phelps, Kaye Wellings, Anne M. Johnson (2013). Changes in Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles in Britain Through the Life Course and Over Time: Findings from the National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal). The Lancet DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62035-8
Open access
External sources may change, move, require payment, or have different privacy practices. This library record is educational context, not medical, legal, or emergency advice.
