Resumen

Casual sexual relations, understood as those in which there are no expectations of affective commitment, are increasingly common among youth. The goal of this study was to analyze the casual sexual behavior of students from a Spanish university, paying special attention to its relation with sociodemographic and psychosexual variables. Participants were 659 students from a Spanish university aged between 18 and 26 years, without a partner or being in a partner relationship of less than 12 months, who completed a battery of online questionnaires. It was found that about half of the participants had engaged in casual sex in the past year, with no differences as a function of gender. Engaging in casual sex was related to being older, less religious, performing risky sexual behaviors, and other psychosocial variables such as attitudes towards condoms, sociosexuality, and measures of personal well-being. The discussion highlights the need to conduct more research on casual sexual relations, due to the possible influence of cultural aspects in youth’s sociosexuality.