Hookups Youth sexuality and social change

A hookup is an ambiguous term. It can mean that a couple kissed, engaged in manual stimulation, oral sex or intercourse. Hooking up has emerged as a prevalent sexual script on American college campuses, but to what extent is it confined to this arena? Has hooking up also become a dominant norm of intimate coupling in the direct surroundings of college, for instance in urban nightlife? Is hooking up solely a script of American youth sexual culture, or, have youth outside of the US adopted it?
This research is based on a multi-sited qualitative study in California and Hong Kong that explores the conditions under which hookup culture emerged. Hooking up is the sexual regime of American residential colleges with a large and active social scene. Outside of the college arena, hooking up is not a prevalent script of heterosexual contact. Youth in Hong Kong are familiar with the hookup script but seldom enact it. Sexual norms have been a defining marker of youth culture in America since the start of the 20th century. In hookup culture, sex is recreational and devoid of expectations of commitment. This contrasts with the sexual norms of adulthood in which courtship is primed towards finding a committed relationship. In America, a youth sexual culture developed largely in autonomous enclaves of a residential campus, outside of the control of the older generation. In Hong Kong, the elder generation maintained a firm grip on college campus culture, and sexual norms of youth corresponded with those of adults.