Columbia University Studied Its Students' Sex Lives For 2 Years

MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, NY — After two years, Columbia University researchers have nearly completed a $2.5 million study on the sex lives of university undergrads, according to reports.

The Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation, or SHIFT, was launched by the university in 2015, student newspaper The Columbia Spectator reported. The study had three main goals: to study students' sexual attitudes and behaviors, to examine students' social patterns and to identify risk factors regarding sexual violence and sexual health on campus, according to the study's website.

"SHIFT's purpose is to develop innovative and holistic strategies for sexual assault prevention, an objective of paramount importance to colleges and universities across the nation," study co-director Dr. Jennifer Hirsch told Patch in a statement.

"Our study reinforces the importance to prevention efforts of thinking about sex as a social behavior, not only as a health or individually-driven behavior." (For more New York City news delivered straight to your inbox sign up for Patch's free newsletters and breaking news alerts).

The study's findings will be released sometime this year in the form of 26 different journal articles, some of which will contain policy suggestions to improve sexual health on Columbia's campus, Hirsch told the Spectator.

In total, the study cost the university about $2.5 million, Politico New York's Conor Skelding reported.

"The trustees of Columbia wrote a $2.5 million check to the faculty and said, 'Figure this out. What's going on with sex and the sex lives of students?'" sociology professor Shamus Khan told Skelding.

SHIFT researchers used four different methods — student interviews, focus groups, interviews with key community members and participant observation — to complete the study. During the study, researchers received an exemption from Title IX regulations mandating the report of sexual misconduct, according to the study website. The university approved the exemption so students participating in the study could open up to researchers will full anonymity, according to the project website.

Photo by Clive Dudley via Flickr/Creative Commons