Predicting the Intention of South African Female Students to Engage in Premarital Sexual Relations: An Application of the Theory of Reasoned Action

Abstract

The Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) was used to investigate the factors influencing South African female students' decision on whether or not to engage in premarital sexual intercourse. The group of participants consisted of 100 female heterosexual university students who were selected from a larger sample on the basis of sexual inexperience. As anticipated by the theory, both attitudes and subjective norms were found to predict intentions, with attitudes emerging as the stronger predictor. Additional analyses revealed that the hypothesized relationship between attitudes and the cognitive bases, beliefs about the outcome of premarital sexual relations, and the evaluation of these outcomes was supported. However, contrary to the theory, subjective norms were not correlated with motivation to comply with the perceived views of salient referents. The results are discussed in the context of a society in which AIDS is epidemic.