Premarital Sexual Behavior and Religious Adolescents

Abstract

Freshmen attending 8 colleges affiliated with the churches of Christ responded to questions about their religious behaviors, religious motivations, and premarital sexual behaviors. It is argued that a religious sample may be able to give us information about the relationship between religiosity and sexuality that more general samples could not. The religious and sexual characteristics of this conservative Christian sample are described, and are found to differ markedly from most samples studied in this area. In addition, a number of relationships are tested and discussed. The wellsubstantiated relationship between religious and sexual behavior is replicated, with some interesting points raised by the fact that this sample is more religiously active than any others reported to date. The relationship between religious orientation and premarital sexual activity is documented for the first time, and is found to be as strong a correlate as is religious behavior. Religious orientation and behavior are so highly related in this sample as to prove no more predictive of sexual activity when considered together than they do when taken separately. Finally, it is shown that, whereas the religious variables function to identify virginal adolescents with great accuracy (virgins are homogeneous in regard to religiosity), they do very poorly in identifying non-virginal adolescents (non-virgins are heterogeneous in regard to religiosity). It is suggested that there are third factor influences at work on non-virginal adolescents that have not (as yet) impacted virgins. The adolescent of today is faced with many behavioral choices, not the least of which involves whether and when the transition into premarital sexual activity will take place. Few topics are more controversial or more discussed than this; yet equally few topics are more important to the study of adolescence, the family, and society itself. A great deal of research effort has been expended in an attempt to understand that transition and the variables which influence the adolescent's decision about the matter.