The Role of Religiosity and Personal Faith in Young People’s Sexual Debut and Sexual Risk Taking: A Bayesian Approach

Abstract

Using a Bayesian statistical approach, this study aimed to provide a robust assessment of associations between religiosity and personal faith, timing of sexual initiation and sexual risk taking in young people. To produce posterior probability distribution of the estimation of associations, this study combined two population-based surveys of emerging Croatian adults and meta-analytical estimates pertaining to international studies published between 2000 and 2020. Regardless of the prior used, age at sexual debut was delayed by both religiosity (correlations ranged from 0.10 to 0.13) and personal faith (r = 0.09–0.13). Apart from delaying sexual debut, the findings suggest a very limited role of religiosity and personal faith in the protection of sexual and reproductive health among young people.