This study was designed to determine; (1) if adolescent self esteem is related to premarital sexual attitudes and intercourse behavior; (2) if religious affiliation and church attendance affect the relationship between adolescent self esteem and premarital sexual attitudes and behavior. Approximately 2400 adolescents residing in California, New Mexico, and Utah comprised the sample.
Adolescents who attended church services more often reported less sexually permissive attitudes and behavior than those who attended church less often. Similarly, Mormons' premarital sexual attitudes and behavior was more conservative than was the case for non-Mormon adolescents. Findings indicated that the nature of the relationship between permissiveness and self esteem did depend on cultural norms or contexts. In the most conservative normative contexts (among Mormons and frequent church attenders) there was a negative relationship between self esteem and sexual attitudes and sexual behavior; there was no significant relationship between self esteem and sexual attitudes and sexual behavior among the more moderate sample groups.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-3508 |
| Date | 01 May 1985 |
| Creators | Christensen, Roger B. |
| Publisher | DigitalCommons@USU |
| Source Sets | Utah State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | All Graduate Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Copyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact Andrew Wesolek (andrew.wesolek@usu.edu). |
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