Teens – particularly girls – with strong religious views are less likely to have sex than are less religious teens, largely because their religious views lead them to view the consequences of having sex negatively, according to an NIH study. However, such beliefs only have a minor influence on whether or not boys engage in sex.
The study also found that adolescents' own religious and sexual attitudes were more important predictors of their subsequent sexual behavior than were their parents' attitudes toward adolescent sex.
"Parents' religious and sexual attitudes don't directly affect their children's decision to have sex. But they do influence the formation of their children's own attitudes toward sex," says Ann M. Meier of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Meier analyzed information collected from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
When teens do have sex, their beliefs about the consequences of sexual activity become more permissive – meaning more positive or favorable – but their religious views do not change. After having sex, however, girls' attitudes about sex were likely to become more positive or favorable. The study also found that teen boys are more likely to have positive attitudes about sex, so that having sex doesn't significantly change their attitudes, as it does girls'.
As might be expected, for both girls and boys, more permissive attitudes – meaning more positive or favorable – toward sex increased the likelihood that they would have sex. However, the greatest predictor of whether or not teens would have sex – regardless of their religious views or attitudes – was whether or not they were dating.
While previous research has examined religious and sexual beliefs, and how they relate to sexual activity, most previous research was unable to distinguish the effects of religious attitudes and practices on sexual activity from the effects of sexual activity on religious attitudes and practices.
About the Study
This study used information from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a comprehensive survey of 90,000 7th through 12th graders. The survey measured the effects of family, peer group, school, neighborhood, religious institution, and community on behaviors that promote good health.
The analysis focused on responses from a smaller group of adolescents within the larger study: 4,948 adolescents ages 15 to 18 who were virgins when they first responded to the survey. Adolescents were interviewed twice, with a year between the interviews. The researchers asked the teenagers about their participation in religious activities and the importance of religion in their lives, their beliefs about how having sex would affect them and people close to them, and whether they were in a dating relationship. One parent for each teenager – usually the mother – answered questions on his or her attitude toward the adolescent having sex.
Detailed information is available at the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health . |
