Abstract
Emerging adults’ religiosity has been consistently linked with less participation in sexual behaviors as supported by cognitive dissonance theory. However, this association may be different when examining centrality of religiosity of relationships (CRR), meaning participating in and discussing religiosity and spirituality with a current or anticipated romantic partner. The goal of this study is to examine the influence of CRR for emerging adults’ affectionate and sexual behaviors. Additionally, we test if the association between CRR and affectionate and sexual behaviors varies by gender, given males’ more positive attitudes towards sexual behaviors compared to females. Data for this study comes from 284 emerging adults, ages 18 to 29 (mean age = 20.9 years; 70.1% female) from an area in the Midwestern United States. Results illustrated that CRR is negatively associated with affectionate behaviors, intimate touching behaviors, oral sex behaviors, and sexual (vaginal) intercourse. Additionally, gender significantly moderated these relationships. Male participants reporting low levels of CRR conveyed significantly higher participation with these sexual behaviors compared to males reporting high levels of CRR, whereas CRR did not appear to significantly alter female participants’ engagement with these sexual behaviors. These findings provide some evidence that CRR contributes to males’ romantic development and that CRR may increase intimacy in females’ romantic relationships, which could promote sexual activity. Other implications for religious and sexual development are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469–480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.5.469.
Baumeister, R. F., & Vohs, K. D. (2004). Sexual economics: Sex as female resource for social exchange in heterosexual interactions. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 339–363. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0804_2.
Benokraitis, N. (2011). Marriages & families: Changes, choices, and constraints (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Publishing.
Collins, W. A., Welsh, D. P., & Furman, W. (2009). Adolescent romantic relationships. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 631–652. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163459.
Cotton, S., McGrady, M. E., & Rosenthal, S. L. (2010). Measurement of religiosity/spirituality in adolescent health outcomes research: Trends and recommendations. Journal of Religion and Health, 49, 414–444. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-010-9324-0.
Davidson, J. K., Darling, C. A., & Norton, L. (1995). Religiosity and the sexuality of women: Sexual behavior and sexual satisfaction revisited. Journal of Sex Research, 32, 235–243. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499509551794.
Deaton, A. S. (2009). Aging, religion, and health. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), working paper no. 15271.
Ellison, C. G., Burdette, A. M., & Wilcox, W. B. (2010). The couple that prays together: Race and ethnicity, religion, and relationship quality among working-age adults. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 963–975. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00742.x.
Festinger, L. (1962). Cognitive dissonance. Scientific American, 207, 93–107. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1062-93.
Fincham, F. D., Ajayi, C., & Beach, S. H. (2011). Spirituality and marital satisfaction in African American couples. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 3, 259–268. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023909.
Gute, G., Eshbaugh, E. M., & Wiersma, J. (2008). Sex for you, but not for me: Discontinuity in undergraduate emerging adults’ definitions of “having sex”. Journal of Sex Research, 45, 329–337.
Hardy, S. A., & Raffaelli, M. (2003). Adolescent religiosity and sexuality: An investigation of reciprocal influences. Journal of Adolescence, 26, 731–739. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2003.09.003.
Huber, S., & Huber, O. W. (2012). The centrality of religiosity scale (CRS). Religions, 3, 710–724. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel3030710.
Hull, S. J., Hennessy, M., Bleakley, A., Fishbein, M., & Jordan, A. (2011). Identifying the causal pathways from religiosity to delayed adolescent sexual behavior. Journal of Sex Research, 48, 543–553. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2010.521868.
Kirk, C. M., & Lewis, R. K. (2013). The impact of religious behaviors on the health and well-being of emerging adults. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 16, 1030–1043. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2012.730037.
Lambert, N. M., & Dollahite, D. C. (2008). The threefold cord: Marital commitment in religious couples. Journal of Family Issues, 29, 592–614. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X07308395.
Langlais, M. R., Kivisto, K. L., & Welsh, D. P. (2010). Communication and sexual behaviors within adolescent couples. Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research, 15, 194–202.
Langlais, M. R., & Schwanz, S. J. (2017). Religiosity and relationship quality of dating relationships: Examining relationship religiosity as a mediator. Religions, 8, 187. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8090187.
LeJeune, B. C., Zimet, G. D., Azzouz, F., Dennis Fortenberry, J., & Aalsma, M. C. (2013). Religiosity and sexual involvement within adolescent romantic couples. Journal of Religion and Health, 52, 804–816. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-011-9512-6.
McCree, D. H., Wingood, G. M., DiClemente, R., Davies, S., & Harrington, K. F. (2003). Religiosity and risky sexual behavior in African-American adolescent females. Journal of Adolescent Health, 33, 2–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(02)00460-3.
Moreau, C., Trussell, J., & Bajos, N. (2013). Religiosity, religious affiliation, and patterns of sexual activity and contraceptive use in France. The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care, 18, 168–180. https://doi.org/10.3109/13625187.2013.777829.
Petersen, J. L., & Hyde, J. S. (2011). Gender differences in sexual attitudes and behaviors: A review of meta-analytic results and large datasets. Journal of Sex Research, 48, 149–165. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2011.551851.
Pew Research Center. (2017). Religious landscape study. Retrieved from http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/.
Qualtrics. (2017). Qualtrics, Provo, UT, USA. http://www.qualtrics.com.
Rohrbaugh, J., & Jessor, R. (1975). Religiosity in youth: A personal control against deviant behavior. Journal of Personality, 43, 136–155. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1975.tb00577.x.
Rostosky, S. S., Regnerus, M. D., & Wright, M. C. (2003). Coital debut: The role of religiosity and sex attitudes in the Add Health Survey. Journal of Sex Research, 40, 358–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490209552202.
Steinman, K. J., & Zimmerman, M. A. (2004). Religious activity and risk behavior among African American adolescents: Concurrent and developmental effects. American Journal of Community Psychology, 33, 151–161. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:AJCP.0000027002.93526.bb.
Sternberg, R. J., & Weis, K. (2006). The new psychology of love. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Stiftung, B. (2009). What the world believes: Analysis and commentary on the Religion Monitor 2008. Gutersloh: Verlag Bertelsmann-Stiftung.
Vasilenko, S. A., & Lefkowitz, E. S. (2014). Changes in religiosity after first intercourse in the transition to adulthood. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6, 310–315. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037472.
Vohs, K. D., Catanese, K. R., & Baumeister, R. F. (2004). Sex in ‘His’ versus ‘Her’ relationships. In J. H. Harvey, A. Wenzel, S. Sprecher, J. H. Harvey, A. Wenzel, & S. Sprecher (Eds.), The handbook of sexuality in close relationships (pp. 455–474). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Young, M., Denny, G., Penhollow, T., Palacios, R., & Morris, D. (2015). Hiding the word: Examining the relationship between a new measure of religiosity and sexual behavior. Journal of Religion and Health, 54, 922–942. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-013-9777-z.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Langlais, M.R., Schwanz, S.J. Centrality of Religiosity of Relationships for Affectionate and Sexual Behaviors Among Emerging Adults. Sexuality & Culture 22, 405–421 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-017-9474-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-017-9474-2