Cross-National Variation in Attitudes to Premarital Sex

Economic Development, Disease Risk, and Marriage Strength

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7738529
AutoresNigel Barber (Independent Scholar, Portland, ME, USA, autor correspondente)
Ano2018
Volume52
Fascículo3
Páginas259-273
Data de publicação2018-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCross-Cultural Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1069-3971 • E-ISSN: 1552-3578
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1069397117718143
OpenAlexW2726155744
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas38

Sexual behavior responds adaptively to local costs and benefits. It was thus predicted that acceptance of premarital sex would increase with economic development (gross domestic product [GDP]), female labor participation, and births outside wedlock but would decline with marriage strength (marriage rate minus divorce rate), HIV/AIDS incidence, infectious disease risk, and religiosity. Pew Research data on attitudes to premarital sex in 40 countries supported these predictions in correlational analysis (exception HIV/AIDS). Regression analyses found significant effects of GDP, marriage strength, religiosity, and births outside wedlock while women at work was marginally significant (with 82 % of the variance explained). Acceptance of premarital sex increases adaptively with economic development, and declining marriage strength and religiosity, but is not consistently affected by disease risks. Differences in cross-national predictors of premarital sex and casual sex are discussed

Casual · Demographic economics · Economics · Political science · Population · Premarital sex · Religiosity · Sociology · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Demography · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Social Psychology