The Impact of Religious Commitment on Women’s Sexual Self-Esteem

Bibliographic Data

ID12466845
AuthorsDena Abbott (0000-0002-0295-1796, Texas Woman's University, corresponding author), Jeff E Harris (Texas Woman's University), Debra Mollen (0000-0002-4785-5984, Texas Woman's University)
Year2016
Volume20
Issue4
Pages1063-1082
Publication date2016-07-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSexuality & Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1095-5143 • E-ISSN: 1936-4822
PublisherSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s12119-016-9374-x
OpenAlexW2470049518
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited56

Religious commitment is associated with decreased sexual activity, poor sexual satisfaction, and sexual guilt, particularly among women. The purpose of this paper was to investigate how religious commitment is related to sexual self-esteem among women. Participants included 196 female undergraduate students, 87 % of whom identified as Christian. Participants completed the Sexual Self-Esteem Inventory for Women (SSEI-W), Religious Commitment Inventory-10, Revised Religious Fundamentalism Scale, Brief Sexual Attitudes Scale, and a measure of their perception of God’s view of sex. Results suggested that women with high religious commitment held more conservative sexual attitudes. Significant relationships between religious commitment and two subscales (moral judgment and attractiveness) of the SSEI-W revealed that women with high religious commitment were less likely to perceive sex as congruent with their moral values and simultaneously reported significantly greater confidence in their sexual attractiveness. A significant relationship between religious commitment and overall sexual self-esteem was found for women whose religion of origin was Catholicism, such that those with higher religious commitment reported lower sexual self-esteem. A hierarchical regression analysis revealed that high religious commitment and perception that God viewed sex negatively independently predicted lower sexual self-esteem, as related to moral judgment. Implications of the findings are provided

Attractiveness · Developmental psychology · Fundamentalism · Perception · Scale (ratio · Self-esteem · Sexual attraction · Sexual behavior · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Psychology · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology

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