Date Awarded

1985

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the specific relationship which exists between selected sociodemographic characteristics and the religiosity of a group of incoming community college students and their sexual attitudes and sexual behaviors.;A sample of 204 community college students completed a survey aimed at assessing their sexual attitudes, sexual behaviors, and religiosity. The instrument was based on a number of previously printed surveys and its reliability was tested with a sample of 23 community college students.;The reliability study demonstrated conclusive evidence that this instrument is highly reliable. All items except two were reliable at the .01 level of significance. Those two remaining items were reliable at the .05 level.;In addition, factor analyses demonstrated that both the attitudes and behaviors sections of this instrument contain a high degree of construct validity. The validity of the religiosity scale had been established previously.;The survey demonstrated that this sample holds relatively liberal attitudes in the areas of petting, premarital sexual intercourse, oral-genital sex, sex education, and contraception. There were no responses which demonstrated a trend toward conservatism.;In the self-reported sexual behaviors segment, the majority of students reported that they had been engaging in a variety of heterosexual behaviors during the past 12 months. The percentages decreased as the solicited behaviors became more advanced, just as expected by the established hierarchy. Very few reported homosexual behaviors.;A stepwise discriminant analysis revealed that there were major distinctions between male and female responses to five of the attitude questions and three of the behavior questions.;Stepwise multiple regressions showed that religiosity was highly correlated with both sexual attitudes and sexual behaviors, when selected sociodemographic variables were controlled. Total religiosity score was the strongest predictor of sexual attitudes and the only significant predictor of sexual behaviors in this sample.;Additional regressions and correlations were calculated to demonstrate the relative strength of other variables and to offer a more comprehensive view of the results.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.25774/w4-7fez-n475

Rights

© The Author

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