| The college or university years are commonly viewed as a time for increased experimentation, including sexual experimentation. Studies have found that by the age of 20 years, seventy-five percent of Caucasian and African American college students across four national U.S. surveys are sexually active (Zaleski & Schiaffino, 2000). The cultural prevalence of sexual activity among never-married adults instigates a unique set of pressures for never-married college students who choose to delay sexual intercourse for religious reasons. Specifically, those who attend religious post-secondary institutions that require students to sign belief and behavior statements prohibiting sexual activity outside of traditional marriage may experience particular conflicting pressures that could impact their emotional well-being.;The current study found that Christian college students in this sample were not as sexually active as their peers, but a significant portion indicated participation in oral sex (26%) and sexual intercourse (9%) in addition to other sexual behaviors that violate the norms of the college community's statement of faith, including lifetime experience of genital play (48%) and mutual masturbation (42%). Sexual activity was found to have a significant positive relationship to anxiety, but no significant relationship to depression. Levels of intrinsic religious orientation had no evident significant effect on students' participation in sexual activities, and more intrinsically oriented students experienced no significantly different levels of psychological distress (indicated by reported levels of depression, anxiety, and self-esteem) when compared to their less intrinsically oriented peers as the result of becoming sexually active. |
