THE TEACHING OF NONMARITAL SEXUAL ABSTINENCE AND MEMBERS SEXUAL ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS - THE CASE OF LATTER-DAY-SAINTS

This study tested the hypothesis that strict religious beliefs concern ing sexuality influence the sexual attitudes and behaviors of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Membe rs of the LDS church are strongly counseled to follow a strict moral c ode, which consists of sexual abstinence before marriage and complete fidelity after marriage. This study measures whether LDS people differ from people in other religious groups in their premarital attitudes a nd behaviors regarding sexuality. The study also examines whether marr ied LDS individuals differ from married individuals in other religious groups. The sample consisted of 13,017 noninstitutional respondents, 19 years of age and older. Analysis of variance and the Scheffe post h oc method of multiple comparisons were used to compare LDS with people of other religions. The results show that LDS differ significantly fr om other groups in their attitudes and behaviors concerning nonmarital sex; this difference reflects LDS conservative moral beliefs. However , the results also demonstrate that LDS do not differ significantly fr om members of other religious affiliations in their marital sexual beh avior.