The impact of religious commitment on women’s sexual self-esteem

View/ Open
Date
2016-07Author
Abbott, Dena M.
Harris, Jeff E.
Mollen, Debra
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
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 selfesteem,
as related to moral judgment. Implications of the findings are provided.
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
A study to determine the relationship between self-concept, home influences and dating practices
Williams, Lorna Crouch (1974-08) -
Low-sex marriages
Brunner, Brenda Little (2008-05)The purposes of this study were to explore low-sex marital relationships and to offer a voice to the population of couples participating in low-sex marriages. A phenomenological qualitative approach was used to examine the ... -
Increasing awareness of sexually transmitted infection through education: A quality improvement initiative
Thompson, Dennia (2019)Each year it is estimated that millions of people are affected by sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Sexually transmitted infections are transmitted through sexual contact with an infected person through vaginal, ...