The Role of Moral Worldviews in Predicting Sexual Behavior From Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood

We examined the relationship between moral worldview and number of sexual partners across 6 years in a nationally representative sample of 2,202 emerging adults. Using negative binomial fixed-effects regression models to control for all time-invariant confounders, we found that while changes toward...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of adolescent research 2015-11, Vol.30 (6), p.779-799
Main Authors: Victor, Elizabeth Christine, Miles, Andrew, Vaisey, Stephen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
Adults
Child development
Health behavior
Morality
Sexual behavior
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We examined the relationship between moral worldview and number of sexual partners across 6 years in a nationally representative sample of 2,202 emerging adults. Using negative binomial fixed-effects regression models to control for all time-invariant confounders, we found that while changes toward more orthodox moral worldviews account for differences in number of partners during adolescence, this effect disappears as teens enter emerging adulthood. We explored two possible explanations for this change in effect, including (a) whether moral worldviews are simply standing in for external factors that are actually driving observed behavior and (b) how the effects of moral worldviews may depend on overall levels of orthodoxy. The results lead us to conclude that moral worldviews influence sexual behaviors over time; however, moral worldviews appear to have a significant protective effect only for individuals indicating a high degree of moral orthodoxy. These findings support the idea that moral worldviews impact health behavior during key developmental years.
ISSN:0743-5584
1552-6895
DOI:10.1177/0743558414561294