Sexual Without Sex: A Qualitative Study of Single Emerging Adult Evangelical Women

This grounded theory study investigated how single, emerging adult, evangelical Christian women develop, view, experience, and manage their sexuality in the context of competing religious influences and sociocultural influences. Twenty-four undergraduate women were interviewed about the messages the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychology of religion and spirituality 2020-05, Vol.12 (2), p.191-200
Main Authors: Claney, Carly J., Hall, M. Elizabeth Lewis, Anderson, Tamara L., Canada, Andrea L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Christianity
Emerging Adulthood
Female
Grounded theory
Human
Human Females
Identity
Internalization
Psychosexual Behavior
Qualitative research
Scripts
Sexuality
Single women
Sociocultural factors
Spirituality
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This grounded theory study investigated how single, emerging adult, evangelical Christian women develop, view, experience, and manage their sexuality in the context of competing religious influences and sociocultural influences. Twenty-four undergraduate women were interviewed about the messages they received regarding their sexuality from their faith community and general culture, and their experiences with their own sexuality amid the resulting dissonance. Using Strauss and Corbin's (1998) grounded theory data analysis, themes emerged from the data to reveal a theory that captures how these women integrate and experience their sexuality. It was found that this process begins with the messages received about sexuality, which influence the internalized experience of sexuality for the women, and lead to subsequent sexual exploration and management strategies. The results suggest 3 main factors that contribute to healthy sexuality: accepting sexuality as an aspect of identity, integrating sexuality with other aspects of identity, and maintaining consistency between sexual scripts and sexual experiences.
ISSN:1941-1022
1943-1562
DOI:10.1037/rel0000191