Effects of Premarital Sexual Standards and Behavior on Dating and Marriage Desirability

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Abstract

This paper concerns the effects of sexual attitude lifetime sexual behavior number of coital partners and the social context of this behavior on dating and marriage desirability. Respondents were 130 females and 70 males 3/4 of whom were under age 21. Most had grown up in rural areas and small cities largely in North Dakota and Minnesota. Over 3/4 attended religious services (Lutheran and Catholic) once a month or more. Results indicate that the level of sexual experience among these respondents is well under that of most university samples described in recent reports. Although males are somewhat more permissive than females the traditional double standard in the sense of holding different standards for women than for men is hard to detect in this sample. Both male and female respondents are shown to prefer moderately experienced partners regardless of respondents own experience level. Unlike previous research findings no interactions between respondents behavior and rated persons behavior are found. The data seem to demonstrate the acceptance by these respondents of a kind of single standard; both genders make judgements of dating and marriage suitability in much the same way but these judgments are not always egalitarian. As respondent sexual experience increases and as respondent attitudes become more permissive both dating and marriage ratings are higher. However as the profiles (person rated) attitudes become more permissive the ratings decrease. As for the social context of sexual experience male and female respondents were slightly less accepting of profiles who had sexual experiences with loved ones. The more intimate the profiles behavior with a lover the lower his/her desirability as a date or marriage partner. Degree of sexual intimacy in a no-love context is less systematically assooiated with dating or marriage ratings. The associations between the number of the profiles coital partners and the respondents ratings of the profile are all negative. Generally the associations are stronger for marriage ratings than for dating ratings. The term selfish standard is introduced to refer to the studys main finding that a consistent preference is shown for the date or marriage partner with no more than moderate sexual experience regardless of the respondents past sexual behavior.

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