"Changes in Religiosity After First Intercourse in the Transition to Adulthood"

[fnr]

I found this study, which seems to provide some pretty critical information for evangelization and understanding how things like contraception undercut faith.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4286182/pdf/nihms640554.pdf

The study is conducted over time in a group of college students. Here’s the meaty part of the conclusion:
“Students’ religiosity did not change in the six months preceding first intercourse, but on average they attended services less often and felt religion was less important in the twelve months after first intercourse.”

One explanation for this result is that when people have premarital sex, the “cognitive dissonance” of believing one thing and doing something different causes mental distress. To relieve that discomfort, people change either their beliefs or their behaviors. People in sexual relationships probably find it easier to start rationalizing themselves than in returning to the teachings of their youth.

I think this paper is really important for evangelization. Getting people to acknowledge the role that their sex lives have in their religious observance seems to be a very important part of conversion!

 

[kozlosap]

I would venture an educated guess that the change in how religious a college student is or isn’t, has more to do with being away at school and age than it does with sex.

 

[fnr]

I would venture an educated guess that the change in how religious a college student is or isn’t, has more to do with being away at school and age than it does with sex.

Well, the study found no significant reductions in their religiosity prior to the first time they had sex, and only found a drop after having sex. This was looking across the same people, so differences in underlying religiosity shouldn’t affect how the first sex affected their religiosity over time.

 

[Padres1969]

Well, the study found no significant reductions in their religiosity prior to the first time they had sex, and only found a drop after having sex. This was looking across the same people, so differences in underlying religiosity shouldn’t affect how the first sex affected their religiosity over time.

I’d be interested in how many of those that had their “first intercourse” and subsequent loss in religiosity entered into a relationship versus say a one time sexual encounter.

My supposition being that the drop in religiosity within one year of sex may have had less to do with having sex itself but rather having entered into a romantic relationship and the corresponding pressures on a college aged person’s time that incurs. Particularly in college where social activities are already common on Friday and Saturday nights, including drinking, and would be even more likely to be engaged in with a partner. With most religious services then held Saturday night or Sunday morning getting to those services becomes that much more problematic. It seems to me that their supposition that sex causing a drop from what they see as the expected religious trajectory, ignores this aspect of changes in college age people in particular. They’re often engaging in romantic relationships, and other pursuits unrelated to sexuality, that take their attention off of religion that while sometimes linked to sex, are not necessarily dependent on sex to occur.

 

[Padres1969]

As a follow on to my last, comparing to my own personal experience, I went to mass weekly with a group of friends starting in Freshman year at my Catholic college. And these were some very religiously raised folks, both Catholic and Protestant (one of them initially would go to both Catholic mass Sunday night with us and his Protestant service Sunday morning). But as those friends coupled off or found partners outside our friend group we stopped attending regularly as a group. By the time I met my now wife near the end of sophomore year our group rarely went more than once a month and most of us did not go independently outside the group.

And mind you this all occurred independent of anyone having intercourse. Sex wasn’t the deciding factor, rather natural pairing off and the subsequent expansion of interests and pressures on time that come with pairing off are what caused the decline in our religiosity.

 

[LethalMouse]

Ironically I have been better at religion when having sex than not. I guess I always remember the beginning of the Bible best… be fruitful and multiply.

 

[fnr]

As a follow on to my last, comparing to my own personal experience, I went to mass weekly with a group of friends starting in Freshman year at my Catholic college. And these were some very religiously raised folks, both Catholic and Protestant (one of them initially would go to both Catholic mass Sunday night with us and his Protestant service Sunday morning). But as those friends coupled off or found partners outside our friend group we stopped attending regularly as a group. By the time I met my now wife near the end of sophomore year our group rarely went more than once a month and most of us did not go independently outside the group.

And mind you this all occurred independent of anyone having intercourse. Sex wasn’t the deciding factor, rather natural pairing off and the subsequent expansion of interests and pressures on time that come with pairing off are what caused the decline in our religiosity.

I appreciate your explanations!

It could be that sex is an “instrumental variable” that represents other factors. In his book, America’s Blessings, Sociologist Rodney Stark has described the phenomenon where young people who are surrounded by same-religion friends are more likely to live lives according to the norms of their religion. Religious people who are surrounded by non-religious friends are less likely to follow the norms of their religions.

I look on my own experiences at a large four-year college and see the pattern. I was fairly religious growing up (Catholic, with a heavy dose of Evangelical Christianity during my senior year of high school). When I moved to college, I made friends with the other residents on my dormitory hallway. I was the only (practicing) Catholic one among the whole group. A number of my friends had been “raised Catholic,” but never attended a single mass once coming to college. In fact, the member of our group who understood me best was a Conservative Jew who kept kosher. The rest of my social group thought I was bizarre for my rosaries, fasting, brown scapular, and other elements of Catholic devotion. My whole time in college, I would serve as a EMHC and altar server, but didn’t participate in the college’s Catholic parish outside of mass.

Over time, my social group was dominated by a largely secular crowd. The women I met were likewise quite secular. By my junior or senior year, I felt quite alone, and started thinking that I would be unable to find a woman who would date me for long-term, due to my intention to live a chaste life. That feeling of isolation is probably what primed me to leave the Church in my early 20s. Combined with the burgeoning U.S. sex abuse crisis, which made me angry with the hierarchy, it was potently corrosive on my faith. I was gone for 6 years, the whole time struggling with my beliefs and trying to cobble together a DIY version of “dissident Catholicism.” It really was the Catholic Answers podcast that got me thinking more systematically about the faith, and I credit it with helping to bring me back.

Our stories aren’t exactly the same, but they point to the importance of young Catholics sticking together!

 

[Padres1969]

I appreciate your explanations!

It could be that sex is an “instrumental variable” that represents other factors. In his book, America’s Blessings, Sociologist Rodney Stark has described the phenomenon where young people who are surrounded by same-religion friends are more likely to live lives according to the norms of their religion. Religious people who are surrounded by non-religious friends are less likely to follow the norms of their religions.

I look on my own experiences at a large four-year college and see the pattern. I was fairly religious growing up (Catholic, with a heavy dose of Evangelical Christianity during my senior year of high school). When I moved to college, I made friends with the other residents on my dormitory hallway. I was the only (practicing) Catholic one among the whole group. A number of my friends had been “raised Catholic,” but never attended a single mass once coming to college. In fact, the member of our group who understood me best was a Conservative Jew who kept kosher. The rest of my social group thought I was bizarre for my rosaries, fasting, brown scapular, and other elements of Catholic devotion. My whole time in college, I would serve as a EMHC and altar server, but didn’t participate in the college’s Catholic parish outside of mass.

Over time, my social group was dominated by a largely secular crowd. The women I met were likewise quite secular. By my junior or senior year, I felt quite alone, and started thinking that I would be unable to find a woman who would date me for long-term, due to my intention to live a chaste life. That feeling of isolation is probably what primed me to leave the Church in my early 20s. Combined with the burgeoning U.S. sex abuse crisis, which made me angry with the hierarchy, it was potently corrosive on my faith. I was gone for 6 years, the whole time struggling with my beliefs and trying to cobble together a DIY version of “dissident Catholicism.” It really was the Catholic Answers podcast that got me thinking more systematically about the faith, and I credit it with helping to bring me back.

Our stories aren’t exactly the same, but they point to the importance of young Catholics sticking together!

One problem though, where to stick together? I mean college is geared toward broadening who you meet, exposing you to more ideas, etc… The dorm process itself is essentially throw he incoming Freshmen into a blender and let them work it out. In a situation like that it seems like a tall order for young Catholics to stick together. I mean as your and my experience show, even sticking with other Catholics as best you can in those circumstances doesn’t work.