2017/07/06 by Nigel Barber · 1 citation
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health #Sex work and related issues #Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences
paper · doi:10.1177/1069397117718143
openalex publication_date 2017/07/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Sexual behavior responds adaptively to local costs and benefits. It was thus predicted that acceptance of premarital sex would increase with economic development (gross domestic product [GDP]), female labor participation, and births outside wedlock but would decline with marriage strength (marriage rate minus divorce rate), HIV/AIDS incidence, infectious disease risk, and religiosity. Pew Research data on attitudes to premarital sex in 40 countries supported these predictions in correlational analysis (exception HIV/AIDS). Regression analyses found significant effects of GDP, marriage strength, religiosity, and births outside wedlock while women at work was marginally significant (with 82 % of the variance explained). Acceptance of premarital sex increases adaptively with economic development, and declining marriage strength and religiosity, but is not consistently affected by disease risks. Differences in cross-national predictors of premarital sex and casual sex are discussed.