Sexual Experience and Couple Formation Attitudes Among Emerging Adults

Examining the attitudes of sexually abused and non-abused individuals towards marriage in terms of ambivalent sexism

The research aims to examine the attitudes of individuals who are victims of abuse and those who are not towards marriage in terms of ambivalent sexism. The research study group consists of 718 individuals between the ages of 18-48. Research data were collected with the Inonu Marriage Attitude Scale and Ambivalent Sexism Inventory. As a result of the correlation analysis, it was concluded that the marriage attitude was positively and significantly correlated with hostile and protective sexism. However, since the relationship between hostile sexism and attitudes towards marriage is lower than that of protective sexism, hostile sexism was not included in the model as a control variable. In the covariance analysis, it is seen that protective sexism and sexual abuse predict the attitude towards marriage at a statistically significant level. In addition, when the effect of sexual abuse on the attitude towards marriage was examined by controlling the protective sexism variable, it was found that it was statistically significant without the effect of sexism. According to the findings, it was determined that individuals who were not victims of sexual abuse had higher attitudes towards marriage than those who were victims.

Mediation Effects of Premarital Sexual Permissiveness on the Relationship Between Expectations for Marriage and Marital Intention of Vietnamese Undergraduate Students

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the direct and indirect effects of expectations for marital relationships and premarital sexual permissiveness on intent to marry of Vietnamese emerging adults.

Patients and Methods

Our cross-sectional study was focused on emerging adults including 344 participants, undergraduate students from universities in Viet Nam. This study was assessed by using the PLS-SEM approach.

Results

The main findings demonstrated that (i) sexual orientation have a significant effect on marital intention; (ii) individuals' expectations for marital relationship have a direct effect on marital intention; and (iii) premarital sexuality permissiveness mediates the relationship between expectations for marital relationship and marital intention.

Conclusion

Our results contribute important documents and clearer understanding of emerging adults' expectations and requirements in a relationship for the marriage decision-making process.

A Prototype Willingness Approach to the Relation Between Geo-social Dating Apps and Willingness to Sext with Dating App Matches

Despite voiced concerns about sexual online risk behaviors related to mobile dating, little is known about the relation between mobile dating and sexting. The current cross-sectional study (N = 286) examined the relations between the use of geo-social dating apps and emerging adults' willingness to sext with a dating app match. By drawing on the prototype willingness model, both a reasoned path and a social reaction path are proposed to explain this link. As for the reasoned path, a structural equation model showed that more frequent dating app usage is positively related to norm beliefs about peers' sexting behaviors with unknown dating app matches (i.e., descriptive norms), norm beliefs about peers' approval of sexting with matches (i.e., subjective norms), and negatively related to perceptions of danger to sext with matches (i.e., risk attitude). In turn, descriptive norms were positively and risk attitudes were negatively associated with individuals' own willingness to sext with someone they had met through a dating app. As for the social reaction path, it was found that more frequent dating app usage was positively related to emerging adults' favorable evaluations of a prototype person who sexts with unknown dating app matches (i.e., prototype perceptions). The analyses further revealed that such prototype perceptions positively linked with emerging adults' own willingness to sext with a match. These results were similar among women and men and help explain why individuals may be willing to engage in sexting behavior with unknown others.

Development and Validation of the Marital Metaphor Questionnaire (MMQ-10) for Urban Chinese Women

Metaphors have long been applied to marital counseling and couple therapy. This pioneering study measures marital conceptualization through metaphors. It reports the validation of the Marital Metaphor Questionnaire (MMQ-10), designed to measure the marriage conceptualization of Chinese women through marital metaphors. The MMQ-10 was found to have favorable psychometric properties including reliable internal consistency, a good discriminative prediction of marriage at risk and moderate correlation with a Chinese indigenous multidimensional marital satisfaction inventory. Factor analysis reveals that the MMQ-10 is composed of three dimensions: conjugal relationship, marital anguish, and marital conviction. The MMQ-10 appears to be suitable for the use with Chinese women in premarital or marital counseling sessions. The present researchers hope that this study may support the use of metaphors in future research and clinical practice in other nations and cultures.

The Enduring Significance of Skin Tone: Linking Skin Tone, Attitudes Toward Marriage and Cohabitation, and Sexual Behavior

Past evidence has documented that attitudes toward marriage and cohabitation are related to sexual behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. This study extends prior research by longitudinally testing these associations across racial/ethnic groups and investigating whether culturally relevant variations within racial/ethnic minority groups, such as skin tone (i.e., lightness/darkness of skin color), are linked to attitudes toward marriage and cohabitation and sex. Drawing on family and public health literatures and theories, as well as burgeoning skin tone literature, it was hypothesized that more positive attitudes toward marriage and negative attitudes toward cohabitation would be associated with less risky sex, and that links differed for lighter and darker skin individuals. The sample included 6872 respondents (49.6 % female; 70.0 % White; 15.8 % African American; 3.3 % Asian; 10.9 % Hispanic) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. The results revealed that marital attitudes had a significantly stronger dampening effect on risky sexual behavior of lighter skin African Americans and Asians compared with their darker skin counterparts. Skin tone also directly predicted number of partners and concurrent partners among African American males and Asian females. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings for adolescence and young adulthood.

Marriage Matters But How Much? Marital Centrality Among Young Adults

Marriage, once a gateway to adulthood, is no longer as widely considered a requirement for achieving adult status. With declining marriage rates and delayed marital transitions, some have wondered whether current young adults have rejected the traditional notion of marriage. Utilizing a sample of 571 young adults, the present study explored how marital centrality (the expected importance to be placed on the marital role relative to other adult roles) functioned as a unique and previously unexplored marital belief among young adults. Results suggested that marriage remains an important role for many young adults. On average, young adults expected that marriage would be more important to their life than parenting, careers, or leisure activities. Marital centrality profiles were found to significantly differ based on both gender and religiosity. Marital centrality was also associated with various outcomes including binge-drinking and sexual activity. Specifically, the more central marriage was expected to be, the less young adults engaged in risk-taking or sexual behaviors.

Casual hook up sex during the first year of college: Prospective associations with attitudes about sex and love relationships

This study examined bidirectional relationships among emerging adults' involvement in casual hook up sex and attitudes about sex and love relationships. At the start and end of their first year in college, undergraduates (N = 163) responded to measures of sexual behavior, sexual attitudes, and attitudes about love relationships. In cross-sectional analyses, attitudes about sex and love both were associated with involvement in casual hook up sex. In prospective analyses, initial attitudes about sexual instrumentality uniquely predicted involvement in later hook up sex, even after controlling for past hook up sex. Furthermore, involvement in hook up sex during the first year of college predicted greater sexual permissiveness and comfort with casual genital contact, even after controlling for initial sexual attitudes and hook up behaviors. None of the associations between attitudes and behavior were qualified by gender. Experiences of causal hook up sex appear to have implications primarily for emerging adults' attitudes about sexual interactions rather than their attitudes about love relationships.