The association of attendance at religious services and involvement in church/religious activities and youth assets, by gender, with youth's engagement in sexual intercourse

摘要

Purpose - Previous research has shown that religion plays a role in the lives of many youths. Thisrnpaper aims to extend previous research and examine attendance at religious services and involvementrnin religious/church activities as separate items to determine if one aspect was more strongly associatedrnwith never having had sexual intercourse among youth in the USA. It also aims to consider the effectrnof other youth assets, and analyze all by gender.rnDesign/methodology/approach - Cross-sectional data were examined to assess youth assets andrnrisk behaviors. Multivariate regression was used to determine whether the assets or religion questionsrnwere significant in the presence of the other assets/religion questions. The eight assets examined, inrnaddition to church attendance and involvement in religious groups were adult role models, peer rolernmodels, family communication, involvement in sports and groups, community involvement,rnaspirations for the future, responsible choices, and good health - diet and exercise.rnFindings - Involvement in church/religious activities, but not attendance at religious services, wasrnassociated with never having had sexual intercourse among males and females. Analysis alsorndetermined that several of the other youth assets were protective of sexual intercourse among malesrnand among females.rnResearch limitations/implications - Findings from this study may be limited by the validity ofrnthe self-reported measures. The data were cross-sectional, making it impossible to draw inferencesrnabout the causal directions of the relationships found in this study. Future research should focus onrndeveloping interventions to strengthen youth assets.rnPractical implications - Developing gender and culturally specific interventions to promote youthrnassets may reduce the number of young people engaging in sex.rnOriginality/value - The paper extends previous research and examines attendance at religiousrnservices and involvement in religious/church activities as separate items to determine if one aspectrnwas more strongly associated with never having had sexual intercourse.