The association between adolescent spirituality and voluntary sexual activity

• Published in: Journal of adolescent health Vol. 26; no. 4; pp. 295 - 302
• Main Authors: Holder, David W, DuRant, Robert H, Harris, Treniece L, Daniel, Jessica Henderson, Obeidallah, Dawn, Goodman, Elizabeth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 01.04.2000; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adolescence; Adolescent; Adolescents; Age Differences; Biological and medical sciences; Confidence Intervals; Developmental psychology; Female; Friendship; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Male; Odds Ratio; Population; Psychology, Adolescent - statistics & numerical data; Psychology, Social; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Relationship; Religion and Psychology; Religiosity; Religious Beliefs; Sexual Behavior; Sexual Behavior - psychology; Sexual Behavior - statistics & numerical data; Sexual behaviour; Socioeconomic Factors; Spirituality; Statistics, Nonparametric; Surveys and Questionnaires; Urban Population - statistics & numerical data; USA; Young people; United States; North America; America; Adolescence; Spirituality; Sexual Behavior; Religiosity; Human; Belief; Social environment; Urban environment; Motivation; Attitude; Cultural environment; Adolescent; Sexual behavior; Religion; Personality; Sexual intercourse; Age Factors; Beliefs; Psychological Factors; Youth; Sex Behavior > religious aspects; Population Characteristics; Population; Research Report; Behavior; Adolescents; Demographic Factors; Culture
• ISSN: 1054-139X; 1879-1972
• DOI: 10.1016/S1054-139X(99)00092-0

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the spectrum of adolescent spirituality and to determine the association between dimensions of spirituality and voluntary sexual activity (VSA) in adolescents. Design: A sample of 141 consecutive youth aged 11–25 years presenting to an urban, hospital-based adolescent medicine clinic completed a 153-item instrument assessing sociodemographics, psychosocial parameters, and eight specific aspects of spirituality including: (1) religious attendance, (2) religious importance, (3) intrinsic and (4) extrinsic religious motivation, (5) belief in God, (6) belief in divine support, (7) existential aspects of spirituality, and (8) spiritual interconnectedness. Adolescents were also asked about VSA. Results: Sixty-one percent of respondents were African-American and 67.4%, female; mean age was 16.0 ± 2.4 years. Adolescent religious attendance was equally distributed across the categories from “none” to “weekly or greater” attendance. Over 90% felt religion was somewhat important in their lives. Over 85% reported belief in God. Fifty-six percent of respondents reported a history of VSA. Greater importance of religion (p = 0.035) and higher spiritual interconnectedness with friends (p = 0.033) were inversely associated with VSA. A multiple logistic regression model including age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, and specific denomination of religious faith, importance of religion, and spiritual interconnectedness found that spiritual interconnectedness with friends (OR = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.85, 0.99) and age (OR = 1.75, 95% CI = 1.34, 2.28) were independent predictors of VSA. Conclusions: Spirituality is a common facet of adolescents’ lives. Younger age and higher spiritual interconnectedness, particularly interconnectedness among spiritual friends, are independently associated with a lower likelihood of VSA.