Iranian students’ attitudes toward premarital sex, marriage, and family in different college majors

Abstract

Objective

This study is performed to examine the attitudes regarding marriage, family, and premarital sex among the students of different majors. Participants: Four hundred fifty-seven students from four majors studying Medical Sciences, Arts, Humanities, and Mathematics/Engineering within the age range of 18- to 24-year old. Method: Participants were selected from different universities in Tehran using stratified nonprobability sampling method. Attitudes of our participants were examined using the premarital sexual, marital, child-rearing, and family attitude Survey and demographic variables, including major, age, gender, religious beliefs, family socioeconomic level, and marital status were evaluated. Results: Most of the results of the survey showed significant differences between different majors. Art students were open to premarital sex more than other students and believed that premarital sex would cause no harm in reputation for females. By contrast, Medical sciences students had the highest agreement regarding the bad influence on the reputation of females because of premarital sex and also regarding men's tendency to virgin girls. Art students mostly approved the acceleration of the divorce process while the highest disapproval in this regard was reported from Medical sciences students. Conclusion: Art students’ beliefs about premarital sex were more liberal, while Medical sciences students’ beliefs in this matter were more conservative.

Keywords:

• Premarital sexuality
• psychology and sexuality
• societal attitudes

Acknowledgments

We would like to appreciate the contribution of the students of the following universities who made a significant contribution to the survey: Iran University of Medical Sciences; Tehran University of Medical Sciences; Shahid Beheshti Medical University; Tehran University; Shahid Beheshti University; Allameh Tabtabei University; Sharif University of Technology; Amirkabir University of Technology; and Tehran University of Art.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of Iran and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Iran University of Medical Sciences.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.