Parental attachment, drug use, and facultative sexual strategies

Abstract

It is often asserted that sexual promiscuity and drug abuse appears to share a common etiology in poor parental attachment. This study explores this claim empirically among 480 college students. Other variables—religiosity, masculinity/femininity, sex, age, and physical appearance—that may enhance or reduce the incidence of promiscuity and drug use were included in multivariate analyses. Parental attachment was significantly related to both variables, and the combination of poor parental attachment and drug use was a strong predictor of promiscuity for both males and females. In multivariate analyses, religiosity was the most important predictor of promiscuity for males, and attachment was the most important for females. The findings are examined guided by the three desiderata commonly accepted as relevant to biosocial attachment theory.