Religiosity and Young Unmarried Women’s Sexual and Contraceptive Behavior: New Evidence From a Longitudinal Panel of Young Adult Women

Drawing on weekly panel data from the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life study, we investigate the relationship between religiosity and young Christian women’s premarital intercourse, hormonal contraceptive use, and condom use for a period of up to 2.5 years. Mediation analyses reveal what explains the relationship between baseline religiosity and young women’s subsequent reproductive behaviors, with consideration for their normative environments, moral order and learned competencies, attitudes, and anticipated guilt after sex. Results indicate that the more religious a young woman is, the less likely she is to have intercourse and to use hormonal contraception in a given week. However, when having intercourse and not using a hormonal method, the more religious a young woman is, the more likely she is to use condoms. Religiosity’s relationship to these behaviors operates largely through women’s reproductive attitudes, anticipated feelings of guilt after sex, and past sexual or contraceptive behaviors. Together, these findings highlight the complex relationship between religiosity and premarital sex and contraceptive use, elucidate key pathways through which religiosity operates, and draw attention to the often overlooked role of sexual emotions.