Age, religious beliefs, and sexual attitudes

Journal of Sex Research, August, 2002 by Armelle Le Gall, Etienne Mullet, Sheila Riviere Shafighi

Age effects on sexual attitudes were examined using the Hendrick and Hendrick (1987a) Sexual Attitude Scale. The study was cross-sectional, including people from various age groups, from young adults to older adults. The religious beliefs variable, which covaries substantially both with age and sexual attitudes, was controlled. Three main questions guided the study: (a) Is the four-factor structure (Permissiveness, Instrumentality, Communion, and Sexual Practices)previously identified in a sample of young students able to accurately account for data gathered over a full range of adult ages, (b) are older adults much less permissive and less instrumentalist than young people, and (c) to what extent are believers less permissive and instrumentalist than young people when age is taken into account? Factor analyses showed that at least five correlated factors were needed to account for the data; the fourth factor, Sexual Practices, divided itself into two distinct factors: Pleasure and Responsibility. Older adults and believers were shown to be less permissive than young people and nonbelievers, and this result held regardless of the participants' educational level. As regards to instrumentality, however, the pattern of differences was extremely complex.

Sexual attitudes have been extensively studied among adolescents and adults (Oliver & Hyde, 1993). Studies have been conducted on attitudes toward sexual practices (Bryan, Aiken, & West, 1999), sexual permissiveness (Oliver & Sedikides, 1992), and sexual desire (Regan, 1998), to quote only a few (see Bullough & Bullough, 1995, for a historical account of sexual attitudes).

One of the most complete instruments for studying sexual attitudes is the `Sexual Attitudes Scale developed by Hendrick and Hendrick (1987a). This scale contains 43 items divided into four subscales entitled Permissiveness, Sexual Practices, Instrumentality, and Communion. Using this instrument, Hendrick and Hendrick have shown that people in general were not very permissive. Typical permissiveness items are "I would like to have sex with many partners" and "Casual sex is acceptable." In their 1987 study, the mean response observed to such items on a sample of several hundred students was about 2.25 on a 5-point disagree-agree scale; that is, the mean response is closer to the disagree pole of the scale than to the agree pole. In a later study (Hendrick & Hendrick, 1995), the overall mean was only about 2.00, which corresponds to "moderately disagree." The authors also showed that women tend to be even less permissive than men. The difference observed between women and men was approximately one point (see also Oliver & Hyde, 1993).

Hendrick and Hendrick (1987a) have also shown that people in general were moderately instrumentalist. Typical instrumentalist items are "Sex is primarily a bodily function, like eating" and "Sex is primarily physical." In Hendrick and Hendrick's (1987a) study, the mean response observed to such items was about 2.60, which is closer to the disagree pole than to the agree pole, although higher than what was observed for permissiveness, for which the overall mean was about 2.50 in a study by Hendrick and Hendrick (1995). In both studies, women tended to be less instrumentalist than men. The difference between women and men was, however, very slight.

As regards the sexual practices and communion, people were much more in agreement with the items proposed. Typical sexual practices items were "A man should share responsibility for birth control" and "Sex education is important for young people." Typical communion items were "A sexual encounter between two people deeply in love is the ultimate human interaction" and "At its best, sex seems to be the merging of two souls." In both cases, mean responses were close to 4.0 which correspond to moderately agree, with practically no differences between women and men.

Sexual Attitudes and Age

Although gender differences in sexual attitudes have been extensively studied (Oliver & Hyde, 1993), little is known with regard to age differences (Hodson & Skeen, 1994). Portovna, Young, and Newman (1984) presented 60- to 90-year-old women with scenarios depicting a sexually active older couple. The variables manipulated in the scenarios were gender and the civil status of the protagonists (single, widowed, married), the social proximity to the participant, and the residence of the couple (private residence or nursing home). Most participants, regardless of the kind of scenario considered, were favorable toward the concept of sexual activity in older people; in other words, sexual activity was judged as positive even among women, nonmarried couples, and couples living in a nursing home.

More recently, Walker and Ephross (1999) conducted a study on 68 older adults living in long-term care facilities or attending a senior center. The authors showed that older adults were usually tolerant toward sexual activities. As an example, 80% of their participants agreed with an item stating that "Masturbation is an acceptable sexual activity for older women." The same result was found in an early study by Mclntosh (1981). Other studies have also shown that older adults are more liberal in their attitudes toward sexuality than what is usually assumed by younger people (Bergstrom-Walan & Nielsen, 1990; Steinke, 1994).