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This is to certify that the
thesis entitled

' PARENTAL INFLUENCE ON LOVE, SEXUAL BEHAVIOR,
AND SEXUAL SATISFACTION

presented by

Carol A. Darling

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph. D. degree in Family Ecology

 

 

V

52?&9fi;¢z¢39%55?.lgizgéafljgy,

Major professor

August 2, 1979

 

0-7639

 

PARENTAL INFLUENCE 0N LOVE, SEXUAL BEHAVIOR,

AND SEXUAL SATISFACTION

BY

Carol A. Darling

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of Family Ecology

1979

ABSTRACT

PARENTAL INFLUENCE ON LOVE, SEXUAL BEHAVIOR,
AND SEXUAL SATISFACTION

By

Carol A. Darling

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the parent-
child relationship influences conceptualizations of love, sexual
behavior, and satisfaction with one‘s sexual life among never-married
college students. Although the peer group is recognized as one of the
major influences in the sexual socialization of young adults, the
intention of this study was to focus specifically on parental influence
which could be obscured by including the peer component.

The conceptual approach utilized in the investigation employed
a broad view of the family as an environment in which both socialization
and education occur to enhance the development of human resources
either explicitly or implicitly. Socialization, as examined within
the context of this study, encompassed the three interrelated processes
of interaction, modeling, and social exchange and their impact on the
development of love, sexual behavior, and satisfaction with one's sex
life.

The data were collected as part of a study designed to deter-
mine the factors which influence the sexual behavior and contraceptive

use of never-married college students. A survey research design was

Carol A. Darling

employed which used personal interviews of a random sample of 421 male
and 402 female undergraduate students. The investigation of parental
influence on love, sexual behavior, and satisfaction with sex life
focused on a subsample of the larger study and included only those
students who were currently not living at home and who reported living
with both parents while growing up. The resulting subsample consisted
of 696 respondents, 363 males and 333 females who were relatively
evenly divided by year in school. Multiple step-wise regression and
path analysis were used as the analytic mode.

The findings indicated that parents do influence conceptuali-
zations of love, levels of sexual behavior, and satisfaction with sex
life among young adults. For males, parental sexual messages affect
the respondent‘s perception of parents as affective models, and in
turn the student's relationship with his parents. While parental
sexual messages influenced the sexual behavior of males, parental
affective modeling was significantly related to perceived satisfaction
with their sex lives. Sexual behavior, however, was the major influence
on sexual satisfaction and was strongly related to age, as indicated
by the student's year in school.

For females, the findings suggest a much more complicated set
of interrelationships. While the affective modeling of parents had a
positive influence on the respondent's relationship with her parents,
it also had a negative influence on sexual behavior and a positive
influence on sexual satisfaction. These relationships, however, were
all related to age since females, as they increase in age, become more

sexually involved, perceive love as a sharing relationship, and have

Carol A. Darling

weaker ties with parents. Nevertheless, the residual effect of parental
influence on sexuality during the formative years of females impacts
upon later satisfaction with their sex lives.

Hence, the posited model of parental influence on love, sexual
behavior, and sexual satisfaction suggests that parents not only influ—
ence sexual behavior, but also students' feelings about it. Although
this model of parental influence explains only a small portion of the
variance, the role of parents in the sexual socialization of their
children is still important. In general, the model appeared relatively
straightforward for males, but it was much more complex for females,
thereby indicating the various conflicting pushes and pulls of positive
and negative influences that for females impinge upon their conceptual-
izations of love, levels of sexual behavior, and perceived sexual

satisfaction.

DEDICATED

To Harry Anderson, a very special father,

and

to the many families of which I am a part.

ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My entire graduate program has been a very stimulating and
rewarding endeavor during which I have been able to pursue a wide
diversity of experiences and associations. Although there is no way
in which I can adequately express my gratitude for the time and commit-
ment of the many individuals who have contributed to my graduate study,
I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to those colleagues,
associates, friends, and family members who have enhanced my life.

Dr. Margaret Bubolz, Professor, Department of Family and Child
Sciences, has been my advisor and dissertation director, as well as a
close and valued friend. Her wisdom, guidance, encouragement, and
support have been effective catalysts for the many invaluable learning
experiences which I have encountered at Michigan State University.

She has also greatly contributed to my enrichment through both theor-
etical content and a variety of shared professional endeavors. In
addition, both she and her husband, George Bubolz, have invited me into
their home, included me in their family activities, and provided a
sense of familial support. I only hope I will be able to share with
others what she has so generously shared with me.

Special thanks are due to the other members of my doctoral
committee. Dr. David Kallen, Professor, Department of Human Develop-

ment, was the principal investigator on the NIH-funded study on the

iii

"Factors that Influence the Sexual Behavior and Contraceptive Use of
Never-Married College Students" from which the data for this disserta—
tion evolved. His keen insights, intellectual challenges, and guidance
with this dissertation are deeply appreciated. Dr. Beatrice Paolucci,
Professor, Department of Family Ecology, has been a continuous source
of intellectual stimulation, has provided me with the insight to
investigate issues from many perspectives, and has been an important
source of encouragement and support. Dr. Collette Moser, Associate
Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, has given valuable
guidance in the formulation of my graduate program, as well as advice
and feedback concerning my dissertation research.

A number of individuals were not official members of my guidance
committee, but played important roles in my graduate program. I am
particularly indebted by Dr. Norma Bobbitt, Assistant Dean, College of
Human Ecology, who in supervising an administrative internship has given
me some critical insights into higher education administration. She
has also been a continuing source of personal and professional encour-
agement. Gratitude is expressed to Dr. Jerrold Peterson, Associate
Professor, Department of Economics, University of Minnesota, Duluth,
who initiated my interest in pursuing a cognate in Economics and Public
Policy, has served as a technical consultant during my coursework and
dissertation, and has provided unending moral support. In addition, I
would like to recognize Dr. Jane Oyer and Dr. Robert Boger with whom
I have enjoyed working and sharing ideas.

Appreciation is expressed to the members of the research team

who individually and collectively provided their efforts and insights

iv

into this research experience. I would like to thank Judith Stephenson
and Jo Dossey for their contributions and especially Raja Tanas whose
willingness and patience greatly facilitated my learning how to use

the computer and analyze data.

The cooperation, understanding, and moral support of friends
has been a crucial element in the completion of this degree. Hence, I
am particularly indebted to Dr. John Freeman, Jory Peterson, Paula
Garland, Mari Wilhelm, and Edith Katz. They share much of the credit
for my survival.

I would also like to extend my appreciation to Omicron Nu
for the 1977-1978 National Research Fellowship, to Phi Upsilon Omicron
for the 1978-1979 National Founders' Fellowship, and to the contributors
to the College of Human Ecology Development Fund for granting the
Dissertation Fellowship Award which assisted immeasurably in the com-
pletion of this dissertation.

Finally, gratitude is expressed to my father, Harry Anderson,
and my mother, the late Eileen Anderson, who in so many ways have been
important contributors to the development of my human resources. Along
with my father, my "new" mother, Leah Anderson, has created a home
environment where I can seek comfort and refuge from the rigors of
graduate school. In addition, special thanks are offered to Milo and
Elna Current who have always cared for me as their daughter. The
encouragement and support of these family members have given me strength

throughout my personal, professional, and academic pursuits.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Background of Problem 1
Statement of Problem . 4
Conceptual Approach 7

Parents as Socializers and Educators . . . . . . . . 8

A Proposed Model of Parental Influence
on Love, Sexual Behavior, and Sexual
Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Purpose and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Statement of Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Changing Trends in Sexual Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Sexual Behavior of Never-Married Adults . . . . . . . . 37
Parents as Sexual Socializers . . . . . . . . . . . t . 42
Love and Intimacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Sexual Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

III. METHODOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Research Subsample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Measurement of Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Data Analysis Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

vi

CHAPTER

IV. FINDINGS .
Hypotheses .
Hypothesis 1 . .
Hypothesis 2 . .
Hypothesis 3 . . .
Hypothesis 4 .
Testing the Model
V. SUMMARY, DISCUSSION, AND IMPLICATIONS
Summary of the Study .
Discussion . . .
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Research and Theory
Family Life Education
APPENDICES
APPENDIX
A. College Level Males and Females Reporting Premarital
Intercourse as Illustrated in Selected Studies .
B. Data Collection Instrument .
C. Selected Characteristics of Total Research Sample
D. Coding Procedures for Question on Conceptualizations
of Love . . . . . . . . . . . . .
E. Indicators of Relationship Between Intercourse and

Love . . . . . . . . .

LITERATURE CITED

vii

Page
91
92
92
94
96

100

103

123
128
141
143

143
147

151
155

161

169

175

177

Table

10.

11.

12.
13.
14.
15.

16.

LIST OF TABLES

Comparison of College Student Coital Rates

Peers as a Source of Sex Information as Illustrated
in Selected Studies from 1915 to 1977 .

Selected Characteristics of Research Subsample: Age
and Year in School . . . . . . . . .

Students' Perceptions of Parental Modeling

Students' Perceptions of Parental Expression of
Feelings

Students' Perceptions of Frequency of Parental
Demonstration of Affection . . . .

Students' Reported Contact with Parents .
Students' Perceptions of Parental Views on Sex

Students' Perceptions of Frequency of Parental Sexual
Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Students' Perceptions of Degree of Communication
Regarding Specific Parental Sexual Messages .

Students' Perceptions of Content of Parental Sexual
Messages: Three Factors . . . . . . . . . .

Students' Perceptions of Relationship with Parents
Students' Conceptualizations of Love

Students' Reported Levels of Sexual Behavior
Students' Reported Levels of Sexual Satisfaction

Factor Analysis of Indicators of Parental Sociali-
zation .

viii

Page

38

45

69

71

72

73
74

75

76

77

81
82
83
85

86

88

Table Page

17. Multiple Regression Analyses with Parent Relationship
as the Dependent Variable and Parental Affective
Modeling, Positive Sex Messages, Negative Sex Mes-
sages, and Students' Year in School as Independent
Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

18. Multiple Regression Analyses with Love as the
Dependent Variable and Parent Relationship,
Affective Modeling, Positive Sex Messages,
Negative Sex Messages, and Students' Year
in School as Independent Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

19. Multiple Regression Analyses with Lifetime Sexual
Behavior as the Dependent Variable and Parent
Relationship, Affective Modeling, Positive Sex
Messages, Negative Sex Messages, and Students'
Year in School as Independent Variables . . . . . . . . . . 97

20. Multiple Regression Analyses with Current Sexual
Behavior as the Dependent Variable and Parent
Relationship, Affective Modeling, Positive Sex
Messages, Negative Sex Messages, and Students'
Year in School as Independent Variables . . . . . . . . . . 98

21. Multiple Regression Analyses with Sexual Satisfaction
as the Dependent Variable and Love, Lifetime Sexual
Behavior, and Students' Year in School as Independent
Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

22. Multiple Regression Analyses with Sexual Satisfaction
as the Dependent Variable and Love, Current Sexual
Behavior, and Students' Year in School as Inde-

pendent Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
23. Zero-Order Correlations for Males (Females) . . . . . . . . . 110
C-1. Total Research Sample: Age and Year in School . . . . . . . . 161

C-2. Total Research Sample: Students' Perceptions of
Parental Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

C-3. Total Research Sample: Students' Perceptions of
Parental Expression of Feelings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

C-4. Total Research Sample: Students' Perceptions of
Frequency of Parental Demonstration of
Affection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

C-5. Total Research Sample: Students' Reported Contact with
Parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

ix

Table Page

C-6. Total Research Sample: Students' Perceptions of
Parental Views on Sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

C-7. Total Research Sample: Students' Perceptions of
Frequency of Parental Sexual Discussion . . . . . . . . . . 164

C-8. Total Research Sample: Students' Perceptions of
Content of Parental Sexual Messages: Three
Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

C-9. Total Research Sample: Students' Perceptions of
Relationship with Parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

C-lO. Total Research Sample: Students' Conceptualizations
of Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

C-ll. Total Research Sample: Students' Reported Levels
of Sexual Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

C-12. Total Research Sample: Students' Reported Levels
of Sexual Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

E-l. Students Reporting Being in Love or Not Being in
Love During Their First Intercourse Relationship
and Their Current/Most Recent Intercourse
Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure

1. Parental, Partner, and Peer Influence on Love, Sexual
Behavior, and Sexual Satisfaction .

2. Parental Influence on Love, Sexual Behavior, and
Sexual Satisfaction .

3. College Level Males and Females Reporting Premarital
Intercourse as Illustrated in Selected Studies .

4. Causal Diagram for the Hypothesized Model of Parental
Influence on Love, Sexual Behavior, and Sexual
Satisfaction

5. Path Analytic Model for Males of Parental Influence
on Love, Sexual Behavior, and Sexual Satisfaction .

6. Path Analytic Model for Females of Parental Influ-
ence on Love, Sexual Behavior, and Sexual Satis-
faction .

7. Final Path Analytic Model for Males of Parental
Influence on Love, Sexual Behavior, and Sexual
Satisfaction

8. Final Path Analytic Model for Females of Parental
Influence on Love, Sexual Behavior, and Sexual
Satisfaction

A-l College Level Males and Females Reporting Premarital

Intercourse as Illustrated in Selected Studies

xi

Page

21

22

32

104

111

112

113

114

154

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of Problem

 

A great deal of attention recently has been directed toward the
growing number of adolescents that are becoming involved in sexual
intercourse at progressively younger ages. Not only is there widespread
sexual activity within this group, but there is also considerable mis-
information about pregnancy risks, contraceptive use is poor, and there
are many unwanted pregnancies (Juhasz, 1976; Zelnik and Kantner, 1972,
1977). Since research suggests that intercourse is presently permis-
sible for some males and females in a relationship of love or affection,
coital behavior has become increasingly popular for many adolescents
and young adults (Carns, 1972; Komarovsky, 1976).

According to Gagnon and Simon (1973), sexual behavior is
scripted behavior which is shaped by social and cultural circumstances,
as well as by individual fantasies. Adolescent males who focus on
their perceptions of sexual scripts are relatively untrained in the
communications and actions of love, while adolescent females who are
committed to intimate love, are relatively untrained sexually. This
leads to the possibility that among adolescents who are just learning
the sexual scripts for heterosocial and heterosexual behavior, there
may be some confusion between sexuality and love. This new and aware

I

generation has sensed that prior ways of socializing love and sex have
been cheating them of intimacy, and rebellions against the "courting
system" have begun an "intimate revolution." However, despite an honest
effort, most of the rebels only manage to cultivate the outward semb-
lances of the intimacy they seek (Bach and Deutsch, 1973). Thus, in an
environment of changing social norms toward greater freedom for sexual
expression, more adolescents are attempting to explore intimate adult
behaviors resulting in increasing numbers of young persons partici-
pating in coitus at even younger ages (Miller and Simon, 1974; Vener

and Stewart, 1974).

The greater participation in coital activities by adolescents
is concurrent with an alarmingly high level of conception within this
segment of the population. While total fertility and birth rates of
American women have been declining over the past decade, these rates
have been gradually increasing for adolescent females, with the total
number of adolescent pregnancies exceeding one million per year
(Jorgenson, 1977; Zelnik and Kantner, 1978b). Not only are the dangers
to infant and maternal health greater for young mothers, but early
pregnancy is also associated with increasing school drop-out rates as
well as hasty decisions to marry, and can be a potential detriment to
the development of the human capital potential of both the young parent
and the infant (Furstenberg, 1976).

Children learn their most fundamental lessons about human
relationships within their families. Familial experiences profoundly
affect the capacity for intimacy; for communicating love and anger;
for sharing and withholding; for giving as well as taking; for accept-

ing or rejecting one's own sexuality and that of others; and for

participating in the entire range of human experiences from birth to
death (Chilman, 1978). Although the family can be looked to as the
primary socializer, educator, and developer of human resources in
children, its inability to meet all the needs of its offspring within
a complex technological society has resulted in the development of
various social and educational support systems (Leichter, 1974). While
the family plays a critical role in child rearing, society has also
been investing a significant part of its resources in providing assis-
tance to families that are unable, on their own, to assure their
children of a reasonable start in life or are in need of supplementary
assistance by educational institutions. This educational-training
system not only contributes to the development of children, but also
does much more. It takes over from the family a large part of the
socializing tasks by emphasizing societal norms, strengthening certain
behaviors, and reinforcing particular values (Ginzberg, 1976).

Another issue which evolves along with these changes is
whether sexual, contraceptive, and reproductive behavior is a private
or public issue. Human affairs remain private when the consequences
of an act by a person or group of people are confined mainly to the
person or group directly involved. In contrast, when the consequences
are recognized by others as having an effect upon society in general,
and there is an effort to influence these consequences, they become a
public affair ("What is Public Affairs," 1969). As such, the sexual
behaviors of adolescents go beyond the sexual interaction of the dyad
and affect their parents, resultant progeny, peers, educational systems,

health delivery systems, and societal support services.

Statement of Problem

 

Although the family does not perform all the child-rearing
functions that it once did, the family is still regarded as the primary
and crucial agent in a child's socialization (Elkin and Handel, 1978;
Leichter, 1974; Paolucci, 1977; Hess and Tourney, 1967). However, very
little research has dealt specifically with parental socialization of
attitudes, values, and feelings related to sexuality. The research
that has been done on parental influence in the area of sexual behavior
has focused primarily on knowledge aspects of sexual activities and
contraceptive practices and has indicated that parents are not major
sources of sexual information (Thompson and Spanier, 1978; Finkel and
Finkel, 1975; Vincent and Stelling, 1973; Gebhard, 1977; Thornberg,
1972; Spanier, 1976, 1977). These studies indicate the stronger influ-
ence of peers.

A related component of the problem results from the accelerating
social changes that seem to have made people even more concerned with
love and intimacy than they were in previous decades (Skolnick, 1978).
This social-psychological phenomenon is evidenced by the numerous
books on intimate relationships that are being written in an attempt
to help individuals deal with the eroding bonds that used to tie them
together (Davis, 1973). Why is intimate love so important? Because
what men and women seek from love today is no longer a romantic luxury;
it is an essential element of emotional survival--the hOpe of finding
in intimate love something of personal validity, personal relevance,
and personal confirmation of one's existence. In today's world, when

people are made to feel faceless, as numbers on a list, they want

intimate love to provide the feelings of worth and identity that will
preserve sanity and meaning (Bach and Deutsch, 1973).

Intimate love evolves from a close personal relationship which
integrates deep affection, love, and sexual satisfaction. Sexual
satisfaction is more than the number and quality of climaxes, frequency
of coitus, positions assumed, or techniques used; it is an affirmation
of love (McCary, 1978). Sexual satisfaction is often, but not neces-
sarily, closely and complexly intertwined with relational satisfaction.
A person's sex interest and responsiveness are directly related to
partner sexual satisfaction, which, in turn, may contribute to rela-
tional satisfaction (Udry, 1968). Consequently, the study of intimate
relationships and sexual satisfaction may, according to Rubin (1977,

p. 59), "make a positive contribution to the quality of life" at a time
when rapid changes in attitudes and behaviors concerning sex and love
have caused great confusion.

In general, research studies on adolescent sexuality tend to
either explore who does what, with whom, how and when, or to focus on
such topics as contraceptive use, pregnancy, abortions, and the
legitimacy or illegitimacy of children (Chilman, 1978). This narrow
view imposes severe limitations on the many meanings of intimacy and
sexuality. Not only are such views too limited from a humane perspec—
tive, but they also stifle the understanding of the causes and conse-
quences of these sexual behaviors. In addition, very few of the inves-
tigations have explored the consequences of sexual behavior on per-
ceived life satisfactions or human happiness, and almost no study has
asked about the psychological relationship between sex and love

(Chilman, 1978). Love, which is a highly prized youth value, is also,

for some individuals, a prerequisite for sex (Yankelovich, 1974; Otto,
1972; King and Sobel, 1975). While a few social scientists (Ellis,
1973; Slater, 1977; Greenwald, 1971) believe that love and sex are
independent and, to some degree, unrelated functions, others (McCary,
1978; Kirkendall and Anderson, 1973; Lowen, 1972; Bach and Deutsch,
1970; Fromme, 1965) propose that love increases the pleasure of sex
and that sex is an expression of love. The love received by a child
in his/her early years can be a powerful influence in shaping his/her
later feelings and concepts of love. Out of a child's experiences of
parental love evolve later feelings of self and reactions to the world
(Fromme, 1965; Harlow, 1971). Thus, the family plays an important role
in giving the child a capacity to give, receive, and share love.

Hence, the convergence of these multiple reasons has stimulated
the need for this investigation. Not only has there been an increase
in the number of young adolescents involved in sexual intercourse, an
acceleration in the birth rates among teenagers, a questioning of pri-
vate versus public domain, and a quest for personal relevance through
intimate relationships and sexual satisfaction, but there has also
been a lack of research concerning the impact of parents on the social-
psychological elements of intimacy, love, and sexuality. It is this
lack of knowledge regarding the influence of parents and the roles
they play in the socialization of love, sexual satisfaction, and
intimacy in their children that has resulted in confusion for families,

educators, and policy makers.

Conceptual Approach

 

The family can be regarded as the first and most important
socialization agent. According to Elkin and Handel (1978), sociali-
zation can be defined as the process by which the ways of a given
society or social group are learned so that one may function within it.
In general, learning involves developmental change within the individ-
ual which sometimes evolves through teaching, entails communication,
and occurs within emotionally significant relationships.

The family encompasses emotionally significant relationships
and is both a major component in a child's socialization and an
important element in a child's development and education. While the
use of these terms involves some similarities, there are also some
differences: (1) socialization is generally concerned with the pro-
cesses by which persons acquire the ability to participate in society
and includes enculturation, whereby individuals learn the ways of a
particular culture; (2) development of humans considers the time dimen-
sion of change and growth; and (3) education entails those processes
used to assist and/or enhance the learning of skills, knowledge, and
other life tasks of one person by another. Thus, family members edu-
cate one another consciously and unconsciously, and can be considered
as both teachers and learners (Paolucci, 1977).

Since the experiences of children have often been dichotomized
under the concepts of socialization and education, there has been a
tendency to call attention to the family as the agent of socialization,
but not education, and make the school the agent of education, but not
socialization. The conceptual void and discontinuities between these

concepts have resulted in a narrow perspective of families (Leichter,

1974). Consequently, the conceptual approach utilized in this investi-
gation will employ a broad view of the family as an environment in
which both socialization and education occur to effect the development

of human resources either explicitly or implicitly.

Parents as Socializers and Educators

 

Primary socialization within the family entails demands upon
parents and upon offspring with effort required from each if the child
is to achieve the levels of control, skill, orientation, and need
satisfaction which will permit him/her to participate with others who
are outside the family in a broader social environment (Clausen, 1974).
Socialization can, therefore, be conceptualized as an intergenerational
transmission of culture through acquisition of impulse control and role
learning for social participation. These socio-cultural influences
impact on the early experiences of the individual (1) through family
structure which determines the nature of the child's earliest inter-
personal experiences, but which in turn is affected by the broader
social system with which it is integrated, and (2) through parental
mediation in which parents consciously and unconsciously train their
children for successful adaptation to a changing social order (Levine,
1973).

Socialization within the family can be conceptualized as both
"process and product, i.e., a concern for interactional processes and
sequences among family members, as well as the effects of this inter-
action upon the self-system of the interactants" (Weigert, Thomas, and
Gecas, 1972, p. 2). Socialization can, therefore, be viewed as the

residue of interaction, with each interaction episode leaving its

residual in the conceptions of self and other. The formation, modifi-
cation, reinforcement, and elaboration of these conceptions is the
essence of the socialization process (Turner, 1970).

The family is the arena in which the earliest and usually most
intensive socializing interactions take place. Although the majority
of socialization that occurs is unplanned, inadvertent, and a by-product
of activities that serve other purposes, the family is also a place of
deliberate socialization designed to bring about desired outcomes.
Adults and sometimes older siblings consciously attempt to socialize
children, while the children understand that it is socially expected
that they should accept and cooperate with these socialization efforts.
However, many socializing influences are not under parental control.
When parent and child perspectives become divergent, the child may
respond with resistance, but even though social efforts appear ineffec-
tive, private acceptance of the socialization messages can occur in
conjunction with overt noncompliance (Turner, 1970).

Through the years the family environment has been the primary
setting for family members to learn basic life tasks. The family
organizes and uses various resources such as materials, time, labor,
talents, skills and space to achieve its particularistic set of goals.
Some of these resources are invested in the development of the human
resources of its members, so they can become productive and self-
fulfilled persons (Paolucci, 1977). Human resources are those physical,
psychological, social, cultural and economic attributes which an
individual possesses in order to fulfill his/her varying roles (Liston,
1974). It is not the sum total of these attributes that is so signifi-

cant, but their unique integration or interaction as they pertain to

10

the achievement of some goal that the person wishes to attain. The
family environment constitutes the primary input system for the develop-
ment of an individual's human resources by facilitating direct transfers
and exchanges of goods and services while integrating the content of
societal norms and values (Paolucci, 1977).

The moment-to—moment process of education within the family and
the general processes by which the family mediates educational experi-
ences gained elsewhere have received little attention in the recent
literature (Leichter, 1974). The emphasis in the literature on the
family and other systems varies with the state of the individual's
life cycle. The family is seen as the central arena of education for
the very young child, while for older children the focus shifts to the
school. For adults the focus shifts to their professions or occupations.
Yet, as the life cycle progresses, multiple arenas of education co-exist
with the family which provides a base where one can appraise, evaluate,
and understand or twist, magnify, or ignore his/her everyday experiences.

Parental socialization and education of children, whether
deliberate or inadvertent, can be conceptualized as occurring through
three interrelated processes: interaction, modeling, and social exchange.
These three processes occur simultaneously in the ongoing everyday

activities of family life.

Interaction. Socialization entails a continuing interaction

 

between the individual and those persons who influence him or her. An
interaction episode begins with a gesture made by one person. Gesture
is used in a broad sense to mean any behavior that can be assigned

some meaning by the actor and observer and can range from a subtle body

11

posture to a carefully delivered lecture (Mead, 1934). The succession
of such gestures, each of which is interpreted as the basis for a
response, comprises the interaction sequence. Since socialization is
a cumulative residue of interaction episodes, each episode is marked by
a mutual testing for the response of the other and may be followed by a
period of reassessment. Some of the residues of family interaction
include:
1. Learning the family culture or a family's patterns, standards,
and ways of interacting.
2. Learning responses to the frustrations and gratifications of
various impulses.
3. Learning effective adaptations to environmental situations.
4. Learning an integrative framework by which to determine assigned
meanings of experiences including values, motives, sentiments,
and their symbolic transmission (Turner, 1970).
Within the family, interaction is both intimate and intense.
Parents and children communicate not only intellectually by exchanging
ideas, judgements, and sentiments, but also emotionally so that factual
messages may be filled with love or hate. In addition, much of the
communication in the family is nonverbal based on an intimate knowledge
of what a smile, hug, grunt, or sigh means. Thus, in the most intimate
moments of family life, words can become superfluous (Shipman, 1972).
Waring (1939), whose classic bulletin has not been changed sub-
stantially since the 19305, discussed some of the interactional pro-
cesses by which parents become the critical educators and developers
(If human resources. She suggested that approval fosters values, help

stimulates abilities, respect encourages self respect, and affection

12

gives security. These interactional guidelines were outlined for
parents who wanted to provide learning experiences for children which
would facilitate their development into happy, healthy, and well-
adjusted adults.

According to Shaefer (1972), the family is an important educa-
tional institution for family members from birth to maturity. Ten
characteristics of parental interaction with the child are suggested
as having a cumulative impact on the child's development:

Priority--Parents influence the early development of relationships,
language, interests, and task-oriented behaviors.

Duration--The parent's interactions with the child usually extend
from birth to maturity.

Continuity--Prolonged separations of parent and child are rare.

Amount--The total amount of time spent in parent-child interaction
tends to be greater than between the child and other adults.

Extensity--Parents share more different situations and experiences
with the child than do other adults.

Intensity--The degree of involvement between parent and child is
usually more intense than between the child and other adults.

Pervasiveness--The parent influences the child's contacts with
other persons and institutions and controls the child's access
to society and society's access to the child.

Consistency--Parents develop consistent patterns of behavior with
their children.

Responsibility--Both society and parents recognize the parent's

primary responsibility for the child's welfare and development.

13

Variability--Great variability exists in parental care of children,
from the extremes of parental acceptance, involvement, and
stimulation to the extremes of parental neglect and abuse
(Schaefer, 1972, p. 28).

The cumulative effect of these interaction characteristics is of pri-

mary importance when viewing the family as an educator.

Modeling. Children learn by watching others. Thus, the con-
tagious behavior of others results in a child taking on the actions of
a model without visible inducement or compulsion; no candy, smile, or
discomfort is needed for persuasion. While a reinforcement paradigm
requires waiting for the behavior to appear before reinforcing it,
modeling provides a means for bringing about a behavior pattern which
might otherwise not occur. Modeling also goes beyond imitation by
employing the adoption of behaviors which are symbolic equivalents of
the model's behavior. Although many of the particular acts exhibited
by an individual are identical with those of the model, many others
are not. However, they express the same mood. Consequently, modeling
can be defined as the acquisition and performance by a subject of an
act concretely or symbolically similar to that previously exhibited by
a model (Bronfenbrenner, 1970).

Three factors affect the modeling process: the characteristics
of the subject, the characteristics of the stimulus act, and the
characteristics of the model. The first factor is concerned with an
individual's ability to perceive the stimulus act and to become moti-
vated or interested in observing the model, learning the observed

behavior, and performing that behavior. The characteristics of the

14

stimulus act constitute the second factor which focuses on the breakdown

of complex sequences of behavior into smaller components so that the

total behavior may be learned more readily.

The factor which has the greatest potential for influencing

the modeling process concerns the characteristics of the model.

Specifically:

1.

The potency of the model increases with the extent to which
the model is perceived as possessing a high degree of com-
petence, status, and control over resources.

The inductive power of the model increases with the degree of
prior nurturance or reward exhibited by the model.

The most influential models for the child are those who are

the major source of support in his/her environment and who

play a prominent role in everyday life.

The inductive power of the model increases with the degree to
which the person perceives the model as similar to him/herself.
Several models exhibiting similar behavior are more powerful
inducers of change than a single model.

The potency of the model is enhanced when the behavior exhibited
is a salient feature in the actions of a group to which the
child already belongs or aspires to belong.

The power of the model to induce actual performance is strongly
influenced by the observed consequences of the exhibited
behavior for the model (Bronfenbrenner, 1970, pp. 132-134).

Parent models play a central role in children's social develop-

ment since children have many opportunities to observe and imitate

their parents in daily activities. Such observational learning may

15

lead children to share their parents' values, attitudes, and character-
istic response styles, and although other adults and children may also
provide models for imitation, parents are probably the most influential.
While a certain amount of socialization takes place through direct
training, personality patterns are acquired through a child's active
modeling of parental attitudes and behaviors. Even though most of
these attitudes and behaviors have never been intentionally taught by
parents, parental modeling may often counteract the effects of direct
training (Bandura, 1969). Thus, as the most powerful models for the
child, parents and other intimate associates can become the most impor-
tant potential agents for establishing patterns and bringing about

change in the child's behavior (Bronfenbrenner, 1970).

Social Exchange. Embedded within the socialization and educa-

 

tion processes of interaction and modeling is social exchange. Social
exchange represents a general perspective of human behavior which
allows for an analysis of interpersonal relationships based on what
each member of the dyad exchanges with the other. The basic premise
is that humans form interpersonal relationships in the light of bene-
fits, costs, or profits expected from such associations (Thiabaut and
Kelley, 1959; Homans, 1971, 1974; Blau, 1964). According to Homans
(1961, p. 62) "the open secret of human exchange is to give the other
man behavior that is more valuable to him than it is costly to you,
and to get from him behavior that is more valuable to you than it is
costly to him."

The ability to exchange is learned and begins at the time of

conception. According to Kersten (1978) people pass through five

16

developmental stages of exchange that build upon one another, although
individuals may differ in the rapidity of their progress through these
stages, as well as in their other ultimate levels of deve10pment.
Around the age of eighteen, the individual begins to exchange as an
adult, but how a person exchanges can vary greatly depending upon early
childhood nurturance and the positive and negative rewards received
throughout childhood. Thus, learning to exchange is a developmental
process involving the interaction of biological, cultural, social, and
psychological factors.

Foa and Foa (1974) also focus on the developmental nature of
exchanges in interpersonal relationships by examining various aspects
of social cognition. Development is seen as a process of differenti-
ation and generalization of social actions which is similar to Piaget's
conceptualization of cognitive events. Initially, differentiations
are linked to the mode or direction of exchange composed of the two
elements--acceptance, or giving, and rejection, or taking away. Sub-
sequent dimensions of differentiations include distinguishing between
self and other, as well as the recipient of the behavior and six classes
of interpersonal resources which include love, status, information,
money, goods, and services.

Transactional resources in the family setting are seldom clear-
cut due to the informality of family behavior. Conversely, exchanges
in a highly structured and formal social setting, such as a bureau-
cracy, are comprised of a number of well-defined resources including
specialized skills, knowledge, or power. As a result, one of the more
difficult conceptual problems of family social exchange pertains to

what is actually exchanged (Edwards, 1969). Family exchanges are based

17

on the assumption that what is given does not necessarily have to be
returned in kind. In family social exchanges substitutions are fre-
quently made so that money may be given in order to earn respect or a
service may be rendered in order to insure continued love. Social
exchanges can often be rewarding in and of themselves, irrespective of
the resources gained from the exchange (Traupman, 1976). Individuals
can have altruistic motivations toward their exchanges and, therefore,
the givers receive positive feelings about themselves as loving parents
or children.

According to Murstein, Cerrato and MacDonald (1977), a preoc-
cupation with equity of exchange may even be negatively associated with
satisfaction in an interpersonal relationship, depending on the nature
of the relationship. While interpersonal exchanges and friendship are
positively related, marriage relationships based on an intense concern
with equity are negatively related to marital adjustment. Thus, the
informality of attitudes toward exchange within family environments is
related to higher quality interpersonal relationships.

Another element in familial exchange transactions is the assump-
tion that it is possible for persons to build up equity in a relation-
ship so exchanges equalize over an extended period of time. What is
important is not necessarily who exchanges the most resources at a
given time, but how both participants perceive their cost/benefit
ratio over time. This concept is an important factor in parent-child
relations which generally last a lifetime (Spakes, 1978).

The third assumption of the social exchange approach focuses on
the qualitative aspects of the exchange, as well as the quantitative

aspects. While the amount of resources exchanged has traditionally

18

received primary consideration, the addition of the qualitative per-
spective integrates the meaning of these resources to the persons
involved (Spakes, 1978).

Since exchanges do not take place in a vacuum, there is a social
context to the exchange relationship. This fourth assumption recognizes
the critical factor of social sanctions on behavior. Social sanctions
discourage individuals from forgetting their obligations; therefore,
the social context of interaction, cultural understandings, and specific
norms about reciprocity plays an important role in shaping exchange
behavior. The adherence to group norms, in conjunction with the value
of consistently acting with them, contributes to the complexity, mean-
ing, and value of the exchange.

The emergent quality of a social exchange or successive
exchanges has been a primary concern among social exchange theorists.
While Murstein, Cerrato, and MacDonald (1977) related exchange to
friendship intensity and satisfaction with interpersonal relationships,
Altman and Taylor (1973) viewed social penetration or intimacy as the
result of social exchange. They suggested that exchanges in interper-
sonal relations gradually progress from superficial nonintimate areas
to more intimate and deeper layers of the self. With rewarding
encounters, new areas of personality become accessible and more intimate
exchanges develop along with a greater volume of interaction.

Although every interaction has components of feeling, the family
is distinctive in the part played by organized sentiments called love.
The cultural patterns of love are taught by both admonition and example
which require that the learner become familiar with the appropriate

behavior and the situations to which it is applicable, as well as learn

19

to identify certain internal sensations as indicators of love. Master-
ing the cultural forms of love, however, does not guarantee the ability
to give and receive love effectively. Exchange of love sentiments
involves intimacy which is often taken as a euphemism for sexual inter-
course. If intimacy is the mutual penetration beyond the public layers
of the self into the most private and sensitive core, then intimacy
means that the sex act, as a physiological expression, is subordinate
to its personal and social meaning. Therefore, the sexual act becomes
a symbolic exchange of sentiments of love, as well as a vital and com-
prehensive bonding experience (Turner, 1970).

Traupman's (1976) focus on equity considerations in intimate
relationships proposes that individuals in equitable relationships
feel more love and less resentment in their relationships which will
result in their feeling happier and more satisfied. Whether these
close relationships and resultant intimacies are dyadic or familial,
they are perceived as indicators of the social quality of life. As
such, these close and satisfying family relationships contribute
significantly to overall life satisfaction (Campbell, Converse, and
Rodgers, 1976). Thus, according to Leichter (1974) the family can be
viewed as an arena in which virtually the entire range of human experi-
ences can take place. Violence, love, tenderness, honesty, deceit,
sharing, power, and decision making can all be found within the family
setting embedded in a variety of socialization and educational
encounters, ranging from conscious instruction to modeling, inter-

action, and exchange influences at the margins of awareness.

20

A Proposed Model of Parental Influence
on Love, Sexual Behavior, and
Sexual Satisfaction

 

 

The proposed model of parental influence on love, sexual behavior,
and sexual satisfaction attempts to incorporate indicators of parental
socialization as a manifestation of close parental relationships which
influence student conceptualizations of love, levels of sexual behavior,
and perceptions of sexual satisfaction. Since it is recognized that
intimate relationships result from human interactions and exchanges in
a variety of social settings, the model in Figure 1 depicts a broad
range of social relationships involved in the deve10pment of perceived
intimacy. Hence, this model encompasses the socialization influences
of parents, partners, and peers as they all relate to the resulting
intimacy indicated by the individual's conceptualizations of love,
sexual behavior, and sexual satisfaction.

A variety of socio-cultural norms and values affect the social-
ization of intimacy in children and young adults. Although the peer
group is recognized as one of the major influences in the sexual social-
ization of young adults, the purpose of this study is to focus specif-
ically on parental influence which could be obscured by including the
peer component. The model in Figure 2 will be utilized to focus
specifically on the extent of parental influence on intimacy by examin-
ing conceptualizations of love, sexual behavior, and sexual satisfaction
of adult children. Figure 2 incorporates various indicators of parental
socialization which have resulted from the combined effect of inter-
action, modeling, and social exchange processes. These indicators
include parental modeling, expression of feelings, demonstration of

affection, contact, discussion of sex, sexual messages, and expression

 

Parental
Socialization
Influences

 

 

 

 

Partner
Socialization
influences

 

 

 

 

Peer
Socialization
Influences

 

 

 

Figure 1 . Parental, Partner, and Peer Influence on Love, Sexual Behavior, and

21

 

 

Love

 

 

-_—-q

 

 

Sexual
Behavior

 

 

Sexual Satisfaction

 

 

Sexual
Satisfaction

 

 

22

Indicators of Parental Socialization

 

[ mu... J..-

[ Expression

 

Feelings

 

 

J
°‘"‘°""‘°"j-

 

 

 

:L _._._.L_..__._:_.__....'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Affection
Contact
“I
~ I
Sexual _ _|
Views 1
l
Sexual _ _|
Discussion 1
, l
Sexual _ J
Messages

 

 

up.

Parent
elationship

J

 

Behavior

 

3-!

Sexual
Satisfaction

Figure 2. Parental influence on Love, Sexual Behavior, and Sexual Satisfaction

J

23

of sexual views. Although this investigation is based on current per-
ceptions of parental socialization influences and relationships, as
well as current conceptualizations of love, sexual behavior, and sexual
satisfaction, these concepts are the cumulative result of a develop-
mental process of socialization and education.

Parental socialization as indicated by an integration of inter-
action, modeling, and social exchange processes contributes to the
student's perception of the quality of the relationship with his/her
parents. The perceived quality of this relationship is not only an
indication of the level of satisfaction with the relationship, but is
also assumed to influence conceptualizations of love which can then
affect the student's sexual satisfaction. Degree of sexual satisfaction
is perceived as a measure of received rewards in one's sex life. The
proposed model conceptualizes satisfaction with one's sex life as
resulting from the interaction of several factors including parental
socialization influences, relationships with parents, and conceptual-

ization of love within the context of one's sexual behavior.

Purpgse and Objectives

 

The overall purpose of this study is to investigate how the
parent-child relationship influences intimacy by examining conceptual-
izations of love, sexual behavior, and sexual satisfaction among never-
lnarried college students. Specifically, the objectives of this study
incflude the investigation of the following research questions:

1. To what extent are indicators of parent-child socialization
related to'a student's perception of the relationship with

his/her parents?

24

2. To what extent are parental socialization and the relationship
between the student and his/her parents related to developmental
levels of student conceptualizations of love?

3. To what extent are parental socialization and the relationship
between the student and his/her parents related to levels of
student sexual behavior?

4. To what extent are developmental levels of student conceptual-
izations of love related to the degree of satisfaction with
one's sex life, while controlling for level of sexual behavior?

5. To what extent can the relationships among the variables be
summarized and explained by the proposed model of parental

influence on love, sexual behavior, and sexual satisfaction?

Definitions

 

Child: A male or female offspring, without any age distinctions.

Adolescent: A male or female individual within a period of life

 

between puberty and maturity, ranging from approximately thirteen to
nineteen. This age span is indicative and inclusive of the various
age ranges utilized by researchers investigating adolescents.

Indicators of Parental Socialization: Variables which serve as indices

 

of the contribution of modeling, interaction, and social exchange to
the parent—child relationship.
Modeling: The student's perception of regard or esteem for his/her
parent by the response to a question asking how much the student
would "want to become the kind of person the mother/father is."

This perception will be assumed to indicate a child's desire for

25

emulation of his/her parents based on the characteristics of the
parent models as competent, nurturant, and supportive.

Expression of Feeling; The student's perception of parental ability

 

to express feelings. The use of this indicator assumes that
expression of feelings signifies interaction in a trusting environ-
ment in which intimate exchanges can occur.

Demonstration of Affection: The student's perception of the fre-

 

quency of parental demonstration of affection for each other. The
use of this indicator assumes that parents are role models for the
demonstration of affection.

Contact: The amount of parent-child contact based on the number of
times a student went home in a quarter, the number of times a
student called home in a month, and the number of times the student
wrote home during the last month. The use of this indicator assumes
that contacts and time spent with parents are conditions that
facilitate the socialization processes of modeling, interaction,

and resource exchange.

Sexual Views: The student's perception of the liberality or con-

 

servativeness of parental views on sex based on the response to a
question on how the student would characterize the parent's view-
point on sex. The use of this indicator assumes that parental
value positions on sex can influence the intimate orientations of
their children.

Sexual Discussion: The student's perception of the frequency of

 

sexual messages received from his/her parents, based on the
response to a question concerning how often sex was the subject of

general family conversation.

26

Sexual Messages: The student's perception of the kinds of things

 

his/her parents communicated about sex. These messages may have
been communicated directly by talking to the student or indirectly,
either through what was said about the behavior of others or through
the way parents acted towards the student or other people. It is
assumed that parental communications about sex will reflect parental
attitudes toward sex.

Parental Relationship: The student's perception of how well he/she got

 

along with parents during the last two years of high school, in con-
junction with current perceptions of the relationship as having no
change or having become better or worse. It is assumed that a measure
of the quality of the parental relationship will be an indicator of the
degree of cumulative satisfaction with prior interaction, modeling, and
social exchanges between the parents and the child.

£213: The student's conceptualization of love, which was secured
through an open-ended question on what love means to the student now
and coded according to the three-level developmental schema: (1) a
getting relationship, (2) a giving relationship, and (3) a sharing
relationship (Appendix D). It is assumed that the quality of parent-
child interactions and exchanges will reflect orientations toward
intimacy that will be manifested in varying developmental levels of
conceptualizing love.

Sexual Behavior: The measure of a student's reported level of most

 

intimate sexual behavior, ranging from no dating, dating with no
physical relationship, kissing, light petting, and heavy petting, to

intercourse. Sexual behavior will also be measured in terms of a

27

student's current involvement in intercourse, past involvement in inter-
course, and noninvolvement in intercourse.

Sexual Satisfaction: The student's perception of the degree of sexual

 

satisfaction by virtue of a response to the question, "In general, how
satisfied are you with your sex life?" It is assumed that sexual satis-
faction is an indicator of perceived rewards which have evolved from
parental and other socialization influences and familial interaction

and exchange orientations toward the development of love and intimacy.

Assumptions

 

In addition to the assumptions that relate to the variables,
the general assumptions involved in this study include:

1. Parental socialization and education of children involves the
processes of interaction, modeling, and social exchange.

2. Exchanges in these three processes are not necessarily equitable
or reciprocal with regard to the specific resource transferred
and the immediacy of the time frame.

3. Indicators of parental socialization and education can have
both quantitative and qualitative dimensions.

4. Quantity and quality of parental socialization and education
influences affect intimate interpersonal relationships both
within the family and within other close relationships.

5. Socialization and education of children by their parents occur
in a milieu of social sanctions on behavior and competitive

social relationships.

28

6. Perceptions of satisfaction with one's sex life are comprised
of an integration of sexual behavior and feelings of intimacy
and love.

7. Indicators of parental socialization, as perceived by the
respondents, contribute to the quality of parent-child relation-
ships and denote the satisfaction with the reciprocal nature
of interaction between parent and child.

8. Respondents have accurately reported the objective data, as

well as their perceptions regarding subjective data.

Statement of Limitations

 

This study is based upon a secondary analysis of a limited
portion of an investigation whose overall purpose was to determine the
factors that affect the sexual behavior and contraceptive use of never-
married college students. The original study was not designed for
the specific objectives of this analysis, and, consequently, results
can only be used in an exploratory manner to provide: (1) an indication
of parental influence on intimacy, (2) a direction for further develop-
ment of the research model, and (3) a guide for continued research
efforts on this topic.

Since the data collection instrument was developed within the
perspective of Lewinian field theory and reference groups, and not
parental interaction, modeling, and social exchange, the questions are
not specifically directed to these processes as they relate to parents
and children. There are also no consistent measures to distinguish
between both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of parent social-

ization and education, since some indicators are measured in terms of

29

quantity, while others are measured in terms of quality. In addition,
the original research design did not include a method of gaining
information regarding parental perceptions of parent socialization
influences on parent-child relationships; thus, a comparison between

parental and respondent perceptions cannot be made.

CHAPTER 11

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The research related to this study is organized into five cate-
gories. The first section, changing trends in sexual behavior, con-
tains an investigation of trends in sexual activities and attitudes,
and the second section presents an overview of the sexual behavior of
never-married adults. A review of the relationship of parents to their
children as sexual socializers constitutes the third section. The
fourth section examines love and intimacy; the fifth section integrates

these two concepts into a discussion of sexual satisfaction.

Changing Trends in Sexual Behavior

 

Since the mid 19605, research in the area of human sexual behav-
ior has become increasingly popular, contributing to the ongoing debate
about the existence or nonexistence of the so-called "sexual revolution."
According to McCary (1978), how can the occurrence of a sexual revolution
be accepted when sexual ignorance and anxiety have not appreciably
lessened? In contrast, others say that current levels of sexual
interest and sexual activity have so changed that a true sexual revolu-
tion or sexual renaissance does exist (Croak and James, 1973; Otto,
1971). These perceptual differences evolve because of various qualities

that are used to characterize the sexual revolution. According to

30

31

Webster's New World Dictionary (Guralnik, 1976), a revolution is a

 

sudden, complete, or radical change. However, in order to determine

the existence of such a revolution, the concept must be Operationally
defined by examining either behavioral changes such as coital rates;
attitudinal changes such as feelings about virginity; promiscuity versus
affectional interpersonal relationships; or subsequent emotions of
pleasure, guilt, or immorality.

Evidence of changing coital rates is depicted in Figure 3,
which indicates the increasing involvement of males and females in pre-
marital intercourse (adapted from Haeck, 1974, with modifications from
Kinsey, 1948; Chilman, 1978; Darling, 1976). This diagram portrays the
resulting coital rates from thirty selected studies which generally
are focused on college-age populations and are reported by the year of
data collection and not publication (Appendix A). This method of
arranging research findings was chosen since the time lapse between
these two dates could allow for a misinterpretation of sexual behavior
trends.

Figure 3 clearly shows the wide variation of male and female
coital rates from the early 19005 to the mid 19605 and the sharp rate
of increase during 1968 to 1976. This increase has been considerably
greater for females, and therefore, a convergence of male and female
rates is definitely evident. For example, in 1972, Bauman and Wilson
(1974) reported a 73 percent coital rate for both males and females,
while in 1973, Jessor and Jessor (1975) found the coital rate for senior
males to be 82 percent and coital rate for senior females to be 85

percent. Such similarities between rates did not exist from the early

32

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33

19005 to the late 19605, but have become increasingly reported during
the 19705.

Convergence is not only occurring in coital involvement, but
also in an adherence to an affectional commitment within coitus (Lewis
and Burr, 1975; King and Sobel, 1975; Juhasz, 1976). While intercourse
within an affectional relationship used to be more predominant for
females, now both males and females are reporting coital involvement
within a social and emotional context of love. Thus, there is evidence
of a convergence between males and females of both coital participation
rates and attitudes of commitment and affection during coitus (Miller
and Simon, 1974).

Other attitudinal changes are reported by Guttmacher and Vadies
(1972), who found that for both male and female college students the
importance of virginity has declined. While virginity is no longer an
important criterion for social approval, sincerity and loyalty in inter-
personal relationships are currently given high social ratings. King
and Sobel (1975) concur, stating that the concept of a sexual revolu-
tion characterized by impersonal relationships and promiscuity is con-
tradicted by data which indicate that most student sexual activity
occurs in the context of an intimate relationship with another person.

Robinson, King, and Balswick (1972) also investigated changes
that might have occurred in both premarital sexual behavior and sexual
attitudes during a five year period (1965-1970). The most radical
change they found was that in 1965, 70 percent of the female respondents
felt premarital intercourse was immoral, while in 1970 only 34 percent
of the females reported this attitude. Robinson 32 El: (1972) found

that male sexual behaviors have remained relatively constant since the

34

19405, while a noticeable liberalizing change has occurred in both
female sexual behaviors and attitudes. Carns (1973) supports this con-
cept and suggests that the revolution has primarily taken place in
female sexual consciousness. LoPiccolo (1973) adds a further dimension
from his study of the perceived and real differences in the sexual
values of mothers and daughters. He found that the notion of a sexual
revolution might be a result of differing generational opinions of the
appropriateness of certain sexual behaviors.

Closely tied to behavioral and attitudinal changes in sexuality
is the issue concerning the current status of the "double sexual
standard." In order to clarify previous thought regarding the double
sexual standard, Reiss' interpretation of its meaning is noted as
follows (1955, p. 226):

Premarital sexual intercourse is wrong for all women; women that
indulge are, therefore, bad women. Premarital sexual intercourse
is excusable (if not right) for all men and thus men that indulge
are not thereby bad men.
In addition, Reiss' discussion of hypothesized characteristics of the
standard proposed that from the male point of view, a double standard
of premarital intercourse encourages sexual relations in outside
groups; requires virginity in one's own group; and encourages elimi-
nating virginity with one's premarital female acquaintances. These
characteristics result in a variance with American society's value of
justice; interfere with a mutually satisfying sexual adjustment in
marriage; and are incompatible with many vital aspects of our social
structure.

Although Reiss' propositions were formulated some years ago,

there is still evidence of the continued existence of the double sexual

35

standard. Needle (1975) found that men were less likely than women to
have affection for their first coital partner and were less likely to
have coitus again with their first partner. Fifty-three percent of the
males had their first intercourse with a partner for whom they had
little or no affection, while this was true for only 10.7 percent of
the females.

In contrast, several social scientists have concluded that pre-
marital sexual behavior is becoming more permissive, especially among
women (Kaats and Davis, 1970; Robinson, King and Balswick, 1972; Reiss,
1967). For example, Bauman and Wilson (1976) found that both males
and females were less likely to report being affected by the double
sexual standard than in the past. This attitude was attributed to an
increased rebelliousness toward societal problems and institutions
among university students in the mid 19605, which resulted in improved
contraceptive services offered by universities and public agencies and
increased numbers of colleges which now offer courses on human sexual-
ity. Thus, the double standard appears to have developed into a stan-
dard of permissiveness within a context of affection and equality.

The actual demise of the double standard is not an easy trend
to substantiate, however, because of problems in measuring internal
beliefs, external behaviors, and comparisons between public versus
private practices and rhetoric. With the emergence of an increasing
equalitarian awareness by both males and females, self reports on
belief and adherence to the double standard have questionable validity,
since respondents may have become conditioned to socially appropriate
statements (Bauman and Wilson, 1976). Consequently, any change that

may be occurring in the double standard would be difficult to validate.

36

In summary, it is evident that a considerable change has occurred not
only in the proportion of young adults who have engaged in sexual
intercourse, but also in social and personal attitudes.

Two articles written during the 19605 and 19705 have demon-
strated that social norms related to sex have changed over the years
(Lewis and Brisset, 1967; Brisset and Lewis, 1979). The earlier analy-
sis revealed that sex was treated as work, which was probably the con-
sequence of an American need to justify play and resolve the contra-
dictory values of work for work's sake and pleasure for pleasure's
sake. The more recent analysis reflects certain changes in the American
consciousness over the last decade by conveying a more rational-
intellectual preoccupation with sexual variation. It also appears that
sexuality has become exalted and that one's sex life will help transcend
the dreariness and alienating experiences found in contemporary society.
When sex is characterized as play, there is also the implicit pre-
scription that every man and woman should participate in sexual play.
Thus, there is some evidence that social and cultural norms regarding
sex have changed over the last decade from an orientation toward work
to one of play and games.

Hence, to many Americans the liberalization of sexual attitudes
has meant the freedom to enjoy all the parts of the body; to employ
caresses previously forbidden by civil or religious edicts and tradi-
tions; and to become sensuous and exuberant rather than perfunctory and
solemn, as long as these feelings are in the framework of a meaningful
relationship (Hunt, 1974). These new feelings of being venturesome
have led to an attitude of experimentalism and willingness to try

something new, as well as to an open verbal expressiveness about many

37

aspects of human sexuality both in interpersonal and media communica-
tions (Otto, 1971). Interpersonal relationships have also become more
equalitarian within a context of affection which has led to more equi-
table standards of permissiveness. Thus, within the milieu of experi-
encing love, caring, and equality in interpersonal relationships, the
synthesis of love and affection has enabled sexuality to begin to shed

its heritage of guilt and shame.

Sexual Behavior of Never-Married Adults

 

Between 1967 and 1974, the proportion of never-married college
students who were involved in intercourse increased in conjunction with
permissive attitudinal changes during that same period. Table 1 sum-
marizes research data from ten studies conducted between 1967 and 1974,
and is organized by the year of data collection and not the year of
publication. There is evidence of increasing coital rates for both
males and females, although the increasing rates for females are much
more dramatic. While the proportion of males reporting coital involve-
ment increased from 60 percent (Lewis and Burr, 1975) to 75 percent
(Needle, 1975) or 82 percent (senior sample from Jessor and Jessor,
1975), the proportion of women indicating such behavior, more than
doubled from 29 percent (Lewis and Burr, 1975) to 65 percent (Needle,
1975) or 85 percent (senior sample from Jessor and Jessor, 1975). The
greater increase in female coital participation contributes to the
equalization and convergence of male and female sexual behavior and
suggests that the attitudes and standards governing the sexual behavior

of never-married college students have also changed.

38

 

 

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40

The variations in percentages from data gathered during similar
years do not appear to be as extensive as the variations for the seven-
year span (1967-1974), and are most likely due to some of the following
differences in research designs and methodological techniques:

--The sample sizes vary greatly from 175 to 2,453 (Bauman and
Wilson, 1974; Lewis and Burr, 1975).

--Zuckerman (1973) combined two samples taken from two different
years, but with the dramatic increase in coital rates per year,
the effect of each year's rate upon his conclusions is not
known.

--Zuckerman (1973) also sampled only sophomores and juniors,
while all the other studies included the freshman level
through senior level within the samples.

--King and Sobel (1972) were not successful in their attempt to
obtain a representative sample of freshmen, sophomores, juniors,
and seniors; the mean age for women was 20.7 and the mean age
for men was 21.8, thereby resulting in a distribution skewed
toward upper division students. Since sexual behavior increases
over college years (Zuckerman, 1973; Jessor and Jessor, 1975),
King and Sobel's findings could be inflated.

--Jessor and Jessor's (1975) investigation was a longitudinal
study. Thus, it is difficult to compare their findings with
other cross-sectional data since their increasing coital rates
result from both an increase in class level (Freshmen to
Senior) and change in data year.

--Vincent and Stelling (1971), Robinson, King, and Balswick
(1972), and Bauman and Wilson (1974) all studied college popu-
lations in the south. However, according to Vincent and
Stelling, the south has the nation's strongest reputation for
the double standard. Lewis and Burr (1975), who tried to
sample universities from four geographical regions, also found
regional variations.

—-Lewis and Burr (1975) used a combined sample representing four
geographical areas, while six of the studies were conducted
on the east coast, two on the west coast, and one in the west.
According to Chilman (1978), a large proportion of the investi—
gations have been conducted on the east coast, which may not
be representative of the rest of the United States.

--Some researchers (Fujita, Wagner, and Pion, 1971; Bauman and
Wilson, 1974; Jessor and Jessor, 1975) used random samples
while others (Lewis and Burr, 1975; Robinson, King, and

41

Balswick, 1972; Zuckerman, 1973; Vincent and Stelling, 1973;

King and Sobel, 1975) used purposive or convenience samples

of entire classes of students, which can produce biased

results.

The acknowledgment of these methodological variations yield only qual-
ified conclusions about changes in sexual behavior.

Other research on sexual behavior indicates that sexual experi-
ence is cumulative and possesses a fixed pattern (Curran, 1973). For
example, few males and females have experienced coitus without first
experiencing the stages of light and heavy petting. Rates for pre-
marital intercourse, however, have risen more sharply than those for
petting, since heavy petting has become less of a substitute for inter-
course than it once was, thereby indicating that fewer individuals
stop with heavy petting (Chilman, 1978). Curran's data also suggest
that the sequence of sexual experience differs for males and females,
in that females tend to experience oral sex before intercourse, while
males experience intercourse before oral sex. In addition, Curran
found that the degree of a subject's sexual experience was related to
interpersonal attraction, physical attractiveness, and dating experience.

In summary, research has shown that sexual activity has
increased among unmarried college students, and this increase is marked
by a sharp rise in coital rates for women. Although the long-term
effects of these changes are presently unknown, Ard's (1974) 20—year
follow-up study of 161 married couples who were sexually active pre-
maritally, indicated that increasing degrees of premarital intimacy
did not have a detrimental effect on later marriage.

One of the major reasons for the documentation of college

student sexual activity is that many of the studies on sexual behavior

42

are conducted on college campuses, where students, as legal adults,
have been free to make decisions to participate in such research
studies. Research, however, can be inhibited by limited funding and
by restrictions imposed by administrators, legislators, and public
Opinion. Nevertheless, further research is still needed, not only on
the sexual behavior of young adults, but also on other segments of the
pOpulation such as married couples, formerly married persons, and
mature individuals, for whom virtually no information exists on sexual

attitudes and behaviors.

Parents as Sexual Socializers

 

Many factors significantly affect a child's emerging sexual
attitudes and conduct, such as the way in which parents love, fondle,
and hold the infant and the soothing or harsh sound of their voices.
Parents, whether they realize it or not, begin children's sexual train-
ing in the earliest days of their lives. Even if parents avoid discuss-
ing sex altogether, children can detect their attitudes through silent
communication (McCary, 1978). Therefore, some of the most crucial
aspects of sex education are taught unconsciously (SIECUS, 1970). In
addition, it appears that children have acquired much of their sex
education by the time they are of school age. Most of their sexual
attitudes, or at least the foundation for them, are to a large degree
formed by the time they are three or four (Auerbach e£_§13, 1976).
Gadpaille (1971) suggests that even the way boy's father lives, his
self esteem, and the manner in which he treats his wife and children

all constitute a boy's earliest sex education from his father.

43

According to Gagnon (1965) much of the early learning from
parents tends to be negative. He suggests that parents respond to
children's sexual behavior in one of two ways: to tell the child to
cease the behavior because it is wrong or bad, or to avoid saying
anything and attempt to distract the child by redirection. The child
then learns that there is something vaguely wrong with sexuality.
Furthermore, as a result of parental reluctance to discuss sexual
activities, sexual body parts, or excretory functions, the child is
left with a minimal elementary vocabulary that will later be replaced
by terms he/she learns from peers. Not only do parents rarely modify
their early sexual messages, but the child's lack of vocabulary to
describe what he/she sees and feels, as well as difficulties with
sexual communications to parents, also permit fantasies to flourish
for long periods of time without correction.

The process of sexual socialization has been referred to by
Spanier (1976) as "sexualization." Sexualization can be conceptualized
as a developmental process having five major components which entail:
"development of a gender identity; development of gender roles; devel-
opment of sex-object preference; acquisition of sexual skills, knowl-
edge, and values; and development of sexual attitudes or a disposition
to behave" (p. 42). Spanier's research on formal and informal sex
education as determinants of premarital sexual behavior focused on a
comparison of the effects of classroom sexual socialization with family,
peer group, and extrafamilial influences. In general, the findings
indicated that informal sex education has significantly more impact on

premarital sexual behavior, with pressures and experiences in given

44

dating or peer-group situations taking precedence over past sexuali-
zation influences.

Lewis' (1973) investigation found that parents do not seem to
contribute the major amount of input into the sexual socialization of
their children, and when parents were the main source of sex education,
their children tended to follow more traditional norms in their pre-
marital sexual relationships. Furthermore, the greater the number of
sexual topics discussed by parents, the less likely were the children
in their adolescent and young adult years to engage in coitus. Thus,
rather than having stimulated coital activity, parents who were the
main source of sex education for their children appeared to have been
effective deterrents, particularly in the sexual socialization of
female children.

Research studies have found that parent—youth relations do
make a difference in adolescent sexual behavior. Adolescents were more
likely to have intercourse if their mothers held nontraditional atti-
tudes, especially if their mothers did not combine affection with their
guidance measures. Adolescents were also more likely to have inter-
course if they perceived themselves to be in poor communication with
their parents and unhappy at home (Zelnik and Kantner, 1972; Sorenson,
1973; Jessor and Jessor, 1975; Chilman, 1974). These findings do not
necessarily mean that good parent-child communication or lack of con-
flict will prevent adolescent sexual activity, because in some cases
adolescent sexual activity can be the precipitator of diminished
:parental attachment.

Although parents are known to transmit sexual attitudes and

iralues, they have not been noted as a primary source of sex information.

45

Through time the major source of sex information has been the peer
group, as illustrated by the following studies (Gagnon and Simon,
1973; Thornburg, 1972; Gebhard, 1977):

Table 2.--Peers as a Source of Sex Information as Illustrated in
Selected Studies from 1915 to 1977.

 

 

. Publication Sample: Peers as Source
Investlgator Year* Age 8 Sex of Sex Information
Exner 1915 College: 85%
Males

Hughes 1926 School age: 78%
Males

Ramsey 1943 High school: 90%**
Males

Kinsey 1948 Wide range: 74%
Females

Thornburg 1972 College: 38%
Males 8 females

Gebhard 1977 College: 50%

Males

 

* Year of data collection was not reported.

**Includes self discovery

Although peer impact on sexual information is greater than any other
influence, its overall impact appears to have been declining over time.
According to Thornburg (1972) literature is the second main source of
sex information, while mothers are third. Gebhard (1977) found that
children and adolescents are learning facts about sex at considerably
younger ages than their parents and grandparents did, as a result of

three factors: increased maternal effort to impart information,

46

increased sex education in the schools, and greater and more explicit
treatment of sex in the media.

It is important to examine not only the source of sexual infor-
mation, but also the content of sexual messages. With the greater
tendency for increasingly younger children to acquire sexual informa-
tion and to engage in sexual behaviors, are adolescents able to criti-
cally discriminate between fact and misinformation? Another important
problem is that the youth who possess some sex information may be
unaware of the psychological and social aspects of sex which determine
the meaning of any sex act. It is difficult to explain to children the
intricate relationship of sexuality to other parts of life and that a
sexual act gains its significance from the psychosocial matrix in which
it occurs (Gebhard, 1977). Consequently, much of the dissemination of
sexual messages is often done inadvertantly by socialization agents
who may not be aware of the nonsubstantive attitudinal dimensions that
are being presented. Therefore, the sources, as well as the content,
of sexual information seem to be very important in preparing young
individuals for their integration into the social life of the community
(Spanier, 1977; Thornburg, 1972).

Since there were few research investigations comparing atti-
tudes and opinions of parents and students toward the many aspects of
human sexuality, McNab (1976) conducted an investigation to determine
if the knowledge of parents' sexual attitudes was related to their
sons' and daughters' sexual attitudes. His findings indicated that
variables pertaining to college students' value systems were signifi-
cant predictors of their sexual attitudes. In addition, parents'

sexual attitudes were shown to influence the attitudes of their sons

CV

47

and daughters. Thus, it appears that a loving, accepting family system
is an important factor in the creation of an environment conducive to
the development of children's sex attitudes which will allow them to
make future decisions regarding their own sexuality (McNab, 1976).

According to Maccoby and Jacklin (1974), parental socialization
of sexuality does not differ for males and females. While parental
reactions to children's displays of sexual behavior or curiosity might
be expected to be different for boys and girls, considering the dif-
ferent standards of adult male and female sexual conduct, no tendencies
have been found for girls to be more reinforced for modesty or punished
more for sexual exploration. However, the validity of these reports
is questionable since a child's sexual behavior primarily occurs either
when the child is alone, when he/she is with other children, or when
the child happens to be interrupted by an adult. In addition, infor-
mation on similarity of socialization experiences is often based on
parental reports in which parents claim they give an equal amount of
sexual information to males and females and claim they react similarly
to the masturbation, nudity, and sex play of their children, whether
male or female.

In contrast, Gagnon and Simon (1975) report that the psycho-
social development of sexuality in adolescence is quite different for
males and females. The onset of puberty causes different reactions in
males and females, and while males focus on the biological aspects of
sexuality, females relate to puberty in more social terms, as a factor
of maturity and proximity to marriage. These differences are indica-

tive of the distinction in the deve10pmental process for males and

48

females: the movement from sexuality to sociosexuality which is char-
acteristic of males is reversed for females.

Social sanctions against masturbation cause different guilt
and anxiety feelings for participating adolescent males and females.
In the males, who have higher reported rates of masturbation (Kinsey,
1948, 1953), this feeling is produced by difficulties encountered in
presenting an emerging sexual self to family members where sexuality
has remained ill defined. In contrast, females are less active in
physiological sexual activity, but receive far more training than men
in self consciously conceiving themselves as being sexual on an objec-
tive level by defining attractiveness in sexual terms. In addition,
females are more highly socialized than males to value intense affect-
laden relationships and the rhetoric of romantic love (Gagnon and
Simon, 1975).

The persons who socialize children attempt to lead them to
develop sex-appropriate identities and roles according to whatever
standards of appropriateness are current in society. Children observe
the social life around them and establish their own sexual identities
by fitting their feelings and behaviors to the varieties of male and
female behaviors that are part of their observed world and realm of
interaction (Elkin and Handel, 1978). Since many of the overt sex-
typed responses for females, such as attractiveness, poise, or passivity,
necessitate reactions from other people, she is dependent on a continual
interaction and feedback from the social environment. This adult and
peer acceptance probably contributes to the greater degree of conform-
ity and concern with socially desirable behaviors which is often

attributed to females (Kagan, 1964).

49

The male, on the other hand, develops many important sex-typed
behaviors while alone. The perfection of gross motor or mechanical
skills involves solitary practice which strengthens his conviction
about the acquisition of masculine attributes. Moreover, being inde-
pendent of the attitudes and Opinions of others is a sex-typed trait,
and, therefore, a male learns to suppress anxiety over social rejection
because this type of anxiety is not considered masculine in this
culture (Kagan, 1964).

D'andrade (1974) contends that gender differences in sexual
behavior are not just the result of differences in personal character-
istics or socialization experiences, but are culturally transmitted
patterns of behavior determined in part by the functioning of society.
His analysis of sexual behavior from a cultural context indicates that
males tend to be more sexually active, while females appear to be more
sexually restricted. Furthermore, females tend to be more inhibited
by sexual restrictions than are males. The resulting interaction of
these two factors yields greater sex differences in the amount and kind
of sexual activity in those societies that are more sexually restric-
tive, with males being much more active than females and females being
much less responsive than males. Thus, the different sexual sociali-
zation of males and females can be attributed to an integration of
psychosocial development within a social-cultural context, with parents

acting as both transmission and mediation agents.

Love and Intimacy

 

The ability to love is a learned phenomenon resulting from

many experiences, most of which take place early in life. The love

50

received by a child in his/her early years is a powerful experience in
shaping the kind of adult he/she will become. Out of a child's experi-
ences with parental love evolve later feelings of optimism or pessimism,
reactions to the world as being friendly or threatening, or notions
about individual adequacy. If children grow up having enjoyed their
parents, they are left with positive and favorable feelings toward
them, and if a child's oldest and longest attachment has been positive,
he/she is open and ready to accept other attachments. Pe0ple who have
enjoyed their family attachments while growing up manifest their
ability to love by being accepting and friendly to others. Thus, any-
one with the ability to love has learned about love by experiencing it
(Fromme, 1965; Bohannan, 1970).

An individual's capacity to give and receive love is a develop-
mental process beginning at birth. Even sexual love is not a new
experience in life since the use of a child's body for pleasure is at
the center of the infant's experiences--the first step in learning to
love (Fromme, 1965). Different types of love experiences are regularly
distributed over the life cycle from infancy through adulthOod. Every
stage of growth integrates a form of love experience, and through
participation in each love relationship, one progresses to the next
stage of psychological development in the life cycle. The core of
this process is the exchange of deeply personal values between the
participants in the love relationship. Each person involved in love
brings qualities or characteristics to the relationship which are
essential to the personal growth of his/her partner (Orlinsky, 1972).

Harlow's (1971) study of love suggests that the deve10pmental

aspect of love is based on five affectional systems of love or

51

bonding: (l) the bond between mother and child, (2) the bond between
child and mother, (3) the bond between peers, (4) the bond between
members of the opposite sex, and (5) the bond between father and child.
These systems of love are not physically or temporally separate; they
overlap so that affectional motivations are continuous in different
forms and facets of love. According to Grunebaum (1976) couple rela-
tionships are based on the interaction of the bond between the parent
and child, the bond between peers, and the bond between members of the
opposite sex. While sex is an important element in couple relation-
ships, it may be the ability to maintain friendships and the residues
of parent-child relationships that determine the durability of couple
relationships. It is parental love that provides the security neces-
sary for the unfolding of all loves and becomes the model imitated by
all of the love relationships (Arieti and Arieti, 1977).

The developmental process of learning about love can vary for
males and females. The female is generally taught to control her
expressions in romantic relationships because she is usually believed
to have more invested, with a greater potential for profit or 1055.

Not only is the female presented with an anticipation of a highly
romanticized conceptualization of love and marriage, but she is also
made aware of the status and role consequences of marriage which make
the selection of a love object a crucial experience (Kanin gt 31., 1970).

Love can occur in many forms with a variety of dimensions.
Interpersonal attraction, which can be considered an individual's
tendency or predisposition to evaluate a person in a positive or nega-
tive way, includes a variety of human feelings such as friendly liking,

companionate love, romantic or passionate love, parental love, love of

52

humankind, and love of country. Initially, social scientists focused
on interpersonal attraction's mildest form of liking, but more recently
investigations are exploring more intense variations such as companion-
ate love and romantic or passionate love. Liking generally seems to be
a straightforward phenomenon encompassing the affection felt for casual
acquaintances. People like those persons who reward them and dislike
those persons who thwart desires. In comparison, companionate love
is the affection one feels for those with whom their lives are deeply
intertwined. Based on both attraction and need fulfillment, companion-
ate love also includes the more moderate emotional levels of mutual
respect, affection and compassion, but not the deeper emotional levels
of passionate love (Berscheid and Walster, 1978).
Romantic or passionate love as defined by Walster and Walster

is:

A state of intense absorption in another. Sometimes "lovers"

are those who long for their partners for complete fulfillment.

Sometimes "lovers" are those who are ecstatic at finally having

attained their partner's love, and momentarily, complete ful-

fillment. A state of intense physiological arousal (p. 9).
Romantic love does not strictly coincide with a reinforcement paradigm.
According to Maslow (1954), romantic love evolves from one's need for
love, security, and belongingness. When an individual gratifies
another's deficiency needs, love is returned. Thus, love grows out of
one's unfulfilled needs, deficiencies and self dissatisfactions.

Romantic or passionate love can also be explained by Schachter's

(1964) two component theory of emotion, in which both the mind and body
make a critical contribution to a person's emotional experience, as

well as romantic feelings. According to Schachter, semiconscious

assumptions about what one should be feeling in a given situation have

r1

{—0
11‘

53

a profound impact on what is felt in that situation. Generally, people
pick up their ideas about love from their culture, families, and their
own experiences. In addition, persons experience emotions when they
are physiologically aroused. Many types of experiences, both pleasur-
able and nonpleasurable, are likely to cause such arousal and although
romantic love is often associated with intense pleasure, it can also
be associated with anxiety, fear, frustration, anger, or even total
confusion. Hence, romantic love may occur when there is a state of
physiological arousal and a social script which defines that experience
as romantic love.

Seemingly opposite in character is the tender, protective,
and nurturant attachment of parental love. Although it has often been
viewed as a mother's love for her nursing or dependent infant, a father
can also feel this kind of love for his young children. The reciprocal
of parental nurturance as a form of love is a child's dependence which
changes greatly from infancy to a point at which it is diffused beyond
the immediate attachment to his/her parents. This dependency changes
from the physical dependency of an infant on his/her parents to an
interpersonal dependency, an erotic dependency of the child on his/her
opposite-sex parent, and a cultural dependency of a juvenile upon his/
her same-sex parent. Love attachments between children also exist.
While in a child's earlier years these relationships tend to reflect
the modes of love experienced in parent-child relationships, later in
childhood these love relationships reflect the interdependence on
intimate friendships (Orlinsky, 1972).

According to Walster, Berscheid, and Walster (1976), even in

the most intimate relationship of parent and child, husband and wife,

54

best friends, or lovers, considerations of exchange and equity strongly
influence the viability and pleasantness of the relationship. Blau
(1964) also contends that exchange processes occur in love relation-
ships as well as in social associations. Male-female reward-seeking
from each other begins prior to marriage at the very onset of a love
relationship. The prospect of certain rewards from the other is what
forms the basis of a relationship in the first place, but in order to
receive those rewards, each partner must in turn provide the kinds of
rewards expected by the other. If one lover is considerably more
involved than the other, his/her greater commitment invites exploitation
and provokes feelings of entrapment, both of which obliterate love.
Only when two lovers' affection for and commitment to one another
expand at roughly the same pace, do they mutually tend to reinforce
their love. Thus, love on the part of one individual for another is
the response or responses evoked in one individual through the equitable
exchange of experiencing rewards, pleasures, or need gratifications as
products of one's interactions with the other person (Centers, 1974).
The more equitable the relationship, the more viable it will be (Blau,
1964).

Closely associated with the concept of love is intimacy or
intimate love, which many individuals are seeking as an affirmation
of their selfhood and a confirmation of their personal existence in
life. Walster, Walster and Berscheid (1978) define intimacy as a
relationship between loving people whose lives are deeply entwined
(p. 154). Such a relationship generally includes some of the following

characteristics:

55

--Intensity of Liking or Loving: An intimate relationship will
continue if the participants basically like or love one another.

--Depth and Breadth of Information Exchange: Participants in an
intimate relationship generally share profound information
about one another's personal histories, values, strengths,
weaknesses, idiosyncrasies, hopes, and fears.

--Length of Relationship: Casual relationships are usually short-
term while intimate relationships generally endure over a long
period of time, with husband-wife and parent-child relation-
ships being the most enduring of all.

--Tolerance of Perceived Inequity: Participants in intimate
relationships are usually not concerned with the immediacy of
achieving equity.

--Va1ue of Resources Exchanged: The value and potency of rewards
and punishments exchanged in an intimate relationship increase
as a relationship grows in intimacy.

--Variety of Resources Exchanged: The variety of rewards and
punishments that participants in an intimate relationship can
give one another increases as the relationship grows in
intensity.

--Benefits of Maintaining the Relationship: Participants in an
intimate relationship have a unique and potentially potent
punishment, the termination of the relationship (Walster,
Walster, and Berscheid, 1978, pp. 148—9).

Oden (1974) describes intimacy as an "intensely personal rela-
tionship of sustained closeness in which the intimus sphere of each

partner is affectionately known and held by the other through congruent

56

empathetic understanding, mutual accountability, and contextual negoti-
ability" (p. 25). The notions of congruency, mutuality, and negoti-
ability indicate the exchange orientation of his conceptualization

of intimacy. Derlega and Chaikin (1975) further expand the perspective
of viewing intimacy as an exchange, by suggesting that the development
of an intimate relationship is based on self-disclosure, reciprocity,
and the building of trust through reciprocal self-disclosure.

While intimate relationships can exist within families and peer
groups, a deep-level intimacy which combines love and sex is predomi-
nantly found in relationships with significant others. Although within
the dyad, love is not necessary for sex, sex appears to be needed for
a deep expression of love (Fromme, 1965). Therefore, the individual
can constantly renew his/her sense of personal value through loving,
being loved, and being involved physically, which is not only a means
whereby the sexual drive can be expressed, but also a vital source of
self-esteem (Hettlinger, 1974). Love makes the other person feel
important, and in mutual love one seeks to find in another person those
qualities that he or she feels are necessary for the full development
of his or her personality (Steen and Price, 1977).

For those individuals who are self-actualized, orgasm is both
more and less important than for other people. While loving at a
higher level of commitment improves sex, love that partners mutually
express for each other makes sex frustration less acute when gratifi-
cation is blocked. In other words, couples who have reached a high
level of commitment do not need sexual expression so urgently, but can
enjoy it more fully when it does occur (Maslow, 1970). At the highest

level of sexual expression, physical sensations and love are freely

(l?

f)

,1

57

expressed and fused with empathy and sensibility toward the partner.
This is considered as true sexual intimacy (Fujimoto, 1972).

Another dimension of love is its social regulation, that is
how it is controlled within the various social systems of a given
society. To some extent, the kin network, which is a pervasive system
in all societies, controls the levels and expression of a love rela-
tionship. When the kinship ties are strong, the love process is under
greater control with its proper functioning dependent upon the direction
of the love relationship into approved channels. Love relationships
must either be kept to a small number or they must be directed, so
there is no disruption of approved kinship linkages (Goode, 1959).

Free choice of a love object, the norm in our society, depends
on the openness of the social system, potential social mobility, and
the existence of a peer group which exerts some control over the love
relationship. Parents are another source of control and often use
various persuasive techniques to encourage their children to associate
with a certain kind of person. Primarily, parents control love rela-
tionships by influencing children's informal social contacts, moving to
appropriate neighborhoods, and clarifying that certain individuals
have ineligibility traits such as race, religion, manners, clothing,
etc. The whole purpose of controlling love is so that the individual
can make a proper choice of a marriage partner, proper in the sense that
this choice will be acceptable to the generalized and specific cultural

norms of the society (Goode, 1959).

58

Sexual Satisfaction

 

Satisfaction, an elusive concept, can be examined from an
exchange perspective in terms of a person's emotional response to the
amount of a particular reward he/she has received. While satisfaction
with a reward is not directly related to the value of the reward,
satisfaction seems to vary directly with the amount of the reward
received and inversely with the amount still desired. What is still
desired may be determined by an individual's needs, but for some kinds
of rewards, what is still desired may be what he/she expects to get,
but has not yet received (Homans, 1974).

Campbell, Converse and Rogers (1976), who have used level of
satisfaction as a quality of life indicator, have described the concept
as the perceived discrepancy between level of aspiration and level of
achievement, ranging from the perception of fulfillment to that of
deprivation. Satisfaction implies a judgemental or cognitive evalu-
ation of a psychological experience. However, the quality of this
experience may not correspond very closely to external conditions of
life, but is based on an individual's perceived satisfaction of needs.
Since individual needs differ, what will satisfy one person might be
totally unsatisfactory to another. An individual may even find the
same circumstance satisfactory at one point in his life, but unaccep—
table at another life stage. A sense of satisfaction is, therefore, a
highly personal experience heavily influenced by the individual's
past experiences, current expectations, and future aspirations.

Satisfaction with a particular attribute of a domain of life
is considered to be dependent on how an individual perceives the

attribute and the standard against which he/she judges that attribute.

59

Although the concept of comparison standards is difficult to define, it
is most likely dependent on the simultaneous implementation of some or
all of the following criteria: aspiration levels, expectation levels,
equity levels, reference group levels, personal needs, and personal
values. The multiplicity of elements that comprise an individual's
standard of comparison makes this concept a complex one (Campbell,
Converse and Rogers, 1976).

The findings of Campbell §E_§13 have indicated that close and
satisfying family relations have been found to contribute significantly
to overall life satisfaction. The major contributors to this satis-
faction with family 1ife are the individual's relationships with his/
her children and spouse. In their quality of life study, Andrews and
Withey (1976) found that one's family life, as well as sex life, were
important factors in an individual's personal well-being.

There is little research on sexual satisfaction; however, one

study on happiness conducted on Psychology Today readers did include a

 

few questions on satisfaction with one's sex life. The 52,000 respon-
dents ranged in age from 15 to 95 and, in general, were younger, more
affluent, better educated, and more liberal than the average middle
American. Consequently, generalizations to all Americans cannot be
made. Nevertheless, the respondents reported that sexual satisfaction
comes from the quality, not quantity, of sexual experiences, with
people who feel they are missing something reporting less happiness
than people who are content with their sexual experiences. Many indi—
viduals assumed that most people of their age and sex have had more
partners and are more satisfied sexually than they are. To illustrate,

22 percent of the single, male respondents and 21 percent of the single,

60

female respondents have never had intercourse, but only 1 percent and

2 percent, respectively, think their peers are virgins. Over half of

the men (55 percent) and 34 percent of the women are dissatisfied with

their sex lives, but only 29 percent and 19 percent, respectively,

It also appears that for these indi-

think their peers are unhappy.
If the

viduals, the combination of sex and love is very important.
quality of sexual behavior and love relations is good, there is a high
degree of happiness, although women seemed to be having difficulties
with both (Shaver and Freedman, 1976).

The ingredients of a satisfying sexual relationship, according
to McCary (1978), consist of experiencing an uninhibited expression of
love and excitement, having these manifestations eagerly accepted, and

receiving in turn an equally unrestrained expression of love, intimacy,

and concern. People who confine their intimate activities to a mere

Search for an orgasmic release soon discover that sex can become quite
boring, since the degree of pleasure and fulfillment derived from sex

can be either great or small, based in direct proportion to what has
been mutually exchanged.

Summary

In general, a search of the literature has revealed some of the

changing trends in sexual behavior concerning the sexual revolution,

double sexual standard, and coital involvement of never-married adults.
Altliough the parents' role in sexual socialization of children has been
OVertly minimal, there has been no investigation of parental impact on

sexual satisfaction through embedded attitudinal interactions and

exchaIlges that enhance the development of intimacy and love. The

61

relationship of intimacy, love, and sex is widely noted in the litera-

ture, but no studies were found that explored the parameters of sexual

satisfaction. In order to examine some of these relationships and fill

a research void, this study will attempt to investigate parental influ-

ence on love, sexual behavior, and sexual satisfaction.

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

Data for this investigation were collected as part of a study
designed to determine the factors which influence the sexual behavior

and contraceptive use of never-married college students. The study was

funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Deve10pment

and was conducted through the Department of Human Development in the

C0 llege of Human Medicine at Michigan State University.* A survey

research design was employed utilizing personal interviews of under-

graduate students at Michigan State University.

Data Collection

The data were collected through the use of a two-part instrument,

an interview schedule and a questionnaire which contained both open-

el'lded and structured-response questions. This instrument focused on

the sexual behavior and contraceptive use of the respondents and on
their reference groups; social structural variables such as family,

Social class, and community groups; internalized values, attitudes, and

Self perceptions; and factors of the near-social environment (Kallen,

 

 

*The study was funded by the National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development through Contract # NOl-HD52803 and Grant #1-

HDlO689 and conducted by David J. Kallen in the Department of Human
Development in the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State Univer-
sity.

62

‘E

‘l‘

63

1974). Both parts of the instrument were given to all respondents; the

time necessary for completion ranged from 1.5 to 5.5 hours, depending

on the respondent's sexual and contraceptive history (Stephenson,

Kallen, Darling, Tanas and Dossey, 1977).

The data collection instrument was developed by the team of
researchers involved in the project and included both original questions
and items devised by other researchers such as the Internal-External
Locus of Control Scale (Rotter, 1973), the Social Desirability Scale

(Crowne and Marlowe, 1964) , the University Alienation Scale (Burbach,

1972), and others. Although a pilot study of the instrument was not

conducted, a preliminary study using a convenience sample of students
111 various classes was used to provide a basis for examining relation-

SFlips among sexual behavior, contraceptive use, and risk taking (Kallen,
1 9 74) .

The organization of content within the interview and the validity

of self reported data on sensitive issues have been topics of concern

to researchers. The study of sensitive family topics, as reported by

Gelles (1976), notes the difficulty of securing information about family

members' behavior due to its private and intimate nature. He suggests

that the most difficult part of any interview on a sensitive topic is
the point where the researcher has to face asking the respondent the

key question or questions under consideration. One of the recommenda-

ti<>ns made was the use of a "funneling technique," in which the flow
015 the interview is designed to deal with peripheral items before the
focus is turned toward the central questions.

Another basic issue among researchers of sensitive topics is

the concern for validity between an interview and a questionnaire.

64

[)eeLamater and MacDorquodale (1975) compared the influence of an inter-
slfiew versus a self-administered questionnaire, as well as any possible
ceiFfects resulting from the location of sexual experience questions
within the instrument. The findings indicated that none of these vari-
£1t:ions significantly affected reports of sexual behavior. In general,
tzlre major conclusion of Delamater and MacDorquodale was that the diffi-
<:111ty of getting valid data from respondents about sensitive topics
unzry'have been consistently over-estimated, and reports of sexual and
other threatening behaviors may have been relatively uninfluenced by
:nneethodological variations. However, since they researched only a small
Illamber of issues on a college student population, care must be taken
1T<3garding over-generalization and possible future application of
l—éiissez-faire methodological techniques.

When applying these concerns to the current investigation, not
cDilly were both an interview and questionnaire used, but the content of
1:}1e instrument was also conceptually organized according to a flow of
c{Llestions that would be logical and meaningful in the context of the
ITeespondent's experience. The interview schedule began with items on
community location, high school friendships, family relationships and
dating behaviors. Thus, a rapport could be established before the more
sensitive topics of sexual and contraceptive histories were introduced.
AS; a safeguard for sensitive issues and privacy, a respondent was free
t1) not respond to a particular question or to discontinue the interview

at any time. Although two respondents used the option of ending the
interview, their point of termination was far beyond the first intro-
duction of sensitive items and was probably based upon the length of

time that was necessary to complete the interview. In addition, the

65

respondents were aware that measures to protect their confidentiality
were being employed.

The personal interview was conducted by professional female
interviewers who had been trained in the use of the data collection
instrument. After the random sample was drawn, the respondents were
sent a letter informing them of their inclusion in the study and
requesting their cooperation. Each student was then contacted by phone
and arrangements were made for the interview which could have been
scheduled in a variety of places such as his/her dormitory room, student
union, library, or any other location which would facilitate convenience
to the student and privacy between the interviewer and the respondent.
Students who did not originally respond favorably to being included in
the study were later called by another interviewer who in many cases
Was able to complete the interview. Immediately after all the inter-
Views were completed, each respondent was sent a letter from the prin-
cipal investigator thanking them for participating in the interview.
Approximately six months later, each respondent was also sent a pre-
1iminary statement of the results of the study.

A supervisor of interviewers was employed to organize and
Clirect the collection of data, as well as to make random checks on the

accuracy of the information. In addition, the first completed inter-
View of each interviewer was checked by the project director before

the interviewers were permitted to make any additional contacts with
Students. The same interviewers and supervisor were also utilized in

COding the data because of their familiarity with the project and the

data collection instrument.

66

Sample

The subjects in the study consisted of a random sample of 87S
Ileever-married Michigan State University undergraduates who were enrolled

Cltxring fall term, 1976 (Stephenson, Kallen, Darling, Tanas, and Dossey,

].EJ77; Kallen and Stephenson, 1978). The sample, which was drawn from

cztxjrrent fall registration data, included only those students who indi-

<:za1:ed they were single and who were under the age of 26. Respondents

velacnse sexual relationships were exclusively homosexual were not included

j_r1 the sample. For technical reasons concerning sampling variation and

1)]?oblems of statistical analyses, the responses of black students and

iC>iE foreign students were also not included in the final sample size of

53223 respondents. Fifty-one percent (N = 421) of the respondents were

7nn£11es and 49 percent (N = 402) were females, with 82 percent of the

'nnziles and 93 percent of the females ranging between the ages of 17 and

:311. Both male and female respondents were relatively evenly divided

t3)? year in school.

Prior to selection of the sample, appropriate statements of

a‘pproval and permission were secured from various administrative

(Diffices and screening committees within the university. Since the

dsesired sample consisted of 800 respondents with approximately equal
rluimbers of freshmen, 50phomores, juniors, and seniors, a stratified

SEUmpling scheme with quotas was utilized to obtain a sample that was

1arger than the desired size (Kish, 1965). The sample was composed of

two parts including the primary sample and a supplement, which was

Only to be used if the primary sample did not produce the desired pro-

portion of males and females per year in school. It was not necessary

to use the supplemental sample, Eighty percent of the students who

ii

Ca

67

vacate selected in the sample were actually interviewed. The other 20
lacercent either could not be located or refused the interview due to
lacersonal reasons or time restrictions. Although students had the
(>13tion of terminating the interview, only two respondents did not com-
plete the interview once it began (Stephenson, Kallen, Darling, Tanas

Eilld.DOSSGY, 1977; Kallen and Stephenson, 1978).

Research Subsample

The investigation of parental influence on love, sexual behav-
j.cyr, and sexual satisfaction, focused on a subsample of the larger
ss1rudy. The criteria for selection of the subsample included (1) stu-

Cleents currently not living at home, and (2) students reporting living

‘Vtith original or adoptive parents while growing up. Students who ans-

‘Vvtered questions relating to parent relationships, expression of feelings,
E111d modeling, by choosing the response, "does not apply (no mother)" or
"cioes not apply (no father)" were also excluded from the subsample.
jrllese criteria resulted in the elimination of 21 males and 21 females
VVIIO lived at home, as well as 37 males and 48 females who did not live
VVigth both parents while growing up or could not answer parent related
<1L1estions and chose a ”does not apply (no father/mother)" response.

TTle resulting subsample consisted of 696 respondents, 363 males (52.5

Percent) and 333 females (47.8 percent). Within this chapter are the

<Lescriptive and summary data for the subsample on the variables presented

in Appendix B, while Appendix C contains the descriptive and summary

data for the total research sample. A comparison of these two sets of

data indicates a high degree of similarity between the subsample and

the total sample.

(I)

bo-

125

the

68

Selected characteristics of the research subsample concerning
zigge and year in school are in Table 3. The mean age of males is 20.0
)reears and the mean age of females is 19.6 years with 82.9 percent of
1:}1e males and 93.9 percent of the females ranging between the ages of
1.7' and 21. A one-way analysis of variance indicated that the differ-
eerzce in age between males and females is significant. Both male and
i?ennale respondents were relatively evenly divided by year in school

vvthh no significant difference between males and females.

Measurement of Variables
As the model in Figure 2 illustrates, the indicators of parental
Escbcialization are independent variables with respect to parental rela-
1ttionship, love, sexual behavior, and sexual satisfaction. But, parental
'1?<31ationship, love, and sexual behavior are also independent variables
‘Vfith respect to the overall dependent variable, sexual satisfaction.
'ITIIe sex of the respondent is considered to be a contextual variable and
}lzis been utilized as a control to differentiate between males and
iFeemales and their socialization influences, parent-child relationships,
1Ove conceptualizations, sexual behavior, and sexual satisfaction.
‘Yeear in school has also been used as a contextual variable, because
tHDth love and sexual behavior are based on a developmental conceptual-
iJzation. Since the data collection instrument was designed to meet a
\Nlriety of research purposes, not all of the items will be analyzed
in.this study. Those parts of the data collection instrument that will

be used to examine the research questions in this investigation include

the following (Appendix B):

Table 3.--Selected Characteristics of Research Subsample: Age and Year

69

 

 

 

 

 

in School.
Males Females
Characteristics
N=363 % N=333 %

Age
17 12 3. 13 3.9
18 69 19. 77 23.1
19 77 21. 79 23.7
20 76 20. 73 21.9
21 67 18. 71 21.3
22 27 7. 10 3.0
23 19 5. 6 1.8
24 10 2. 3 .9
25 5 1. l .3
26 1
Mean (20.0) (19.6)
F Ratio 12.509
Significance .000
Xgar in School
1. Freshmen 8O 22. 75 22.5
2. Sophomores 93 25. 92 27.6
3. Juniors 96 26. 79 23.7
4. Seniors 94 25. 87 26.1

Mean (2.6) (2-5)

F Ratio .108

Significance .743

 

70

Research Item
Variables Questions Numbers
Indicators of Parental
Socialization
Modeling 1, 2, 3 283, 284
Expression of Feelings l, 2, 3 962, 963
Demonstration of Affection l, 2, 3 945
Contact l, 2, 3 256-258
Sexual Views 1, 2, 3 328, 329
Sexual Discussion 1, 2, 3 322
Sexual Messages 1, 2, 3 323.1-323.12
Parent Relationship 1, 2, 3 21, 22, 281, 282
Love 2, 4 314
Sexual Behavior 3, 4 216
Sexual Satisfaction 4 336

In addition, all of the above variables will be used in testing the
model to determine the degree to which indicators of parental sociali-
zation, parental relationship, developmental levels of love, and sexual
behavior contribute to the dependent variable, degree of sexual satis-
faction.

Various items of the data collection instrument were combined
for the development of specific variables. Either a one-way analysis
of variance or chi square was employed to determine if the differences
between males and females were significant. Each of these measures is

described below.

71

Indicators of Parental Socialization

 

Modeling is the student's perception of regard or esteem for
his/her parents and was determined by combining the student's response
to two questions: (1) "How much do you want to become the kind of person
your mother is?" and (2) "How much do you want to become the kind of
person your father is?” Each of the items was rated on a five-point
scale from very much like him or her to very unlike him or her. Ans-
wers to the two questions were summed to form a score for parental
modeling with a possible range of two to ten. Summary data on parental
modeling are presented in Table 4, which indicates a high degree of

similarity for males and females.

Table 4.--Students' Perceptions of Parental Modeling.

 

 

Statistic NMilggs :eEaégi
Range 2-10* 2-10*
Mean 6.9 6.9
Mode 8.0 8.0
Standard deviation 1.9 1.9
Missing Cases 0 0
F Ratio .098
Significance .754

 

*Low score indicates low modeling; high score indicates high
modeling.

72

Expression of Feelings is the student's perception of parental

 

ability to express feelings based on the summation of responses to two
questions: (1) "In general, how easily do you think your mother
expresses her feelings?" and (2) "How easily do you think your father
expresses his feelings?" The responses have a five-point range from
very easily to not at all easily with a total possible range from two
to ten. Summary data on students' perceptions of parental expression
of feelings are presented in Table 5, which indicates that males view

their parents as more expressive of feelings than do females.

Table 5.--Students' Perceptions of Parental Expression of Feelings.

 

 

Statistic NMilgzs :epaégg
Range 2_10* 2_10*
Mean - 7.0 6.6
Mode 7.0 6.0
Standard deviation 1.7 1.8
Missing Cases 1 0
F Ratio 9.727
Significance .002

 

*Low score indicates low expression of feelings; high score
indicates high expression of feelings.

Demonstration of Affection is the student's perception of the

 

frequency of parents' demonstration of affection for each other, based
on a question worded to this effect, with a five-point scale ranging

from very often to never. Frequencies for this variable are presented

73

in Table 6, which indicates that, in general, students perceive their
parents as being somewhat to fairly demonstrative (males = 60.1 percent
and females = 54.6 percent with no significant difference between males
and females).

Table 6.--Students' Perceptions of Frequency of Parental Demonstration
of Affection.

 

 

 

 

Males Females
Response Categories
N=363 % N=333 %

1. Never 7 1.9 17 5.1
2. Seldom 78 21.5 70 21.0
3. Sometimes 116 32.0 90 27.0
4. Fairly often 102 28.1 92 27.6
5. Very often 60 16.5 64 19.2

Missing Cases 0 0

Mean (3.4) (3-3)

Standard deviation (1.2) (1.2)

Chi square 7.246

df 4

Significance .124

 

Contact is the amount of contact the student has with his/her
parents based on three questions: (1) "How many times do you usually
go home in a quarter?" (A seven-point scale ranging from never to six
or more times was used.) (2) "How many times in the last month have
you called home?" (An eight-point scale was used, ranging from never

to more than ten times.) (3) "How many times in the last month have

74

you written home?" (An eight-point scale ranging from never to more
than ten times was used.) These items were summed to form an index of
parental contact with a possible range of three to twenty-three.
Summary data on students' reported parental contact are presented in
Table 7, which indicates that females have significantly greater con-
tact with their parents than do males although, in general, all stu-

dents have a moderate amount of contact with their parents.

Table 7.--Students' Reported Contact with Parents.

 

 

Statistic NM21363 gepaégg
Range 4_19* 4_21*
Mean 9.6 10.7
Mode 9.0 10.0
Standard deviation 2.9 3.1
Missing cases 0 O
F Ratio 22.410
Significance .000

 

*Low score indicates low parental contact; high score indi-
cates high parental contact.

Sexual Views constitute the students' perception of the liberal-

 

ity or conservatism of parental views on sex based on the responses

to two questions: (1) "How would you characterize your mother's view-
point on sex?” and (2) "How would you characterize your father's view-
point on sex?" Each of the items was rated on a five-point scale from

very conservative to very liberal. Answers to the two questions were

75

summed to form a score for parental sexual views with a possible range
of two to ten. Summary data on students' perceptions of parental

views on sex are presented in Table 8, which indicates that, in general,
parents are perceived as being somewhat conservative. In comparison
with males, female students reported that their parents were more con-

servative. This difference was found to be significant.

Table 8.--Students' Perceptions of Parental Views on Sex.

 

 

Statistic NM:1::3 Sepaggg
Range 2-10* 2-10*
Mean 5.4 4.7
Mode 6.0 4.0
Standard deviation 1.9 2.0
Missing cases 0 0
F Ratio 23.056
Significance .000

 

*Low score indicates conservatism; high score indicates liberal-
ity.

Sexual Discussion is the student's perception of the frequency

 

of sexual communication received from his/her parents. A measure of the
frequency of sexual information was based on the answer to the question:
"When you were growing up, how often was sex the subject of general
family discussion?" Responses could vary on a five-point scale from
very often to never. Frequencies for this variable are presented in

Table 9, which indicates that students perceive parents as seldom

76

Table 9.--Students' Perceptions of Frequency of Parental Sexual Dis-
cussion.

 

 

 

 

Males Females
Response Categories
N=363 % N=333 %

1. Never 61 16.8 102 30.6
2. Seldom 193 53.2 158 47.4
3. Sometimes 98 27.0 60 18.0
4. Fairly often 8 2.2 10 3.0
5. Very often 3 .8 3 .9

Missing cases 0 0

Mean (2.17) (1.96)

Standard deviation (.8) (.8)

Chi square 21.912

d.f. 4

Significance .002

 

discussing sex with their children and that females perceived parental
sexual messages less frequently than did males.

Sexual Messages is the student's perception of the kinds of

 

things parents communicated about sex. These messages may have been
communicated directly by talking to the student or indirectly, either
through what was said about others' behavior or through the way parents
acted towards the student or other pe0ple. For each of the items pre-
sented in Table 10, respondents were asked to indicate if that item was

a major or minor communication or not a communication of their parents.

77

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79

The four messages which constituted the largest percentage of major com-

munications for males include the following:

0

6 indicating major
Messages communication

 

--Pregnancy before marriage can lead to terrible

things 58.7%
--Sex is a good way of expressing your love for

someone 31.7%
--Petting can too easily lead to intercourse 20.8%
--No nice person has sex before marriage 20.4%

The same four messages constituted the largest percentage of major

communications for females, but occurred in a different rank order.

0

6 indicating major

 

Messages communication
--Pregnancy before marriage can lead to terrible
things 61.0%
--No nice person has sex before marriage 43.8%
--Petting can too easily lead to intercourse 35.7%

--Sex is a good way of expressing your love for
someone 34.2%

Three of the messages are admonitions against sex with the negative
qualities of premarital pregnancy receiving the highest level of
expression for both males and females. While the fourth message com-
municates a positive quality of sex, it is the second-ranking major
communication for males, but the fourth-ranking major communication
for females. All messages of admonition are received more by females
than by males.

A factor analysis using a varimax rotation resulted in a data
reduction of the twelve messages into three factors: (1) sex is a

dirty experience (Questions 323.3, 323.5, 323.6, 323.12); (2) sex is a

80

dangerous experience (Questions 323.1, 323.4, 323.7, 323.8); and

(3) sex is a positive experience (Questions 323.2, 323.9, 323.10,
323.11). The responses for each item in a factor were summed with a
possible range of four to twelve, which resulted in the summary data
presented in Table 11. A comparison of means indicates that the dan-
gerous quality of sex is the strongest message communicated to the
respondents, especially for females. The difference between males and
females on the parental message of "sex is a dangerous experience" was
significant, but there were no significant differences between males
and females on the messages "sex is a dirty experience" and "sex is a
positive experience."

Parental Relationship is the student's perception of the quality

 

of relationship between the respondent and his/her parents and was
determined by combining responses to two questions regarding the maternal
relationship and two questions on the paternal relationship. The two
questions for mother and respondent relationship are: (1) "How well

did you get along with your mother during the last two years of high
school?" (A five-point scale was used, ranging from very well to not
at all well.) (2) "Since coming to college has your relationship with
your mother become better, become worse, or has there been no change?"
(A three-point scale was used, ranging from better to worse.) If the
maternal relationship became better in college, one point was added

to the numerical value representing the maternal relationship during
high school; if the relationship became worse, one point was subtracted
from the numerical value of the relationship during high school; if

there had been no change in the maternal relationship since high school,

81

Table ll.--Students' Perceptions of Content of Parental Sexual Messages:

Three Factors.

 

 

Statistic 3:;2: F:2§;§S
Factor 1: Sex is a dirty experience
Range 4-11* 4-12*
Mean 5.2 5.3
Mode 4.0 4.0
Standard deviation 1.5 1.7
Missing cases 0 1
F Ratio 1.321
Significance .251
Factor 2: Sex is a dangerous experience
Range 4-12* 4-12*
Mean 7.6 8.4
Mode 7.0 9.0
Standard deviation 2.0 2.2
Missing cases 1 0
F Ratio 22.312
Significance .000
Factor 3: Sex is a positive experience
Range 4-11* 4-12*
Mean 6.3 6.2
Mode 5.0 6.0
Standard deviation 1.8 1.8
Missing cases 1 0
F Ratio .558
Significance .456

 

*The higher the score the more predominant the message.

82

there was no change in the numerical value of the relationship during
high school. The identical questions were asked the respondent con-
cerning the relationship with his/her father and were combined as
described above. The maternal and paternal relationship scores were
summed with a possible range of two to fourteen to produce a current
rating of the perceived quality of the parent-respondent relationship.
Summary data on students' perceptions of the relationship with their
parents are presented in Table 12, which indicates that, in general,
students get along with their parents fairly well with a high degree
of similarity between male and female respondents regarding the per-

ceived quality of the relationship with their parents.

Table 12.--Students' Perceptions of Relationship with Parents.

 

 

Statistic NM21§23 126281;:
Range 5-14* 5-14
Mean 11.3 11.2
Mode 12.0 12.0
Standard deviation 1.9 1.9
Missing cases 0 0
F Ratio .821
Significance .395

 

*Low score indicates low quality parental relationship; high
score indicates high quality parental relationship.

Love. The student's conceptualization of love was secured

through an open-ended question: "What does love mean to you now?" The

83

responses were coded according to a three-level developmental schema
involving concepts of exchange: (1) a getting relationship, (2) a
giving relationship, and (3) a sharing relationship. The development
of these coding categories and the procedures employed by the coders
are detailed in Appendix D. Frequencies presented in Table 13 indicate
that the largest percentage of males conceptualize love as a getting
relationship and secondly as a giving relationship, while the largest
percentage of females conceptualize love as a giving relationship and
secondly as a sharing relationship. However, the difference between

male and female conceptualizations of love was not significant.

Table l3.-—Students' Conceptualizations of Love.

 

 

 

 

Males Females
Categories of Definition
N=363 % N=333 %

1. Getting Relationship 127 39.0 95 30.5
2. Giving Relationship 109 33.4 119 38.3
3. Sharing Relationship 90 27.6 97 31.2

Missing Cases 37* 22*

Mean (1.9) (2-0)

Standard deviation (.8) (.8)

Chi square 4.963

d.f. . 2

Significance .084

 

*Missing cases are due to the coding category "other."

84

Sexual Behavior. A measure of a student's reported level of

 

most intimate behavior was obtained for each relationship he/she has
been in. The respondent was asked to indicate the most intimate
behavior engaged in on a time line of his/her history of sexual behavior.
The coding categories for the different levels of sexual behavior on
this time line include: (1) no date, (2) no physical relationship,
(3) kissing, (4) light petting, (5) heavy petting, and (6) intercourse.
This information was combined to form two indices: lifetime sexual
behavior and current sexual behavior. Lifetime sexual behavior is a
measure of the most intimate behavior a respondent has engaged in and
is composed of four levels: (1) No date, no physical relationship,
kissing; (2) Light petting; (3) Heavy petting; (4) Intercourse. Current
sexual behavior is a measure of current sexual involvement and is
comprised of three levels: (1) Virgins--no history of involvement in
an intercourse relationship; (2) Nonvirgins--not currently involved
in an intercourse relationship, and (3) Nonvirgins--currently involved
in an intercourse relationship.

The frequencies presented in Table 14 indicate that 64.2
percent of the males and 56.8 percent of the females have had coital
involvement with 36.9 percent of the males and 41.2 percent of the
females reporting current involvement in intercourse relationships.
With both indices of sexual behavior there is a significant difference
between males and females. In the lifetime sexual behavior index
more males than females are involved in intercourse, while in the cur-
rent sexual behavior index more females than males are virgins and

more females than males are currently involved in an intercourse

Table 14.--Students' Reported Levels of Sexual Behavior.

85

 

 

 

 

Males Females
Index of Sexual Behavior
N=363 % N=333 %
Lifetime Sexual Behavior
1. No date to kissing 17 4.7 6 1.8
2 Light petting 59 16.3 73 21.9
3. Heavy petting 54 14.9 65 19.5
4 Intercourse 233 64.2 189 56.8
Missing cases 0 0
Mean (3.4) (3.3)
Standard deviation (.9) (.8)
Chi square 11.078
d.f. 3
Significance .011
Current Sexual Behavior
1. Virgin 130 36.3 144 43.9
2' 1:361:3R28tN0 current 96 26.8 49 14.9
3' N:c:i:gi2;;Current 132 36.9 135 41.2
Missing cases 5 5
Mean (2.0) (2-0)
Standard deviation (.9) (.9)
Chi square 14.700
d.f. 2

Significance .001

86

Trelationship. Thus, a larger percentage of males than females have
had coital experiences, but fewer males are currently involved.

Sexual Satisfaction. The student's perception of his/her

 

degree of sexual satisfaction was determined by the answer to the
question: "In general, how satisfied are you with your sex life?” The
responses formed a five-point scale from very satisfied to very dissatis-
fied. The frequencies for this variable are presented in Table 15,

which indicates that, in general, both males and females tend to be
somewhat satisfied, with females reporting a higher degree of satis-

faction. This difference between males and females was significant.

Table 15.--Students' Reported Levels of Sexual Satisfaction.

 

 

 

 

Males Females
Category of Response
N=363 % N=333 %

1. Very dissatisfied 8 2.2 9 2.7
2. Fairly dissatisfied 55 15.2 32 9.6
3' §:::::§53:235f16d “0r 75 20.8 75 22.6
4. Fairly satisfied 143 39.6 109 32.8
5. Very satisfied 80 22.2 107 32.3

Missing cases 2 1

Mean (3-6) (3.3)

Standard deviation (1.2) (1.1)

Chi square 13.434

d.f. 4

Significance .009

87

Data Analysis Procedures

 

The collected data were coded by a team of twenty coders, who
originally functioned as the professional interviewers, and were
quality checked by a subgroup of the coders. All data were punched on
computer cards and verified mechanically by the Computer Center's Data
Preparation Service at Michigan State University. Prior to statistical
analysis procedures, some data were recoded so that the highest numer—
ical code was reflective of the most positive quality. Data analysis
was performed on a Control Data Corporation (CDC) 6500 Scope Hustler
Computer with the use of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
(Nie, Hull, Jenkins, Steinbrenner, and Bent, 1975).

The data analyses employed various techniques including
(1) frequency distributions, means, ranges, standard deviations, and
significance tests such as one-way analysis of variance or chi square
on all variables; (2) factor analyses on parental sexual messages and
indicators of parental socialization; and (3) multiple regression
analyses for testing the hypotheses. In addition, a path analysis
technique was utilized on the model to determine the underlying rela-
tionships among the variables.

As a method for determining the number and nature of underlying
variables among a larger number of measures, factor analysis with
varimax rotation was used on the twelve items concerning content of
parental sexual messages (Kerlinger, 1973; Kerlinger and Pedhazur,
1973). The three resulting factors, which were discussed earlier in
this chapter, along with the other six indicators of parental sociali-
zation were also subjected to a factor analysis. The results of this

factor analysis are presented in Table 16.

88

Table l6.--Factor Analysis of Indicators of Parental Socialization.

 

Indicators of Parental Socialization

 

Socialization Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3
Modeling .030 -.098 .532*
Expression of Feelings .322 -.213 .451*
Demonstration of Affection .360 -.117 .433*
Contact .016 .020 .218
Sexual Views .610* -.371 -.027
Sexual Discussion .549* -.061 .236
Sexual Messages

(1) Sex is dirty -.117 .542* -.257
(2) Sex is dangerous -.l70 .886* .049
(3) Sex is positive .628* -.064 .061
(Eigenvalues) (2.188) (.773) (.538)

 

*Indicates inclusion of item within factor.

Each of the three factors that emerged was comprised of indi-
vidual items that were conceptually and logically meaningful. Factor 1,
positive sexual communication, included parental sexual views, parental
sexual discussion, and messages from parents that sex is a positive
experience. Factor 2, negative sexual communication, was comprised of
two messages from parents that sex is dirty and sex is dangerous. The
third factor, parental affective modeling, encompassed parental model-
ing, expression of feelings, and demonstration of affection. The three
factors together integrated the conceptual approach of this investi-

gation regarding parental socialization through interaction, modeling,

89

and social exchange. All further analyses use as their basis the three
factors: positive sexual communication, negative sexual communication,
and affective modeling.

Multiple regression was utilized to examine the relationships
identified in the hypotheses in order to explore the relative contri-
butions of the independent variables to the variation in the dependent
variables, as well as the direction of the relationship of the inde-
pendent variables to each dependent variable. The use of multiple
regression is based on the following assumptions: (1) the sample is
drawn at random; (2) the variables are measured on an interval scale;
(3) the scores of the dependent variable Y are normally distributed
at each value of the independent variable X and have equal variances
at each X point; (4) the errors are random and normally distributed;
and (5) the relationship between the independent variables and dependent
variable is linear (Kerlinger and Pedhazur, 1973; Kim and Kohout,

1975). Separate regression analyses were completed for males and females
with the inclusion of the contextual variable, year in school, in each
of the separate analyses.

A path analysis was employed to test the proposed model because
of this technique's usefulness in studying the direct and indirect
effects of variables which can be considered as either causes or effects
of variables. While path analysis is not a method for discovering
causes, it can be applied to a causal model formulated by the researcher
on the basis of knowledge and theoretical considerations. The assump—
tions which are the basis for the application of path analysis are:

(l) the relationships among the variables in the model are linear,

additive, and causal; (2) residuals are not correlated among themselves;

90

(3) there is a one-way causal flow in the model; and (4) the variables
are measured on an interval scale (Kerlinger and Pedhazur, 1973; Kim and
Kohout, 1975).

An alpha level of .05 was selected as the minimum level for
testing each of the hypotheses. While arbitrarily selected, this
alpha level was considered to be a reasonable control over Type 1
errors, yet liberal enough to detect potentially discriminating vari-

ables which could be isolated for further study.

CHAPTER IV

FINDINGS

This study has investigated parental influences on love, sexual
behavior, and satisfaction with one's sex life. Based on the research
questions and review of literature, the following hypotheses were
established and tested:

Hypothesis 1

 

Indicators of parent-child socialization will be positively
related to a student's perceptions of the relationship with
his/her parents.

Hypothesis 2

 

Parental socialization and the relationship between the student
and his/her parents will be positively related to develop-
mental levels of student conceptualizations of love.

Hypothesis 3

 

Parental socialization and the relationship between the student
and his/her parents will not be strongly related to student
sexual behavior.

Hypothesis 4

 

Developmental levels of student conceptualizations of love will
be positively related to the degree of satisfaction with one's
sex life, while controlling for level of sexual behavior.

In addition, the proposed model was tested in order to explain and

summarize the relationships among the variables and to determine the

degree to which indicators of parental socialization, parental

91

92

relationship, developmental levels of love, and sexual behavior con-
tribute to the dependent variable, degree of satisfaction with one's
sex life.

This chapter is organized into two parts and includes the
results which pertain to the hypotheses under investigation and the
findings related to the testing of the proposed model. Both the sex
of the respondent and year in school were taken into consideration in

all analyses.

Hypotheses

 

Hypothesis 1

 

Indicators of parent-child socialization will be positively

related to a student's perceptions of the relationship with

his/her parents.

The results of the multiple regression analyses are presented
in Table 17, which indicates that for both males and females the hypoth-
esis was supported. Affective modeling was the only variable for males
that significantly contributed to the parent relationship with a stan-
dardized beta of .339. For females, affective modeling with a standard-
ized beta of .403 also contributed significantly to the parent relation-
ship. In addition, negative sexual messages had a significant negative
relationship for females which indicated that the perception of the
parent-child relationship for females is closer when parents do not
give negative sexual messages and weaker when they do communicate
negative sexual messages. While the regression analyses for a stu-
dent's relationship with his/her parents explained 37.3 percent of the

variation for males, it only explained 18.6 percent of the variation

for females.

93

Table l7.--Multiple Regression Analyses with Parent Relationship as the
Dependent Variable and Parental Affective Modeling, Positive
Sex Messages, Negative Sex Messages, and Students' Year in
School as Independent Variables.*

 

 

Overall F: 18.360
R Square: .186
Significance: .000

Unstandardized Standardized
Independent R . R . F S' .f.
Variables egress1on egress1on 1gn1 icance
Coeff1c1ents Coeff1c1ents
Males
Affective Modeling .050 .339 40.980 .000
Year in School .043 .096 3.695 .055
P°51tlve sex .007 .048 .826 .364
Messages
Negatlve sex -.007 —.043 .673 .413
Messages
(Constant) .601 7.243 .007
Overall F: 14.099
R Square: .373
Significance: .000
Females
Affective Modeling .056 .403 54.104 .000
Negatlve sex -.018 -.122 4.733 .030
Messages
P°51tlve sex -.011 -.080 1.952 .163
Messages
Year in School .019 .043 .734 .392
(Constant) .906 16.895 .000

 

*See definitions of variables on pages 24-27, 88.

94

Hypothesis 2

 

Parental socialization and relationship between the student and

his/her parents will be positively related to developmental

levels of student conceptualizations of love.

The results of the multiple regression analyses are presented in
Table 18, which indicates that the hypothesis was not supported for
either males or females. The R Square for males explained only 1.2
percent of the variation; this was not significant. Furthermore, none
of the factors had a significant relationship to the dependent variable,
thereby suggesting that parent socialization influences and the parent-
child relationship do not have a significant influence on the develop-
mental levels of a student's conceptualization of love.

Although for females the independent variables contributed to
conceptualizations of love with a statistical significance of .002,
only 5.5 percent of the variation was explained. Furthermore, the
student's relationship with his/her parents was negatively related to
developmental levels of love, and not positively related, as was
stated in the hypothesis. Thus, the higher the perception of the parent-
child relationship, the lower the developmental level of love. In
other words, those female students with strong parent-child relation—
ships are developmentally at the "getting" level of conceptualizing
love, while those female students whose parent-child relationships
are not as strong tend to conceptualize love as a sharing experience.

Since year in school was the second factor which was signifi-
cantly related to the developmental level of love, it appears that for
females, a progression occurs from a getting level of love to a giving
or sharing level as the student increases in age or year in school.

For females, the variable positive sexual messages did not have an F

95

Table l8.—-Multiple Regression Analyses with Love as the Dependent
Variable and Parent Relationship, Affective Modeling, Posi-
tive Sex Messages, Negative Sex Messages, and Students'

Year in School as Independent Variables.

 

Unstandardized Standardized

 

Overall F: 4.430
R Square: .055
Significance: .002

Independent . . . 'f‘
Variables Regress1on Regression F Sign1 1cance
Coeff1c1ents Coeff1c1ents
Males
P°Sltlve sex -.014 -.061 1.076 .300
Messages
Year in School .040 .053 .870 .352
Parent Relationship -.084 -.051 .727 .394
Negatlve sex .009 .033 .314 .575
Messages
Affective Modeling .066 .024 .137 .711
(Constant) 1.903 21.084 .000
Overall F: .711
R Square: .012
Significance: .593
Females
Parent Relationship —.292 -.186 9.161 .003
Year in School .102 .144 6.601 .011
Negatlve sex -.016 -.069 1.375 .242
Messages
Affective Modeling -.009 -.039 .396 .530
(Constant) 2.551 55.643 .000

 

*See definitions of

variables on pages 24-27, 88.

96

value that allowed it to remain as an independent variable in the regres-
sion analysis. Hence, as females are in school longer and are away

from close relationships with parents, they see love as a sharing
experience, or as females ideas about love mature and they become
involved in a sharing relationship with an important other, they

become less involved with their parents and thus, relate less well with

them. This phenomenon is most apt to occur with increases in age.

Hypothesis 3

 

Parental socialization and the relationship between the student
and his/her parents will not be strongly related to student
sexual behavior.

The results of the multiple regression analyses are presented
in Tables 19 and 20, in which lifetime sexual behavior and current
behavior are used respectively as the dependent variables. For both
males and females the hypothesis was not rejected. In each table,
analyses for males and females are statistically significant, however,
the major independent variable that contributes to both lifetime sexual
behavior and current sexual behavior is the contextual variable, year
in school. In Table 19 the total R Square for males explains 15.1
percent of the variation with 9.1 percent of the variation attributed
to year in school. For females the total R Square indicates that 9.6
percent of the variation can be explained by the independent variables
with 5.8 percent attributable to year in school. The results in Table
20 are similar, indicating that for males 12.5 percent of the variation
can be explained by the independent variables with year in school
contributing 7.7 percent, while the analysis for females indicates

that the independent variables explain 7.7 percent of the variation

97

Table 19.--Multiple Regression Analyses with Lifetime Sexual Behavior
as the Dependent Variable and Parent Relationship, Affective
Modeling, Positive Sex Messages, Negative Sex Messages, and
Students' Year in School as Independent Variables.*

 

Unstandardized Standardized

 

Independent . . F . 'f'
Variables Regresslon Regress1on S1gn1 1cance
Coeff1c1ents Coeff1c1ents

Males

Year in School .265 .315 40.038 0

P°51tlve sex .054 .204 14.927 .000
Messages

Negative sex .051 .171 10.719 .001
Messages

Affective Modeling .025 .090 2.59 .108

Parent Relationship -.114 -.061 1.32 .252

(Constant) 1.038 6.17 .013

Overall F: 12.501

R Square: .151

Significance: .000

Females

Year in School .203 .255 22.785 .000

Affective Modeling -.040 -.164 6.873 .009

Parent Relationship -.123 -.070 1.421 .234

P°51tlve sex .009 .039 .414 .520
Messages

Negatlve sex .004 .014 .057 .812
Messages

(Constant) 3.462 68.648 0

Overall F: 6.853

R Square: .096

Significance: .000

 

*See definitions of variables on pages 24-27, 84, 88.

98

Table 20.--Multip1e Regression Analyses with Current Sexual Behavior as
the Dependent Variable and Parent Relationship, Affective
Modeling, Positive Sex Messages, Negative Sex Messages, and
Students' Year in School as Independent Variables.*

 

 

Overall F: 5.408
R Square: .077
Significance: .000

Unstandardized Standardized
Independent R . . F S' ’f'
Variables egression Regresslon 1gn1 1cance
Coeffic1ents Coeff1c1ents
Males
Year in School .233 .298 34.626 0
POSltlve sex .041 .165 9.507 .002
Messages
Negatlve sex .033 .118 4.906 .027
Messages
Parent Relationship -.194 -.112 4.331 .038
Affective Modeling .027 .106 3.517 .062
(Constant) .265 .452 .502
Overall F: 9.943
R Square: .125
Significance: 0
Females
Year in School .205 .245 20.469 .000
Affective Modeling -.033 -.130 4.244 .040
p°51tlve sex .016 .062 1.043 .308
Messages
Parent Relationship -.133 -.072 1.472 .226
Negatlve sex -.005 -.018 .085 .771
Messages
(Constant) 2.067 21.634 .000

 

*See definitions of

variables on pages 24-27, 84, 88.

99

with year in school contributing 5.2 percent. Thus, the practical
significance of the effect of parents on lifetime or current sex behav-
ior is minimal.

For males (Table 19) both positive sexual messages and negative
sexual messages are positively and significantly related to lifetime
sexual behavior with standardized beta weights of .204 and .171,
respectively. While it is curious that both positive and negative
messages are related to lifetime sexual behavior, the contribution of
the relationship of these divergent variables can be accounted for by
differences in male and female socialization, which results in males'
becoming more independent of the attitudes and opinions of others than
females and learning to suppress anxiety over social reactions. Thus,
a large quantity of sexual messages leads males to increased levels of
sexual involvement, and it makes little difference if these messages
are positive or negative.

In addition to the variable, year in school, parental affective
modeling for females contributes negatively to lifetime sexual behavior
(Table 19). In other words, the more that parents express feelings and
demonstrate affection, as well as the more that students desire to be
like their parents, the lower the female student's level of sexual
involvement. This finding supports previous research and theoretical
propositions that females are socialized to be more conforming and con-
cerned with socially desirable behaviors and are more sexually restricted
(Kagan, 1964; D'andrade, 1974).

In relation to lifetime sexual behavior, the analysis of current
sexual behavior, in Table 20, depicts similar results. For males there

is one additional independent variable, parent relationship, which

100

relates weakly to current sexual behavior. This negative relationship
indicates that the higher the perceived quality of parent-child rela-
tionship, the less likely the male is to be currently involved in a
sexual intercourse relationship. Conversely, a weaker parent relation—
ship appears to be related to current sexual involvement. In addition,
for both males and females, less variation in current sexual behavior,
as compared to lifetime sexual behavior, is explained by the independent

variables.

Hypothesis 4

 

Developmental levels of student conceptualizations of love will
be positively related to the degree of satisfaction with one's
sex life, while controlling for level of sexual behavior.

The results of the multiple regression analyses are presented
in Tables 21 and 22 in which lifetime sexual behavior and current sexual
behavior, respectively, are used as the independent variables. The
hypothesis was not supported, since for both males and females develop-
mental levels of love were not significantly related to lifetime sexual
behavior and current sexual behavior. The major component of satis-
faction with sex life is sexual behavior, with current sexual involve-
ment providing a greater contribution to satisfaction with sex life
than lifetime sexual behavior. For males, year in school had a weak,
but significant relationship to satisfaction with sex life. However,
this relationship was negative, thereby indicating that males, as they
increase in age during their college years, have decreasing satisfac-
tion with their sex lives. For females, the variable year in school

did not have an P value that allowed it to remain as an independent

variable in the regression analysis.

101

Table 21.--Mu1tiple Regression Analyses with Sexual Satisfaction as the
Dependent Variable and Love, Lifetime Sexual Behavior, and
Students' Year in School as Independent Variables.*

 

Unstandardized Standardized

 

Icgigzgizgt Regression Regression F Significance
Coefficients Coefficients
Males
Llfetlm? sex .334 .292 26.211 0
Behav1or
Year in School -.131 -.l34 5.570 .019
Love .019 .014 .073 .787
(Constant) 2.770 109.982 0
Overall F: 8.945
R Square: .079
Significance: .000
Females
Llfetlm? sex .325 .263 22.388 .000
Behav1or
Love —.068 -.050 .801 .371
(Constant) 2.881 111.515 .000

Overall F: 11.373
R Square: .070
Significance: .000

 

*See definitions of variables on pages 24-27, 77.

102

Table 22.—-Multiple Regression Analyses with Sexual Satisfaction as the
Dependent Variable and Love, Current Sexual Behavior, and
Students' Year in School as Independent Variables.*

 

Unstandardized Standardized

 

Icgigzgfzgt Regression Regression F Significance
Coefficients Coefficients
Males
current.sex .413 .337 36.330 0
BehaV1or
Year in School -.139 —.l43 6.525 .011
Love .022 .017 .098 .754
(Constant) 3.083 204.318 0
Overall F: 12.324
R Square: .105
Significance: 0
Females
current.sex .360 .309 31.840 .000
Behav1or
Love -.071 .054 .982 .322
(Constant) 3.255 267.803 .000

Overall F: 16.104
R Square: .096
Significance: .000

 

*See definitions of variables on pages 24-27, 77.

103

Testing_the Model

 

The fifth research question explored the extent to which the
relationship among the variables could be summarized and explained by
the proposed model of parental influence on love, sexual behavior, and
sexual satisfaction. For this purpose a path analysis technique was
employed. Path analysis provides possibilities for causal determina-
tions among sets of measured variables. This technique is not neces-
sarily a procedure for demonstrating causality, but is a method for
tracing the implications of a set of causal assumptions (Miller, 1977;
Kim and Kohout, 1975). The development of the causal assumptions and
scheme is based on the previous discussion of the socialization pro-
cesses of interaction, modeling, and social exchange and their resultant
effects on a student's relationship with his/her parents, as well as
on a student's conceptualization of love, sexual behavior, and sexual
satisfaction.

Using a conceptual approach that views parents as influential
socialization agents, a causal diagram for the hypothesized model was
devised (Figure 4). Although this model eliminates other major influ-
ences such as peers, which are acknowledged to be important, their
inclusion in the model would obscure an analysis of the components
inherent in parental influence. In general, this model depicts the
effects of parental socialization during the lifespan development of
the student by the use of three factors representing parental indicators
of socialization: positive sexual messages, negative sexual messages,
and affective modeling. These factors are examined in conjunction
with their direct and indirect influences on the students' perception

of the present relationship with parents, their indirect impact on

104

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105

students' developmental conceptualizations of love, levels of sexual
behavior, and satisfaction with sex life. Because of the developmental
nature of love and sexual behavior and their mutual influence on satis-
faction with sex life, year in school was examined in relation to those
variables which are current college measures: parent relationship,
conceptualizations of love, levels of sexual behavior, and satisfaction
with sex life.

More specifically, positive sexual messages and negative sexual
messages should be related to affective modeling, but will not be
causally related. Parents give positive sexual messages which con-
ceptually will be highly related to affective modeling and conversely,
parents who demonstrate affection will be displaying positive messages
about sex. In addition, parents who are conveying positive messages
about sex will not be conveying negative messages about sex. Parents
who are perceived as expressing positive sexual messages will also be
perceived as good affective models and thus, respondents will have a
desire to be like their parents.

The interrelationship of positive sexual messages, negative
sexual messages and affective modeling should influence the parent
relationship since students who want to be like their parents will
perceive the relationship with their parents as being good. Affective
modeling will be related to love because young people who wish to
emulate their parents' freedom of expression of feeling and the parents'
ability to demonstrate affection for each other should view love as a
sharing relationship. The content of parental sexual messages should
affect sexual behavior. Male and female behavior should then differ,

since parental sexual socialization for females has been more restrictive.

106

The respondents' relationship with their parents will be nega-
tively related to year in school because respondents who are in college
and living away from home will be influenced to a lesser degree by the
relationship with their parents and the desire to be like their parents.
As students get older they will become more involved in sexual rela-
tionships, and thus the influence of parents as models will shift to
other significant individuals within the respondents' environment.
Hence, the parent relationship and parent affective modeling will be
negatively related to level of sexual behavior. There will also be a
negative relationship between the parent-child relationship and love
because involvement in a sexual relationship which includes love will
result in a desire to share with that individual and to shift away from
parents. Furthermore, students' lifetime sexual behavior will be
positively influenced by levels of love since sharing affection has
been considered as a conditional prerequisite for sexual involvement,
especially for females (Miller and Simon, 1974). Thus, the sharing
level of love which evolves as students increase in age will positively
influence a level of sexual involvement that progresses toward coitus.

Age, as measured by year in school, is an important variable
which will have direct influence on the students' relationship with
their parents, developmental levels of love, sexual behavior, and satis-
faction with sex life. Since sexual messages and affective modeling
have been occurring throughout the developmental lifespan of the
individual and not just during the college years, year in school was
not considered as an influence on these factors. Parental relationship,
however, is a measure of college students' perceptions of the parent—

child relationship; developmental levels of love, level of lifetime

107

sexual behavior, and satisfaction with sex life are likewise measures
of current behavior and perceptions. These four variables will be
influenced by age since becoming older is related to increased involve-
ment in sexual behavior and sharing love with significant others which
are the two components that comprise satisfaction with sex life. In
the meantime, the relationship with parents will have weakened and
respondents will be less likely to model their parents' expressions of
feelings and demonstrations of affection.

As the respondent becomes older, the sharing of love and
involvement in sexual behavior will increase which will result in the
respondents becoming satisfied with their sex lives. Parental modeling
of affection and expressions of feelings and sexual messages will not
only affect satisfaction with sex life directly, but also indirectly
through love and sexual behavior. Students, who try to be like parents
who demonstrate affection and express feelings, will themselves be
more demonstrative and are therefore, more likely to be in an affectional
relationship that includes intercourse. Learning how to express affec-
tion from parent models will enhance that ability in the respondents
and effect a loving and sexual relationship that will result in a
greater degree of satisfaction with one's sex life. In addition, the
modeling of positive sexual messages and the lack of modeling of nega-
tive sexual messages will influence the sexual behavior component of
satisfaction with sex life. Hence, satisfaction with one's sex life
will increase as the respondent becomes older because of a shift in
affective models from parents to significant others, increased coital
involvement, and deeper levels of sharing love. In conjunction with

these interrelationships, the influence of parental models during the

108

developmental lifespan of the individual will have a residual impact on
satisfaction with sex life through the affective domain.

Since males and females have had different socialization experi-
ences from parents, peers, and society, the sex of the respondent is
considered to be an important influence upon the causal determinations
among the independent and dependent variables. Males are raised to
be more independent while females are socialized to be more conforming,
and thus, parental influence on love, sexual behavior, and satisfaction
with sex life will not be as impactful for males. Love will also have
less importance for males than females since the affect dimension of
male socialization is a lesser part of their social interactions. In
general, satisfaction with sex life for both males and females will be
primarily influenced by sexual behavior, although male-female differences
in the level of sexual behavior and current sexual involvement can
influence the student's perceived satisfaction with his/her sex life.

In summary, the model conceptualizes the parent-child rela-
tionship as a mediating link between indicators of parental sociali-
zation and components of intimacy with the recognition that conceptual-
izations of love and levels of sexual behavior influence degree of
satisfaction with sex life. Since conceptualizations of love and
levels of sexual behavior are developmental phenomena, year in school
has been utilized as a contextual variable. Rather than current sexual
behavior, lifetime sexual behavior was used as the measure of sexual
behavior, since the focus of the model related to parental sociali-
zation influences during the developmental lifespan of the student.
Males and females were analyzed separately because of differences in

socialization. The overall aim of this analysis was to clarify and

109

delineate some of the factors that affect love, sexual behavior, and
satisfaction with sex life, as well as to determine differing parental
influences for male and female children. In addition to examining the
direct and indirect influences among the variables, another advantage

of using a path analysis of the hypothesized causal model is the
resultant Opportunity to examine the simultaneous covariation of various
variables.

The zero-order correlation matrix for these variables is pre-
sented in Table 23. Figures 5 and 6 give the path coefficients for the
model as it applies to males and females, respectively, and Figures 7
and 8 represent the respecified final path analytic models for males
and females, respectively. Only those variables which had an influence
on subsequent variables in the causal system significant at the .05
level, were retained. All four figures include the standardized and
unstandardized path coefficients and the overall R Square for the
model.

As predicted, parents do have some influence on the intimacy
of their children and this influence varies according to the sex of
the child. For males, the model in Figure 7 indicates that positive
sexual messages had a direct positive influence on affective modeling
and negative sexual messages had a direct negative influence on affec-
tive modeling. Parental sexual messages indirectly influenced the
relationship between the student and his parents through affective
modeling. Affective modeling had a direct and positive influence on
the student's relationship with his parents, thereby indicating the
impact of recalled early parent behaviors on parental interaction,

modeling, and social exchange in the areas of sexual discussions, sexual

110

 

 

 

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views, and parental modeling of expressions of affect and feelings.
The male's relationship with his parents had no further influence on
the variables in the model.

The indicators of parental socialization, in other words,
positive sexual messages, negative sexual messages, and affective
modeling, as well as the student's relationship with his parents had
no influence on a student's conceptualizing love as a getting, giving,
or sharing relationship. Since love also had no influence on sexual
behavior and sexual satisfaction, it was eliminated from the final
model.

Level of sexual behavior was positively and directly influenced
by both positive and negative sexual messages, which indicates that any
sexual message or sexual discussion tends to influence or encourage
sexual involvement by males. While year in school positively and
directly influenced level of sexual behavior, influence on satisfaction
with sex life is both direct and indirect through sexual behavior.
Thus, as males increase in year in school, they are more likely to
have progressed toward sexual intercourse which positively influences
satisfaction with sex life. However, an examination of the direct
influence of year in school upon satisfaction with sex life indicated
a decrease in satisfaction as age increased. Since Table 14 indicated
that 26.8 percent of the males who are nonvirgins are not currently
involved in an intercourse relationship, it is possible that the lack
of current sexual involvement is contributing to this inverse relation-
ship between year in school and sexual satisfaction. Once sexual
intercourse has been experienced, its continuation appears to contribute

to satisfaction with one's sex life. Sexual satisfaction was also

116

influenced directly by parental affective modeling. Thus, for those
males who want to be like their parents and report parental expression
of feelings and demonstration of affection, there is a higher degree of
satisfaction with one's sex life. In addition, sexual satisfaction

was indirectly influenced by both positive sexual messages and nega—
tive sexual messages through sexual behavior. In other words, the dis-
cussion of sex, either positively or negatively, along with liberal
sexual views positively impacted on a developmental progression toward
sexual intercourse which, in turn, positively influenced satisfaction
with sex life.

In summary, students, who see as models parents who convey
feelings and communicate positive sexual messages, express satisfaction
with their sex lives. (Negative sexual messages are related to lower
affective modeling and lower satisfaction with sex life.) At the same
time, it seems that for males, any sexual messages, whether positive
or negative, are correlated with increased levels of sexual behavior in
conjunction with year in school. Thus, while sexual behavior seems to
be a consequence of both developing maturity and communicating sexual
information within the home, being satisfied with one's sexual life is
related to the extent to which parents served as affective models.
While the level of sexual involvement is also related to satisfaction
with one's sex life, year in school has a negative impact on sexual
satisfaction for reasons which are not entirely clear. In fact, year
in school has a contradictory influence on sexual satisfaction having
both a direct-negative effect and an indirect-positive effect because

of its relationship to sexual behavior.

117

The final path analytic model for females (Figure 8) contains
both similarities and differences compared to the final path analytic
model for males (Figure 7). As was true for males, affective modeling
is positively influenced by positive sexual messages and negatively
influenced by negative sexual messages which leads to a positive
indirect influence on the parent-child relationship. Thus, female
students want to be like parents who express feelings, demonstrate
affection, and communicate information about sex. While the standard-
ized path coefficients from positive and negative sexual messages to
affective modeling are lower for females than for males, the path
coefficient from affective modeling to parent relationship is higher
for females than for males. These coefficients indicate that compared
to males, sexual messages are a less important influence on affective
modeling for females, while affective modeling is a more important
influence on parent relationship for females. Affective modeling,
that is, parental demonstration of affection, parental expression of
feelings, and the desire of the student to be like her parents directly
influences the student's perception of the current relationship with
her parents.

Year in school has a positive influence on love and sexual
behavior, indicating that as a female increases in age and year in
school, her level of sexual involvement progresses toward intercourse
and her level of conceptualizing love approaches a sharing relationship.
However, parental influence through affective modeling has a direct-
negative influence on level of sexual behavior. Thus, those students
who desire to be like their parents and positively perceive their

parents' expression of feelings and demonstration of affection tend to

118

be at a lower level of sexual involvement. In contrast, those students
who do not want to model after their parents have reached a greater
level of sexual involvement progressing towards intercourse.

Developmental levels of love are negatively influenced by the
parent relationship, indicating that students who perceive the relation-
ship with their parents as being very good are more likely to perceive
love as a getting relationship than as a giving or sharing relationship.
These students have had a lesser involvement in sexual activity and do
not as yet perceive love as a sharing relationship between two individ-
uals. On the other hand, those females who view love as a sharing
experience have a weaker parent relationship probably because of their
greater involvement with a significant other. Love is also positively
influenced by year in school, thereby further indicating that love is a
developmental phenomenon that is related to an increase in age. As a
female gets older, her parental ties decrease, she becomes more
involved in sexual intercourse, and she progresses toward conceptual-
izing love as a sharing relationship.

In addition, love is indirectly influenced by positive and nega-
tive sexual messages through affective modeling which indirectly influ-
ences love through the parental relationship. Thus, the more that
parents project liberal sexual views, discuss sex, and give positive
sexual messages, as well as refrain from verbalizing negative sexual
messages, affective modeling is enhanced. This desire to be like
parents in terms of expression of feelings and demonstration of affec-
tion positively influences the student's relationship with her parents
which influences conceptualizing love as a getting relationship. Thus,

students who have close relationships with parents continue to

119

conceptualize love at the more primitive getting level. In contrast,

as females become older and presumably more involved in a love relation-
ship with a significant other, their conceptualization of love pro-
gresses toward the sharing level.

While degree of satisfaction with sex life is positively and
directly influenced by level of sexual behavior, it is also directly
influenced by two divergent parental influences. As in the model for
males, degree of sexual satisfaction is positively and directly influ-
enced by affective modeling. Thus, for those females who want to be
like their parents and report parental expression of feelings and demon-
stration of affection, there is a higher degree of satisfaction with
sex life. However, satisfaction with sex life is negatively influenced
by positive sexual messages. Positive sexual messages lead to high
affective modeling and affective modeling directly and positively
influences sexual satisfaction, but it also leads one to be less
sexually involved which indirectly and negatively influences sexual
satisfaction. Thus, parental sexual messages result in pushes and
pulls for females that do not exist for males.

Satisfaction with one's sex life is lower for females whose
parents are sexually liberal, discuss sex frequently, and give positive
sexual messages. In this instance, it appears that satisfaction, which
is based on an individual's perceived discrepancy between aspiration
and achievement (Campbell, Converse, and Rogers, 1976), is being
affected by positive sexual messages in which the female finds a gap
in relation to her own level of perceived satisfaction and what she
believes the level should be. Since satisfaction is based on a personal

evaluation influenced by past experiences, current expectations, and

120

future aspirations, a female's current feelings of satisfaction with
her sexual life can be influenced by the positive sexual messages she
receives from parents, a current evaluation of her sexual satisfaction,
and the level of aspiration she has regarding future satisfaction with
her sex life.

It is important to note the resultant differences for males and
females in their respective final path analytic models (Figures 7 and
8):

--While positive and negative sexual messages directly influenced
parental affective modeling, and in turn, influenced the
parent-student relationship for both males and females, for
males both positive and negative sexual messages influenced
sexual behavior positively. Sexual messages from parents to
males, both positive and negative sexual messages influenced
progression from kissing and light petting to intercourse.

For females, there was no relationship between parental sexual

messages and sexual behavior.

--A1though the variable love dropped out of the model for males,
for females, love was found to be positively influenced by
year in school and negatively influenced by the student's
perception of the relationship with her parents. This covari-
ation is also linked to female sexual behavior and is important,
since the increasing age of females results in increasing
levels of sexual behavior progressing toward intercourse, a
developing conceptualization of love toward a sharing relation-

ship, and a lower perception of the parent-student relationship.

121

--For both males and females, sexual behavior is directly and
positively influenced by year in school, but for females,
parental affective modeling also has a simultaneous and direct-
negative influence on sexual behavior. As the age of females
increases, sexual behavior progresses from kissing and light
petting to intercourse. Intercourse is influenced by students
not desiring to be like parents and perceiving a lack of parental
demonstration of affection and expression of feelings.

-—While for both males and females satisfaction with sex life
is positively and directly influenced by a level of sexual
behavior that progresses toward intercourse, as well as posi-
tively and directly influenced by affective modeling, male
sexual satisfaction is also negatively and directly influenced
by year in school. As a male increases in age, as indicated
by year in school, his satisfaction with his sexual life
decreases. This phenomenon covaries with an increasing level
of sexual behavior (Table 14). Although more males than females
have had intercourse, a higher proportion of males are not cur-
rently involved in a sexual relationship. Thus, as age
increases, a greater percentage of males become involved in
intercourse. However, those males who are not currently
involved in an intercourse relationship may be less satisfied
with their sex lives.

--For females, satisfaction with sex life is directly and
inversely influenced by positive sexual messages, while for
males no direct relationship exists. It is interesting to note

that positive sexual messages have simultaneous direct-negative,

122

indirect-negative, and indirect-positive influences on how
satisfied females are with their sex lives. In contrast,
positive sexual messages have only an indirect-positive influ-
ence on male satisfaction with sex life through affective
modeling.
While multiple regression analyses were of value in testing
the hypotheses, the utilization of path analyses facilitated an examina-
tion of both the entire model and of the interrelationships among the
variables within the context of a causal scheme. In general, the
results indicate that parents do have some influence on the intimacy
of their children, but there are gender differences with regard to the
path coefficients, directionality, and magnitude of influence. While
the proposed model does not explain a great amount of variation, it
does begin to delineate some interesting perspectives regarding the
influence of parents on the love, sexual behavior, and sexual satis-
faction of their children. While the model appears relatively straight-
forward for males, it is much more complex for females, thereby indi-
cating the various conflicting forces that impinge upon the love, sexual

behavior, and sexual satisfaction of females.

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY, DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

This chapter includes a summary and discussion of the study

findings, as well as conclusions and implications for further research,

theory, and family life education.

Summary of the Study

 

The overall purpose of this study was to investigate how the
parent-child relationship influences conceptualizations of love, sexual
behavior, and satisfaction with one's sexual life among never-married
college students. The conceptual approach utilized in the investigation
employed a broad view of the family as an environment in which both
socialization and education occur to enhance the development of human
resources either explicitly or implicitly. Socialization, as examined
within the context of this study, encompassed the three interrelated
processes of interaction, modeling, and social exchange and their
impact on the development of intimacy and sexual satisfaction.

The data utilized to test the hypotheses were collected as part
of a study designed to determine the factors which influence the

sexual behavior and contraceptive use of never-married college students.*

 

*The study was funded by the National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development through Contract # NOl-HDSZBOS and Grant # l-
HDlO689 and conducted by David J. Kallen in the Department of Human Dev-
elopment in the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University.

123

124

A survey research design was employed which used personal interviews of
a random sample of 421 male and 402 female undergraduate students.
However, the investigation of parental influence on intimacy focused on
a subsample of the larger study and included only those students who
were currently not living at home and who reported living with both
parents while growing up. The resulting subsample consisted of 696
respondents, 363 males and 333 females who were relatively evenly
divided by year in school.

Multiple regression analyses and path analyses were employed to
test the hypotheses and the model, with the following results:

1. Indicators of parent-child socialization were positively
related to student perceptions of the relationship with his/her parents.
The most significant factor which influenced the parent-child relation-
ship for both males and females was affective modeling. Thus, those
students who wanted to be like their parents and who had parents who
demonstrated affection and expressed their feelings had a closer rela-
tionship with their parents.

2. Indicators of parent socialization and the relationship
between the student and his/her parents were not positively related to
developmental levels of student conceptualizations of love. For males,
the relationship between parental influence and conceptualizations of
love was not significant. Although for females the relationship was
significant at the .002 level, the relationship was negative, thereby
suggesting that a close parent relationship was indicative of conceptual-
izing love as a getting relationship. In the developmental scheme used
for this study a getting relationship is at an earlier stage than

either a giving or a sharing relationship.

125

3. Indicators of parent-child socialization and the relation-
ship between the student and his/her parents were not related to student
sexual behavior. For both males and females, year in school, which is
an age-related variable, was the predominant factor that contributed to
variations in both lifetime sexual behavior and current sexual behavior.
While positive and negative sexual messages were significantly related
to male sexual behavior, the relative contribution of these messages
to the explained variation was minimal. Parental affective modeling
was significantly related to female sexual behavior, but the relation-
ship was negative, indicating that parental demonstration of affection
and expression of feelings had a suppressive influence on female sexual
involvement.

4. Developmental levels of student conceptualizations of love
were not related to the degree of satisfaction with sex life, while
controlling for the level of sexual behavior. The major factor con-
tributing to satisfaction with one's sex life was sexual behavior, with
current involvement in an intercourse relationship contributing more
greatly to sexual satisfaction than lifetime level of sexual involve-
ment. The relationship of love to satisfaction with one's sex life
was not significant for either males or females.

A path analysis of the proposed model indicated that parents
do influence their children's intimacy. There are both similarities
and differences in the ways parents influence males and females. For
males, the relationship between the student and his parents is directly
and positively influenced by parental affective modeling and indirectly
influenced by positive and negative sexual messages through affective

modeling. While positive sexual messages positively influenced

126

affective modeling, negative sexual messages inversely influenced
affective modeling. Sexual behavior is positively influenced by both
positive and negative sexual messages, as well as year in school.
Satisfaction with one's sex life is directly and positively influenced
by level of sexual involvement and parental affective modeling, but
inversely influenced by year in school. However, satisfaction with
one‘s sex life is also positively and indirectly influenced by year

in school through sexual behavior. In the final path analytic model

for males, developmental levels of conceptualizing love were not related
to any of the variables.

For females, as for males, the relationship between the student
and her parents is directly and positively influenced by parental
affective modeling and indirectly influenced by positive and negative
sexual messages through affective modeling. Positive sexual messages
positively influence affective modeling, and negative sexual messages
inversely influence affective modeling. While female sexual behavior
is positively influenced by year in school, it is negatively influenced
by parental affective modeling, indicating that close ties to parents
tend to inhibit female coital involvement. As females increase in
age and level of sexual behavior, they also progress toward conceptual-
izing love as a sharing relationship which is related to weaker parent-
child relationships. Thus, the covariation of year in school and
parent-child relationship with love and sexual behavior indicates that
females, as they increase in age, perceive love as a sharing relation-
ship and progress towards a coital level of sexual behavior. At the
same time the sharing level of love is associated with a weaker parental

relationship and a lower desire to model after parents.

127

Sexual satisfaction for females is positively influenced by
their sexual behavior and parental affective modeling. However, sexual
satisfaction is inversely influenced by positive sexual messages.
Hence, the absence of positive sexual messages, in conjunction with
conservative parental sexual views negatively influences parental
affective modeling. Students who do not perceive their parents as
affective models are more sexually involved, which, in turn, positively
influences female satisfaction with sex life. However, the direct
relationship between affective modeling and sexual satisfaction indi-
cates that females who do perceive their parents as affective models
are more satisfied with their sex lives. Furthermore, parents' posi-
tive sexual messages and liberal sexual views can negatively influence
female sexual satisfaction. Satisfaction is based on an individual's
perceived congruence or discrepancy between aspiration and achievement.
If a woman's sexual experiences do not meet the high expectations which
were influenced by positive parental messages about sex, she may be
dissatisfied. More has been promised than has been delivered. Thus,
the direct and indirect influences of parental affective modeling and
positive sexual messages depict the pushes and pulls of parental
influence upon female sexual behavior and satisfaction with sex life.

While the test of the model indicated that parents do influence
the intimacy of their children, there are definite gender differences
in path coefficients, directionality, and magnitude of influence. In
addition, the integration of various positive and negative influences
upon female conceptualizations of love, levels of sexual behavior, and
perceptions of sexual satisfaction results in a more complex model for

females than for males.

128

Discussion

 

Parental socialization and education of children, whether
deliberate or inadvertant, can be conceptualized as occurring through
three interrelated processes: (1) interaction, in which successive
transactional gestures form an interaction sequence between the individ-
ual and those persons who influence him or her; (2) modeling, in which
the individual takes on the actions of others without visible inducement
or compulsion; and (3) social exchange, in which individuals form
interpersonal relations in the light of benefits, costs, or profits
expected from such associations (Turner, 1970; Bronfenbrenner, 1970;
Homans, 1961, 1974). The emergent quality of these social interactions
and exchanges has been identified by researchers as either intense
friendship, satisfaction with interpersonal relationships, social pene-
tration, intimacy, or love (Murstein, Cerrato, and MacDonald, 1977;
Altman and Taylor, 1973; Traupman, 1976).

Within this investigation, three variables—-affective modeling,
positive sexual messages, and negative sexual messages--were created to
indicate parental socialization influences. While all three of these
variables had varying degrees of influence on intimacy as depicted by
developmental conceptualizations of love, levels of sexual behavior,
and satisfaction with one's sex life, affective modeling was most
representative of the conceptual approach and had the strongest link-
ages to the variables concerning the parent-child relationship and
student intimacy. Affective modeling was composed of three elements
including student desire to be like his/her parents, parental demon-
stration of affection, and parental expression of feelings, all of

which integrated the concepts of interaction, modeling, and social

129

exchange. Since affective modeling was strongly related to the stu-
dent's relationship with his/her parents (beta weight for males was
.379 and beta weight for females was .414), it appears as if, indeed,
the emergent quality of these social interactions and exchanges has
resulted in satisfaction with the interpersonal relationship, intimacy,
or love between parent and child (Figures 7 and 8).

In addition, there is a significant relationship between affec-
tive modeling and sexual satisfaction (beta weight for males was .133
and beta weight for females was .146) (Figures 7 and 8). Although this
relationship is not as strong as that between affective modeling and
parent relationship, it nevertheless points out the far-reaching effects
of inadvertant parental socialization through the processes of inter-
action, modeling, and social exchange; and the importance of affective
modeling to the quality of children's future sex lives.

While some studies have examined parental influence on a variety
of specific aspects of sexuality, this study provides a more compre-
hensive perspective on this complex phenomenon, especially for females.
While affective modeling relates positively to the parent-child rela-
tionship and student sexual satisfaction, parents also have a negative
impact on levels of love and sexual behavior among females. The greater
the parental affective modeling, the lower the level of female sexual
behavior, and the better the parent relationship, the lower the devel-
opmental level of love. These parental influences, however, covary with
age or year in school. Thus, as a female becomes older her level of
sexual involvement increases toward intercourse and her conceptualization
of love progresses from perceiving love as a getting relationship to

perceiving love as a giving or sharing relationship. Since coital

130

involvement is influenced by a low level of parent affective modeling
and conceptualizing love as a sharing relationship is influenced by a
low level of parent-child relationship, age becomes an important ele—
ment in parental influence on love and sexual behavior.

These findings relate to an investigation by Smith (1976) in
which he assessed the relative explanatory powers of parental "push"
and peer "pull" orientations between adolescents and their parents.

The "push" explanation proposes that parental failure to meet adolescent
needs and to establish a satisfactory parent-adolescent relationship
causes adolescents to be less favorably oriented towards parents and
more favorably oriented toward peers who hold values different from
those of parents (Clausen, 1968; Walters and Stinnet, 1971; Smith,
1976). In contrast, the "pull" explanation suggests that adolescents
are induced by the attractions of peers and their activities to become
less favorably oriented toward parents (Edwards and Brauburger, 1973;
Richer, 1968; Smith, 1976). Smith's findings support the parental

push explanation, while lending no support to the peer-group pull
explanation of differences in adolescent orientations toward parents.
Different orientations toward parents were related in considerable
degree to adolescents' perceptions of parents as having provided benefits,
as being experts in certain areas relevant to adolescent life, and as
being warm.

In relation to the investigation of parental influence on
intimacy, Smith's study suggests that parents' inability to meet certain
needs of their offspring to establish a positive relationship has
inadvertantly resulted in a stronger orientation to peers and their

activities. In this study, those activities involve the formation of

131

interpersonal relationships which include various levels of sexual
behavior. With regard to males, parental affective modeling and the
student's relationship with his parents have no significant effect on
sexual behavior. However, for females parental affective modeling has
a negative influence on sexual behavior and the parental relationship
has a negative influence on perceiving love as a sharing relationship.
These relationships are contingent upon age, as indicated by year in
school.

While Smith's study relates to the push and pull of referents
during adolescence, the relationship between parents and their children
changes as they both grow and change through the course of human life-
span development. Although family solidarity has often been considered
in horizontal relationships such as the husband-wife dyad, in recent
years some researchers have begun to study vertical or intergenerational
family solidarity. Bengston and Black's (1973) study of affectional
solidarity between the parent and child recognizes that affect for
another person is not a unilateral phenomenon, since an individual
not only has feelings toward the other person, but he/she also has
feelings about the other's feelings toward him/her. The Bengston and
Black investigation explored how the increased similarity in social
status created by the launching of the child into an adult position
of independence and responsibility affects the occasionally strained
relations between generations that tend to characterize adolescence.
While the results of Bengston and Black's study indicate low solidarity
among parents and youth, or those who are least independent of their
parents, there is a linear relationship from the lowest to the highest

age-group in the degree of perceived affectual solidarity. Thus, the

132

data suggest an age-related progression in the attribution of positive
affect toward the relationship with one's parents.

Since the investigation of parental influence on intimacy
involved a sample of college undergraduates who were beyond adolescence
and yet, in some cases, not completely launched or independent of
their parents, it is possible that the results are being influenced by
both the parental push and affectual solidarity phenomena. Not only is
the freshman-through-senior age span a short period in an individual's
life, but it is also unique in that a student is in a transitional
launching phase which can have both strong peer associations and close
parental ties.

Parental influence on the intimacy of never-married college
students differed for males and females regarding love, sexual behavior,
and sexual satisfaction. These differences are indicative of previous
research in which females have been found to be more dependent on adult
and peer acceptance than males, which probably contributes to a greater
degree of conformity and concern with socially desirable behaviors
(Kagan, 1964). Thus, females who are close to parents would be more
likely to conform to messages of sexual noninvolvement, while the
reverse would be true for those who have weaker family ties.

Males, on the other hand, are socialized to be independent of
the attitudes of others. Therefore, a male learns to suppress anxiety
about any behaviors which would not be socially acceptable, since these
reactions are not considered appropriate for males (Kagan, 1964). As
a result, males appear to be independent of the positive or negative
quality of parental sexual messages, since both messages are positively

related to level of sexual behavior. To illustrate, boys are often

133

given the double message of, "Don't experiment sexually," and, "Of
course, a real boy never pays attention to anything anyone tells him"
(Walster and Walster, 1978, p. 117). Consequently most males begin
sexual exploration fairly early. In contrast, society's message to
girls is quite different, "Don't do it!" and, as consequence, women
are still considered to be slow starters sexually (Walster and Walster,
1978, p. 118).

These differences between males and females are not only evi-
dent in the two path analytic models (Figures 7 and 8), but also in the
comparison of significant differences between males and females with
regard to the variables used in this study (Chapter III). As reported
in Chapter IV, parental influence on male conceptualizations of love,
sexual involvement, and satisfaction with one's sex life are minimal.
In contrast, for females, parental influence covaries with year in
school to influence conceptualizations of love, sexual behavior, and
satisfaction with one's sex life resulting in both positive and nega-
tive associations. An examination of the following significant male-
female differences in the variables of this study bring forth some
additional insights regarding the path analytic models for males and
females:

--There is a significant difference between males and females in
their perceptions of parental expression of feelings. Males,
as compared to females, view their parents as being more expres-
sive of feelings (Table 5). Since females are generally social-
ized to be more expressive of feelings than males, it may be

that females' perceptions of parents as being less expressive

134

are based on higher expectations of parental expressiveness
on the part of females.

--There is a significant difference between males and females in
their present behavior regarding contact with parents either
by telephone calls, letters, or visits (Table 7). Females have
a greater contact with parents which coincides with a greater
influence of parents on the love, sexual behavior, and satis-
faction with their daughters' sex lives.

--There is a significant difference between males and females
regarding parental views toward sex and frequency of parental
sexual discussions (Tables 8 and 9). Males, as compared to
females, perceive their parents as being more liberal and as
engaging more frequently in sexual discussions. These differ-
ences coincide with the positive influence of the factor,
positive sexual messages, upon the sexual behavior of males.
There is no such influence for females.

--There is a significant difference between males and females
regarding sexual messages of parents to their children.
Females, as compared to males, are more likely to perceive
that the message, "sex is dangerous," is a major communication
from parents (Table 11). Thus, parents appear to be more pro-
tective of their daughters regarding the dangers of sex, and
as such are perceived by females to be giving stronger negative
sexual messages.

--There is a significant difference between males and females
regarding both lifetime sexual behavior and current sexual

behavior (Table 14). While a larger proportion of males than

135

females have had coital involvement, a larger proportion of

females than males are currently involved in an intercourse

relationship. The relationships among these variables could
also influence the significant difference between males and

females in regard to perceived sexual satisfaction (Table 15).

Females report a higher degree of satisfaction with their sex

lives than do males which could be indicative of the greater

current involvement of females.
--There is also a significant difference between the ages of

males and females (Table 3). While increases in age, as measured

by year in school, have been found to be an important variable

in the path analytic models for males and females (Figures 7 and

8), a difference of .4 years in the mean ages of males and

females was not considered to be a major influence on the

results of this study. In summary, it is evident that an
examination of male-female differences among the variables, as
well as the path analytic models indicates that parental influ-
ence on love, sexual behavior, and satisfaction with sex lives
can be quite different for sons and daughters.

One of the central propositions in this investigation concerned
the influence of parents on love and its relationship to sexual behavior
and satisfaction with sex life. However, for males, love, as it was
conceptualized and measured in this study, was not significantly
related to any of the other variables. For females, there was a nega-
tive relationship between developmental level of love and parent rela—
tionship and a positive relationship between level of love and year in

school. What is interesting is that for both males and females, there

136

was no significant relationship between love and sexual behavior or
love and sexual satisfaction. Why this lack of relationship occurred
needs to be explored.

One problem is that love is a very elusive concept. Parents
rarely give children any specific instructions about the nature of love;
instead family ideas about the nature of love and sex are picked up as
incidental learning. Children observe what parents say and do in
their verbal and nonverbal communications when they kiss, hug, and
touch--or fail to touch--one another. Most of the ideas cannot be
verbalized by children though, since these events are only dimly per-
ceived and terribly confusing. While ideas of love and sex may be
hazy, they are, nevertheless, deeply etched into children's minds
where, throughout the lifespan, they have a profound impact on notions
about love (Walster and Walster, 1978).

Along with this perceptual confusion during deve10pment, char-
acteristically, the word "love” is used often with a wide variety of
meanings. When asked to tell what love means, individuals' responses
are often obscured by discussions of the object of the love experience,
the source of the love experience, the expected benefits or losses, and,
more infrequently, the individual's affective response to the experience.
Thus, responses can be vague and evasive (Blau, 1972). In addition,
many individuals assume love is a very pleasurable state. Love is
associated with the joy of loving, and being loved is associated with
the pleasure of having someone understand you and sexually communicate
with you. However, love may also have unsettling moments, since it can
be associated with anxiety, with emotional and sexual longing, and with

uncertainty, confusion, and pain. Thus, while love means pleasure for

137

some, others equate it with pain. These different ideas about love
profoundly affect individual's emotions and, ultimately, the personal
bonds that are made in the name of love (Walster and Walster, 1975).

In addition to the respondents‘ possible confusion concerning
their answers to an open~ended question on what love means to them, it
is also possible that the codes which were based on the developmental
levels of student conceptualizations of love did not effectively
measure the true nature of the participants' responses. Furthermore,
it could be that the interviewers who recorded the respondents' answers
to the open-ended question about love were not always able to write
down the total response verbatim. Thus, some of the students' remarks
might have been misinterpreted or miscoded.

An indication of the weak relationship between love and sexual
behavior evolved from examining students' responses to two other ques-
tions within the instrument. These two questions were used to deter-
mine if the respondents were in love during their first intercourse
relationship and their current/most recent intercourse relationship,
as well as whether or not the respondents realized they were in love
before or after engaging in intercourse. The results, which are pre-
sented in Appendix E, indicate the following: 48.5 percent of the males
(N = 111) and 20.0 percent (N = 37) of the females were not in a love
relationship during their first intercourse relationship; during their
current/most recent intercourse relationship, 67.2 percent (N = 154)
of the males and 57.4 percent (N = 85) of the females were not in love;
and of those individuals involved in a current/most recent intercourse
relationship beyond the first intercourse relationship, only 19.2 per-

cent (N = 44) of the males and 28.4 percent (N = 42) of the females

138

were in love before they had intercourse. Thus, the majority of
college students in this study who have been in more than one inter-
course relationship were not in love, indicating that for these college
students, intercourse relationships can exist without love.

A question that arises is why do students become involved in
intercourse without love? According to Walster and Walster (1978),
people crave excitement and getting involved in a passionate relation-
ship, in which an individual can experience the delight of really
getting to know someone or of exploring a new sexual relationship, is
exciting. In a new relationship, an individual can see if he/she
will be attractive to someone and can explore another individual's
personality to find out what he or she really thinks about things. In
addition, sex is exciting. In fact, sex is probably most exciting
when there is some novelty in the form of love-making, in the site of
love-making, or in the partner (Walster and Walster, 1978).

Consequently, it appears that college students may be seeking
new adventures and excitement in which passion and infatuation play
more of a central role than developing a deep love attachment in which
exchanges and sharing occur. This explanation is similar to the ideas
presented in a newspaper article by Dreyfuss (1979). While students
find sex partners more easily today than they did in the past and do
not feel as guilty about sex as their parents did, couples are having
problems forming lasting relationships. Sex is now expected of couples,
and it is supposed to be good sex. However, an intimate relationship
takes time and involves a complex learning experience between two people.
Becoming readily involved in intercourse gives practically no prepara-

tion for talking about intimacy and sexuality, and when it comes to

139

putting in effort to keep the love growing, many couples quit. There-
fore, within this study of parental influence on intimacy, the fact
that love was not related to sexual behavior and sexual satisfaction
may have resulted from a measurement problem regarding students'
definition of love and a confusion among students about what love and
intimacy really mean. In addition, confining the measurement of sexual-
ity to levels of sexual activity is not sufficient for the development
of an understanding of human sexuality and its emotional manifestations.
While there were no conclusive results regarding the relation-
ship of love to other variables, that fact is still a finding and paral-
lels the following quote (Walster and Walster, 1978, p. 1):
Love is such a tissue of paradoxes and exists in such an endless
variety of forms and shades that you may say almost anything about

it that you please, and it is likely to be correct.

(Henry Finck, Romantic Love and Personal Beauty, 1902, p. 224).

 

Like love, satisfaction with one's sexual life is another
elusive concept. In general, level of satisfaction has been used as a
quality-of—life indicator and has been defined by Campbell, Converse
and Rogers (1976) as the "perceived discrepancy between aspiration and
achievement, ranging from the perception of fulfillment to that of
deprivation" (p. 8). Although happiness is used as a synonym for satis-
faction, happiness suggests an experience of feeling or affect, while
satisfaction implies a judgmental or cognitive experience. Thus,
researchers such as Campbell, Converse, and Rogers have chosen to
define the quality-of-life experience mainly in terms of satisfaction
of needs. Because it is common to evaluate people's lives in terms of
their possessions and accomplishments, there is a tendency to forget

that satisfaction is a psychological experience and that the quality of

140

this experience may not correspond very closely to external conditions
of life.

Although satisfaction is a difficult concept to measure, in a
paper presented to The American Statistical Association, Campbell
(1977) referred to a comment once made by John Tukey, saying:

It is often much worse to have a good measurement of the wrong
thing than it is to have a poor measurement of the right thing--
especially when, as is so often the case, the wrong thing will,
in fact, be used as an indicator of the right thing (p. 1).

There is no doubt that a need exists to refine and extend the
measurement of sexual behavior for various age groups, since these
data would reveal a great deal. However, there is also a need for a
different set of measures to provide information about the subjective
experiences of sexual life. These measures will not be very precise
or elegant, but their establishment will be an effort to measure the
right thing.

While the major factor which influenced satisfaction with one's
sex life was sexual behavior, it is important to note that parents also
had an influence on sexual satisfaction. For both males and females,
parental affective modeling positively and significantly influenced
sexual satisfaction. These findings relate to those of Campbell,
Converse and Rogers (1976), whose results indicated that close and
satisfying family relationships have been found to contribute signifi-
cantly to overall life satisfaction. Andrews and Withey (1976), in
their quality-of—life study, found that one's family life, as well as
one's sexual life, were important factors in an individual's personal

well-being. Thus, it appears that those students who want to be like

their parents and who have parents who demonstrate affection and

141

express feelings have a higher satisfaction with their sexual lives.
While in this study sexual satisfaction was not specifically related
to love, it was, nevertheless, the affective modeling by parents which

had a direct influence on the sexual satisfaction of their children.

Conclusions

 

While studies of adolescent sexual behavior tend to rely on a
reference group model in which peers are the major influence, the posited
model of parental influence on love, sexual behavior, and sexual satis-
faction suggests that parents not only influence sexual behavior, but
also students' feelings about it. Although this model of parental
influence explains only a small portion of the variance, the role of
parents in the sexual socialization of their children is still important.
In general, the model appeared relatively straightforward for males, but
it was much more complicated for females, thereby indicating the various
conflicting pushes and pulls of positive and negative influences that
for females impinge upon conceptualizations of love, levels of sexual
behavior, and perceived satisfactions with sex lives.

Despite the theoretical importance of the relationship of love
to sexual behavior and sexual satisfaction, the findings indicated that
love had no significant influence on sexual behavior. Although this
lack of relationship could be attributed to measurement techniques or
the composition of the sample, the absence of a love component could
imply that affection is no longer a necessary prerequisite for sexual
intercourse. Love was also not significantly influenced by indicators
of parental socialization which suggests that modeling, interaction, and

social exchanges within the family are not making a major contribution

142

to the respondents' conceptualizations of love as a sharing relation-
ship. Hence, love remains a complex phenomenon which needs further
study.

Parental influence on sexual behavior is quite different for
males and females. While discussions of sex within the family are a
positive influence on male sexual behavior, parental influence through
affective modeling has a negative influence on female sexual behavior.
Although the influence of parents on the sexual behavior of college
students was significant, as anticipated a large proportion of the
variance remains unexplained by the proposed model.

Parents not only influence sexual behavior, but also how stu-
dents feel about it. Although parental affective modeling had no
influence on developmental levels of love, the residual effect of
parental expressions of feelings and demonstration of affection made
a positive contribution to the respondents' satisfaction with their
sex lives. In comparison to males, however, the satisfaction of females
with their sex lives was an extremely complex and interesting phenomenon.
The direct and indirect influences of parental sexual messages and
affective modeling resulted in numerous positive and negative influences
that occurred simultaneously. It is the covariation of parental
restrictiveness and affective support for females and the dynamics of
these interrelations upon the sexual satisfaction of females that is
of particular value in understanding parental sexual socialization.

Research studies of the comparative influences on sexual
socialization have placed great importance on the peer group, as well
as other major influences, while deemphasizing the role of parents.

However, in this investigation the main focus was specifically on

143

parents. Furthermore, this study did not limit its perspective to
sexual behavior, but included conceptualizations of love and satis—
faction with one's sex life. The variables, age and sex of respondent
were also included and found to have a critical impact on the results
of this investigation. As a consequence, far greater insight has been
gained into the complexity, dynamics, and residual effects of parental
influence on conceptualizations of love, levels of sexual behavior, and

perceived satisfaction with sex life.

Implications

 

Exploring parental influence on the intimacy of never-married
college students, with respect to love, sexual behavior, and sexual
satisfaction, has resulted in the generation of several implications

for further research, theory, and family life education.

Research and Theory

 

An overall research goal would be to develop knowledge and
theory regarding parental influence on sexual behavior. These con-
tributions could serve as a guide to young people, parents, policy
makers, and educators in assisting individuals to function in ways that
are both satisfying to themselves and satisfactory to the larger
society. Behaviors that are satisfying to the individual and satis-
factory to society are those that are most likely to promote physical
and mental health; educational-occupational achievement; economic well-
being; and a happy, secure and satisfying family life or interpersonal
relationship (Chilman, 1978).

While sexuality has often been considered as somewhat peripheral

to well-being, this investigation, as well as other quality-of-life

144

studies, has indicated that various elements of family influence and
sexual behavior are intertwined in both the satisfaction with one's sex
life and the quality of one's life. However, perceived sexual satis-
faction and quality of life change with variations in external con-
ditions of life and age, as well as with past experiences, current
expectations, and future aspirations. Thus, there is a definite need
for a multidisciplinary longitudinal study which would examine the
deve10pment of human sexuality from infancy to adulthood. While cross-
sectional research is not as expensive or complex as longitudinal
research, some social norms have been changing so rapidly that infor-
mation gathered cross-sectionally from one age cohort may not provide
accurate predictive or retrospective information about another. Retro-
spective research has a similar problem due to the inaccuracy of recall
and the influence of current value systems upon past behavior. In
addition, changes in social and cultural norms over time can influence
current value systems and perceptions of sexual behavior as evidenced
in the two studies by Lewis and Brisset (1967) and Brisset and Lewis
(1979). While the earlier analysis found that sex was viewed as work,
the more recent investigation reflected a change in orientation in
which sex was perceived as play and games.

There are several investigations using college students as
respondents, but fewer studies exist among adolescents and other age
groups such as younger children and older adults. However, satisfaction
with sex life, as well as love and sexual behavior, can change as an
individual matures. To illustrate, in one of the few articles that
exists on sexual satisfaction, Simon (1975), by interviewing four men

on the topic of male sexual satisfaction, points out how perceived

14S

sexual satisfaction can change through time. The following responses
were obtained from answers to the question, "We are all constantly
maturing and growing older. As you have grown, how has your concept
of sexual satisfaction changed?"

Herbert: Between the time I was in college and now, I have changed
profoundly. Then I was closer to where the sexual revolution is
supposed to be. I was very interested in making out. It was
scoring, and I realize how superficial and unsatisfying that was.
Now I see that it was little more than organ grinding connected

to some silly status game. Since then, I've found how sustaining
a long-term relationship can be. I also have a greater idea of
the pleasures of security and comfort with someone to whom I am
very committed and who is equally committed.

Lionel: My marriage is a very strong marriage, one based on many
things more important than sex. Many of our most intimate moments
are over the dinner table when we talk to one another. It is not
that sex is unimportant, it's just not what intimacy is based on.
In the last 15 years I have learned a lot more about sex. My
outside experience seem to have helped. I think I have helped
my wife be less inhibited. I think I am less intimidated by the
conventional rules for what middle-aged, middle-class men should
be and do.

Evan: As you grow older, you do mature. At least I hope I have.
That means that your sense of a good relationship also deepens.
If you don't love, you die. I don't think I understood that
when I was younger (p. 52).

Thus, as age increased, concepts regarding love, sex, and sexual
satisfaction changed. Since the present study only dealt with a narrow
range in the human developmental life-span, it seems apparent that future
investigations should cover a broader range of ages including groups
below and beyond a college-age sample. In addition, the sample consisted
of respondents who had never been married, but there is also a need
to study the intimate involvements, love, and sexual satisfaction of

married, separated, divorced, and remarried individuals. Furthermore,

an emphasis should be placed on developing measurement techniques to

146

study in greater depth some of the various dimensions of love, sexual
behavior, and sexual satisfaction.

There is still a considerable lack of information regarding
parental influence on love, sexual behavior, and sexual satisfaction.
While data from the individual respondents in this study was valuable,
it is recommended that in the future data be obtained from both the
parents and study participants, and, if possible, some participant
observation of the family might be included. It is also important that
investigations continue to examine differences between males and females
regarding sexual behaviors, sexual attitudes, and parental sociali-
zation. In addition, further studies of family influences on intimacy
might include the effects of: (1) family planning values, attitudes,
and behaviors of parents; (2) values, attitudes, goals and behaviors of
parents with regard to sex roles and sexual behaviors; (3) parents'
marital and sexual satisfaction as it relates to children's marital
and sexual satisfaction; (4) the family as a support system and influ-
ence on self concept; (5) parental attitudes and behaviors with respect
to patterns of childrearing; (6) quantity and quality of parent-child
interactions including communication, as well as shared interests and
activities; and (7) social exchange of resources between parents and
children. While there are several other dimensions of parent-child
relations that could be examined for their relationship to love, sexual
behavior, and sexual satisfaction, the underlying proposition is that
parents do have impact on their children's intimacy. Although the
measurement of parental influence is difficult because of the embedded
nature of parental socialization, it is definitely an area that needs

further exploration.

147

Family Life Education

 

Sex education has often been the prescribed prevention for
early pregnancies, illegitimacy, and early marriage. However, this
approach is far too limited, since research shows that sex education
programs have had little impact on preventing these behaviors (Chilman,
1978). The healthy development of one's sexuality involves the total
development of the individual as a masculine or feminine person, not
simply as a person who has specific sexual knowledge. As shown in
research, sexual behaviors are linked to several factors such as levels
of self-esteem, interpersonal attitudes and skills, family relation-
ships, personal and family values and expectations, membership in social
reference groups, and the availability of birth control services
(Chilman, 1978). Consequently, the concept of sex education portrays a
narrow view of sexuality, focusing on sexual behavior and knowledge,
while family life education conceptualizes education as guidance for
living within an environmental context of a family group and a rapidly
changing society.

This study of parental influence on intimacy has indicated
that courses in family life education need to consider the influence
of parents, since parents have an inhibiting effect on female sexual
behavior along with a positive relationship to male and female sexual
satisfaction. Due to the emergence of adolescent sexuality and child
bearing as public issues, the schools have expanded their curricular
influence into the realm of human sexuality. However, what is happening
to the role of the family as an educator and developer of human
resources? Will the total investment of the areas of sexual, contra-

ceptive, and family life education within the school system remove the

148

vital link of contextual familial love, interaction, modeling and per-
sonal value systems?

The family is in need of social support to enable it to function
as a guide and source of affectual support in the sexual, contra-
ceptive, and family life education of its children. However, parents
too often find themselves at the mercy of a society which imposes
pressures and priorities that allow neither the time, place, nor arena
for meaningful interaction between parents and children. Therefore,
sex, contraceptive, and family life education should be an integrative
experience for parents, children and the schools. This means breaking
down the barriers between schools and families and establishing new
flexibility so that parents, children, and teachers can spend time
together in meaningful interaction and become acquainted with each
others' worlds, values, and knowledge. Thus, the schools will not
become the prime sex educators, but they can help facilitate a mutual
learning experience and reinvolvement of children and adults in each
others' lives.

Another problem with educational programs on sexuality is that
they often focus on only one age group, school age children. However,
what about the rest of the population? Might a broad-based community
program facilitate sexual education, family life education, and inter-
personal communication on a developmental life-span basis? Children
are not the only ones with sexual questions, desires for sexual infor-
mation, or problems forming intimate relationships. Preschool children,
parents, adults, and senior citizens also have questions and needs
regarding intimacy and human sexuality. Consequently, broad—based

programs facilitating integration of both males and females of all ages

149

appear to be more beneficial than segregating children in an educational
institutional setting for cognitive sexual learning experiences.

An integrative family life education program does have some
inherent problems that need to be resolved, such as scheduling of
meeting times; stimulating parent involvement; determining the most
effective group composition; and making parents, students, and teachers
comfortable in their co-educator roles. While the teacher's role would
be more facilitative than educative, teachers often have certain
unspoken fears and insecurities when dealing with parents, with some
parents feeling the same about teachers. The long separation of family
and school is one cause of these feelings, as well as the teachers'
cognizance of tenuous job security and the parents' roles as consumers
and taxpayers. Although an integrative program, as just described,
might be somewhat difficult to organize, the potential rewards for all
those individuals involved could be well worth the effort.

Parents today are often blamed for all the problems of their
children; however, the parent is usually a ". . . coordinator without
voice or authority, a maestro trying to conduct an orchestra of players
who have never met and who play from a multitude of different scores,
each in a notation the conductor cannot read. If parents are frustrated,
it is no wonder; for although they have the responsibility for their
children's lives, they hardly ever have the voice, the authority, or
the power to make others listen to them" (Kenniston, 1977, p. 18).
Schools also receive blame, but their voice is stronger and more power—
ful and often passes the burden of guilt to the family. Therefore, a
policy of integration and communication among parents, children, and

schools could help break down some of these barriers, strengthen the

150

role of the family, and create a synergistic learning experience that
could enhance the human resource development, intimate relationships,

and quality of life for all those involved.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

COLLEGE LEVEL MALES AND FEMALES REPORTING PREMARITAL

INTERCOURSE AS ILLUSTRATED IN SELECTED STUDIES

APPENDIX A

COLLEGE LEVEL MALES AND FEMALES REPORTING PREMARITAL

INTERCOURSE AS ILLUSTRATED IN SELECTED STUDIES

The following investigations were utilized in Figure 3 to
illustrate a long-term trend in the reported incidence of premarital
intercourse among college-level students (adapted from Haeck, 1974,
with modifications from Kinsey, 1948; Chilman, 1978; and Darling, 1976).
Since some of the data were collected over a span of years, the mid-
point was used to plot the data year. The information listed for the
studies below includes the researchers, the years of data collection,

and the proportions of males and females involved in premarital inter-

 

 

course.
% PMI
Researcher Data Year M F
l. Dickerson 8 Beam (1915) 1903 NA 12
2. Exner (1915) 1915 36 NA
3. Peck a Wells (1925) 1924 37 NA
4. Peterson (1938) 1938 55 NA
5. Bromley G Britton (1938) 1938 50 25
6. Finger (1947) 1943 45 NA
7. Kinsey (1948) 1938--1947 49--53 ‘ NA
7. Kinsey (1953) l938--l950 NA 20--27

151

152

 

 

% PMI

Researcher Data Year M F

8. Porterfield G Salley (1945) 1944 32 7

9. Ross (1950) 1950 51 NA

10. Ehrmann (1954) 1950 57 14

11. Reevy (1959) 1951 NA 9

12. Prince 8 Shipman (1957) 1957 50 18

13. Freedman (1965) 1961 NA 22

14. Robinson, King, Dudley, G Clune 1965 65 28
(1968)

15. Luckey 6 Nass (1969) 1965 58 43

16. Keats 8 Davis (1970) 1967 60 44

17. Weichman 8 Ellis (1969) 1967 54 l7

18. Simon, Berger 8 Gagnon (1972) 1967 56 32

Carns (1973)

19. Bell 6 Chaskes (1970) (1958)* NA (18)

1968 NA 29

20. Christenson 8 Gregg (1970) (1958) (37) (10)

(1958) (50) (21)

1968 39 32

1968 51 34

21. Lewis G Burr (1975) 1968 60 29

22. Fujita, Wagner, 6 Pion (1971) 1968 45 30

23. Robinson, King, 6 Balswick 1970 65 37
(1972)

24. Zuckerman (1973) 1970 G 1972 53 40

25. Vincent 8 Stelling (1973) 1971 66 48

 

*Parentheses were used to indicate that the data presented therein
were out of sequential order due to the longitudinal nature of the inves-
tigation.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

Researcher

 

Bauman G Wilson (1974)

King & Sobel (1975)

Jessor G Jessor (1975)

Needle (1975)

Stephenson, Kallen, Darling,
Tanas, G Dossey (1977)

153

Data Year

(1968)
1972
1972

(1970)

(1971)

(1972)
1973
1973

1976

 

% PMI

M F
(56) (46)
73 73
83 72
(46) (51)
(65) (70)
(74) (80)
82 85
7s 65
65 55

154

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.8» a .6. 3 8.: 3o. u... 8... so... 818 .2... "8.35 38.8
now u:- 3 3 02:88.... 3.382.. 9.3-: 33:02...

8.35 03003 ... 038.3...
.I. I I o 3.2.3“. on 023023... .050—=2». 953...: 8.230“. a... 0...! .25.. 002.00 . a u< 093w «a.

..... 1+ 3.3..
82 one. Go: 32 39.. on: 93w 03p 82.

 

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APPENDIX B

DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT

APPENDIX 8

DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT

Specific questions from the data collection instrument which were

utilized as indicators of variables and to create indices include the

following:

Indicators of Parental Socialization

 

Modeling:

283. Thinking of now rather than high school, how much do you want
to become the kind of person your mother is? Would you say

Very much like her

Somewhat like her

Neither like nor unlike her
Somewhat unlike her

Very unlike her

Does not apply (no mother)

O‘U'IALNNr—I

284. And how much do you want to become the kind of person your
father is? Would you say .

Very much like him

Somewhat like him

Neither like nor unlike him
Somewhat unlike him

Very unlike him

Does not apply (no father)

001-13me

155

156

Expression of Feelings:

325. In general, how easily do you think your mother expresses her

feelings?

1. Very easily

2. Fairly easily

3. Somewhat

4. Not so easily

5. Not at all easily
326. In general, how easily do you think your father expresses his

feelings?

1. Very easily

2. Fairly easily

3. Somewhat

4. Not so easily

5. Not at all easily

Demonstration of Affection:
IF LIVED WITH ORIGINAL OR ADOPTIVE PARENTS OR OTHER RELATIVES

319. We are interested in how you feel your parents acted towards
each other. Some parents feel it is all right to demonstrate
their affection for each other in front of their children,
while others feel it is proper to be restrained. While you
were growing up, about how often did your parents demonstrate
their affection for each other in front of you? Would you

say .

1. Very often
2. Fairly often
3. Sometimes

4. Seldom

5. Never

Contact:
IF RESPONDENT DOES NOT LIVE AT HOME
256. About how many times do you usually go home in a quarter?

Never

Once

Twice

Three times

Four times

Five times

Six or more times

\lO‘U‘I-waI—t

157

257. About how many times in the last month have you called home?

Never

Once

Twice

Three times

Four times

Five times

Six to ten times
More than 10 times

WVOUTbMND-d

258. About how many times in the last month have you written home?

Never

Once

Twice

Three times

Four times

Five times

Six to ten times
More than 10 times

mVOU‘I-bMNI—I

Sexual Views:

328. In your opinion, how would you characterize your mother's
viewpoint on sex? Would you say she was .

Very liberal

Fairly liberal

In the middle

Fairly conservative

Very conservative

Does not apply (no mother)

O‘U‘I-btrllvr—l

329. And how would you characterize your father's viewpoint on
sex? Would you say he was . . .

Very liberal

Fairly liberal

In the middle

Fairly conservative

Very conservative

Does not apply (no father)

C‘MAWNH

158

Sexual Discussion:

322. When you were growing up, about how often was sex the subject
of general family conversation? Would you say . .

1. Very often
2. Fairly often
3. Sometimes

4. Seldom

5. Never

Sexual Messages:

323. We are also interested in the kinds of things your parents
communicated to you about sex. These things may have been
communicated directly, through talking to you, or indirectly,
through what was said about how other people behaved, or the
way your parents acted towards you and other people. For
each of the following, would you please tell me if it was
something major, something minor, or not anything that your
parents communicated to you.

Major Minor Not

 

1. Sex is dirty 1 2 3
2. Sex is fun 1 2 3
3. No nice person has sex before marriage 1 2 3

4. It is all right for males, but not for
females to have sex before marriage 1 2 3

5. It is wrong to demonstrate your
affection for someone in public 1 2 3

6. Petting can too easily lead to

intercourse l 2 3
7. Nice girls don't enjoy sex 1 2 3
8. Sex in marriage is a woman's duty 1 2 3

9. Sex is a good way of expressing your
love for someone l 2 3

10. There is nothing wrong with sex before
marriage if two people love each other 1 2 3

11. Sex is like any other activity that is
enjoyable 1 2 3

12. Pregnancy before marriage can lead to
terrible things 1 2 3

159

Parent Relationship

 

Love

21.

22.

281.

282.

 

314.

How well did you get along with your mother during the last
two years of high school? Would you say .

O‘U‘IbCNNv—I

And

omwaH

Very well

Fairly well

Somewhat well

Not too well

Not at all well

Does not apply (no mother)

how well did you get along with your father?

Very well

Fairly well

Somewhat well

Not too well

Not at all well

Does not apply (no father)

Since coming to college, has your relationship with your
mother become better, become worse, or has there been no

change?

1. Better

2. Worse

3. No change

4. Does not apply (no mother)

And

has your relationship with your father become better,

become worse, or has there been no change?

hMNr—I

Better

Worse

No change

Does not apply (no father)

What does love mean to you now?

Open-ended question: Codes for the different categories of

the

O‘U‘I-P-MNt—t

definition of love are:

Getting

Giving

Sharing

Other

Does not know
Does not apply

160

Sexual Behavior

 

43.

Time Line Data:

For each relationship the respondent has been in, indicate
the most intimate behavior the respondent has been engaged
in by drawing a line opposite the corresponding behavior
category over the apprOpriate time interval. Codes for the
different sexual behaviors on this time line are:

No date

No physical relationship
Kissing

Light petting

Heavy petting
Intercourse

O‘UT-mer-d

Sexual Satisfaction

336.

In general, how satisfied are you with your sex life? Would
you say you are .

Very satisfied

Fairly satisfied

Neither satisfied, nor dissatisfied
Fairly dissatisfied

Very dissatisfied

MbMNr-d

APPENDIX C

SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF TOTAL RESEARCH SAMPLE

APPENDIX C

SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF TOTAL RESEARCH SAMPLE

The following tables contain the summary data on variables

used in this study for the total research sample.

Table C-l.--Tota1 Research Sample: Age and Year in School.

 

 

 

 

Males Females

Characteristics Sub- Ineligible Total Sub- Ineligible Total

Sample for Sample Sample for Sample

Subsample Subsample

N=363 N=58 N=421 N=333 N=69 N=402
Age
17 12 3 15 13 6 19
18 69 10 79 77 18 85
19 77 7 84 79 7 86
20 76 9 85 73 19 92
21 67 16 83 71 9 80
22 27 6 33 10 5 15
23 19 2 21 6 2 8
24 10 4 l4 3 2 5
25 5 l 6 l l 2
26 1 0 1 0 0 0
Mean (20.0) (20.3) (20.0) (19.6) (19.7) (19.6)
Year in School
1. Freshmen 80 13 92 75 21 96
2. Sophomore 93 9 102 92 13 105
3. Juniors 96 17 113 79 20 99
4. Seniors 94 19 113 87 15 102
Mean (2.6) (2.7) (2.6) (2.5) (2.4) (2.5)

 

161

Table C-2.--Total Research Sample:

162

Students' Perceptions of Parental

 

 

Modeling.

. . Males Females
Statistic N = 421 N = 402
Range 2—10* 2-10*
Mean 6.9 6.8
Mode 8.0 8.0
Standard deviation 1.8 1.9
Missing cases 23 27

 

*Low score indicates low modeling; high score indicates high

modeling.

Table C-3.--Tota1 Research Sample: Students' Perceptions of Parental
Expression of Feelings.

 

 

Stttttttt $31231 36:13:33
Range 2-10* 2-10*
Mean 7.0 6.5
Mode 7.0 6.0
Standard deviation 1.7 1.8
Missing cases 15 18

 

*Low score indicates

low expression of feelings; high score
indicates high expression of feelings.

163

Table C-4.--Total Research Sample: Students' Perceptions of Frequency
of Parental Demonstration of Affection.

 

 

 

 

Males Females
Response Categories
N=421 % N=402 %

1. Never 8 1.9 20 5.0
2. Seldom 88 20.9 81 20.1
3. Sometimes 126 29.9 103 25.6
4. Fairly often 115 27.3 101 25.1
5. Very often 69 16.4 71 17.7

Missing cases 15 3.6 26 6.5

Mean (3.4) (3.3)

Standard deviation (1.1) (1.2)

 

Table C-5.--Total Research Sample: Students' Reported Contact with

 

 

Parents.

. . Males Females
Statistic N = 421 N = 402
Range 4-19* 4-21*
Mean 9.5 10.7
Mode 9.0 10.0
Standard deviation 2.9 3.1
Missing cases 21 21

 

*Low score indicates low parental contact; high score indicates
high parental contact.

Table C-6.--Total Research Sample:

Views on Sex.

164

Students' Perceptions of Parental

 

 

Statistic 1:421:31 11382318:
Range 2-10* 2-10*
Mean 5.4 4.7
Mode 6.0 4.0
Standard deviation 1.9 2.0
Missing cases 22 28

 

*Low score indicates conservatism; high score indicates liberal-

ity.

Table C-7.--Tota1 Research Sample: Students' Perceptions of Frequency
of Parental Sexual Discussion.

 

 

 

 

Males Females
Response Categories
N=421 / N=402 %
1. Never 79 18.8 129 32.1
2. Seldom 222 52.7 184 45.8
3. Sometimes 104 24.7 71 17.7
4. Fairly often 10 2.4 15 3.7
5. Very often 6 1.4 3 .7
Missing cases 0 0
Mean (2.2) (2.0)
Standard deviation (.8) (.8)

 

165

Table C-8.--Total Research Sample: Students' Perceptions of Content of

Parental Sexual Messages: Three Factors.

 

 

Statistic NM:1::1 £62318:
Factor 1: Sex is a dirty experience
Range 4-11* 4-12*
Mean 5.1 5.3
Mode 4.0 4.0
Standard deviation 1.5 1.7
Missing cases 0 0
Factor 2: Sex is a dangerous experience
Range 4-12* 4-12*
Mean 7.6 8.4
Mode 7.0 8.0
Standard deviation 2.0 2.2
Missing cases 2 0
Factor 3: Sex is a positive experience
Range 4-11* 4-12*
Mean 6.3 6.2
Mode 5.0 4.0
Standard deviation 1.8 1.8
Missing cases 1 0

 

*The higher the score the more predominant the message.

166

Table C-9.--Total Research Sample: Students' Perceptions of Relationship
with Parents.

 

 

Statistic NM:1::1 Segaigz
Range 544* 5-14*
Mean 11.3 11.1
Mode 12.0 12.0
Standard deviation 1.9 1.9
Missing cases 30 38

 

*Low score indicates low quality parental relationship; high
score indicates high quality parental relationship.

Table C-10.--Tota1 Research Sample: Students' Conceptualizations of
Love.

 

 

 

 

Males Females
Categories of Definition
N=421 % N=401 %

1. Getting Relationship 144 34.2 118 29.4
2. Giving Relationship 129 30.6 148 36.8
3. Sharing Relationship 106 25.2 111 27.6

Missing cases 42* 10.0 25* 6.2

Mean (1.9) (2-0)

Standard deviation (.8) (.8)

 

*Missing cases are due to the coding category "other."

167

Table C-ll.--Total Research Sample: Students' Reported Levels of Sexual
Behavior.

 

 

 

 

Males Females
Index of Sexual Behavior
N=421 % N=401 %
Lifetime Sexual Behavior
1. No date to kissing 20 4.8 7 l.
2. Light petting 65 15.4 87 21.
3. Heavy petting 59 14.0 77 19.
4. Intercourse 277 65.8 231 57.
Missing cases 0 0
Mean (3-4) (3-3)
Standard deviation (.9) (.9)
Current Sexual Behavior
1. Virgin 144 34.2 171 42.
2. Nonvirgin-~no current 117 27.8 56 13.
involvement
3. Nonvirgin--current 154 36.6 170 42.
involvement
Missing cases 6 1.4 5 1.
Mean (2.0) (2-0)

Standard deviation (.8) (.9)

 

168

Table C-12.--Total Research Sample: Students' Reported Levels of Sexual
Satisfaction.

 

 

 

 

Males Females
Category of Response
N=421 % N=401 %
1. Very dissatisfied 11 2.6 9 2.
2. Fairly dissatisfied 60 14.3 36 9.
3. Neither satisfied nor dis- 92 21.9 88 21.
satisfied
4. Fairly satisfied 164 39.0 136 33.
5. Very satisfied 90 21.4 132 32.
Missing cases 4 1.0 1
Mean (3.6) (3.9)

Standard deviation (1.1) (1.0)

 

APPENDIX D

CODING PROCEDURES FOR QUESTION ON

CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF LOVE

APPENDIX D

CODING PROCEDURES FOR QUESTION ON

CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF LOVE

A. Deve10pment and Implementation of Coding Categories

 

The responses to question 314 (What does love mean to you now?)
were randomly sampled, recorded verbatim, and submitted to the team of
researchers involved in the investigation. After analyzing these
responses, a coding scheme was devised and refined during several trial
attempts to code this question.* At the training session for the twenty
coders, the codes for open-ended questions were explained and examples
of ten uncoded responses were given as a coding pretest. The three
individuals who could best apply the coding categories and instructions
to the sample responses were given the task of coding open-ended ques-
tions such as 314. Each coder worked independently and coded all of
the 823 interviews. Upon completing the coding for open-ended questions,
the coders compared their results. If at least two of the coders were
not in agreement, that response was submitted to the research team for
a joint discussion and coding decision. Only a minimum number of

responses required this backup procedure.

 

*Factors Influencing Contraceptive Use. "Directions to Coders--
Questions #65, 66, 314 (Definition of Love), Internal Document," 1977.

169

170

B. Coding Categories

 

A love relationship is a developmental social phenomenon which
can be conceptualized in three stages which may or may not overlap.
Each stage would represent a certain type or level of thinking regarding
the relationship. Thus, love may be viewed as:

a. A Getting Relationship

b. A Giving Relationship

c. A Sharing Relationship
A getting relationship would include definitions of love which would
highlight self-interest and in some cases, selfishness; a giving rela-
tionship would focus on concern for the other partner; and a sharing
relationship would focus on a shared or mutual concern in the relation-
ship.

As an illustration, a love relationship could be represented by

a configuration of concentric circles.

 
  
   
 
 

  

Stage 1
Getting

 

‘\\\\\ Person A

Stage II Person B

Givin

    
  
    

Stage III
Sharing

 

Person C

  

171

In order to become involved in a love relationship, a person first
enters Stage I (Getting). This individual may or may not proceed to
Stage 11 (Giving), and may or may not proceed to Stage III (Sharing),
depending on how he/she regards the essence of a love relationship
(i.e., getting, giving, or sharing). For example, Person A enters and
remains in Stage I. This person conceptualizes a love relationship as
a getting relationship. Person B enters Stage I and proceeds to Stage
11, because this individual would have developed a conceptualization
of love as a giving relationship. Since Person B first entered Stage
1 before getting to Stage II, his/her definition of love may also
include a getting response. In this case, the getting element of B's
response would be disregarded, since only the highest level of response
is to be recorded. Person C enters Stage I, proceeds to Stage II, and
eventually enters Stage III. This individual would regard love as a
sharing relationship. Since Person C progresses through all three
stages, his/her conceptualization of love may also include a getting
response, a giving response, or a combination of both responses, how-
ever only sharing, which is the highest level of response, will be
recorded.

Examples of each of these stages are illustrated as follows:*

GETTING

A getting definition of love includes elements which imply or
reveal aspects of only getting or gaining from a relationship. The
focus in this definition is self interest and what the respondent
can get from the relationship without regard for what his/her partner

 

*Examples were drawn from a ten percent random sample of
responses to question 314 and were recorded verbatim.

172

may get. The elements of this definition can be explicitly or
implicitly expressed.

Examples of definitions with elements explicitly expressed.

 

1. When someone gives you the feeling that you could marry them
and be happy.

2. He was what I always wanted, and considerate to me, and showed
interest in me.

Examples of definitions with elements implicitly expressed:

 

1. Feel good about him.
2. Wanted to be with that person often.
3. Security.

(These three examples imply that an individual who is with a person
who he/she loves, will feel good or secure.)

GIVING

A giving definition of love includes elements which imply or
reveal aspects of giving in a relationship. The focus of such a defini-
tion is what the respondent can give to his/her partner. A giving
definition may also include elements which imply or reveal getting, but
such a definition should always be coded as giving.

Examples ofgiving definitions:

 

l. Caring about that person as much as or more than yourself.
2. Caring so much about someone you would do anything for them.

Examples ofgivingdefinitions with elements ofgetting;

 

l. A feeling that I wanted to be with him all the time and to be
a major part of what he did. I wanted him to be a major part
of what I did.

2. Love means totally trusting someone else with all that I have,
including my life and that these feelings are reciprocated.

SHARING

A sharing definition of love includes elements which imply or
reveal aspects of sharing in a relationship. The focus of this defini-
tion is on what both partners do or share together. This sharing
definition may include elements of the other two types (getting, giving,
or a combination of both), but since it also includes elements of
sharing, it will be coded as sharing.

173

Examples of sharing definitions:

 

1. Strong commitment to share things, be faithful, to understand
where each other is at.

2. Enjoying each other's company--having common interests--doing
activities together. Being sensitive to each other's wants and
needs. Being perceptive to know when the other person is down
or depressed.

An example of a sharingfidefinition with elements ofgetting:

 

l. Wanting to be with a person because you are both mutually
attracted, compatible and share same interests. Sexually
attracted to them, possible to have meaningful relationship.
You can trust them and confide in them.

An example of a sharing definition with elements of giving:

 

1. An emotion, feeling, state of being, all encompassing. A
desire to be with, share, care and worry about someone or some-
ones. Love can be more universal, more humanitarian concern
depending on whether it is a one to one "in love" state or a
more general love of mankind.

An example of a sharing_definition with a combination of gettipg
and giving elements:

 

 

1. Mutual caring and trust, want to spend your time with that
person; accept you for what you are; don't laugh when you do
something dumb; care enough about the other person that you
could let them go if it was for them, unselfish.

Note: Not every definition which includes the key word "sharing"
will be classified into the sharing category.

Example:

1. A feeling I got as soon as I met him. Wanting to be with him
and sharing my feelings with him X years.

(The word sharing in this example is used in the context of "telling
him: or "communicating to him" and does not imply the true meaning
of sharing. This example should be classified into the getting
category.)

OTHER

 

A definition of love which does not include elements of getting,
giving, or sharing should be classified into the "other" category.

174

Examples:

1. Too hard to say. When I realize that I like them despite their
bad qualities.

2. I can't explain it. An all encompassing feeling.

DO NOT KNOW

 

This category is different from the "Other" category. In this
category the respondent should have explicitly expressed that he does
not know or that he does not have any ideas about what love is.

Examples:

1. I do not know. I think I've been in love twice, but I do not
know.

2. I do not think I quite understand the meaning of it.
3. Don't know, never been there.
4. I don't know, either you know it or you don't.

C. Coding Instructions

 

Read the answer to question 314, either focusing separately on
each phrase and sentence or concentrating on the content of the entire
message. Decide which of the following categories applies to the
response, and code it with the corresponding numerical value:

Getting Relationship
Giving Relationship
Sharing Relationship
Other

Do not know

Does not apply

OM-bC/JNH

APPENDIX E

INDICATORS OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN

INTERCOURSE AND LOVE

APPENDIX E

INDICATORS OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN

INTERCOURSE AND LOVE

Questions:
FOR THOSE WHOSE FIRST INTERCOURSE WAS IN A LOVE RELATIONSHIP

Sometimes people realize they are in love with someone before
they first have intercourse, while sometimes they don't realize
they are in love until after they have intercourse with them.
How about you? Did you realize you were in love with this
person before, or not until after you first had intercourse?

1. Before

2. After

FOR THOSE WHOSE CURRENT/MOST RECENT INTERCOURSE IS/WAS IN A
LOVE RELATIONSHIP

Sometimes people realize they are in love with someone before
they first have intercourse, while sometimes they don't realize
they are in love until after they have intercourse with them.

How about you? Did you realize you were in love with this
person before, or not until after you first had intercourse?

1. Before

2. After

175

176

Results:

Table E-l.--Students Reporting Being in Love or Not Being in Love During
Their First Intercourse Relationship and Their Current/Most
Recent Intercourse Relationship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Males Females
Love Status
N % N %
First Intercourse Relationship
In Love Relationship 118 51.5 148 80.0
Love Before Intercourse (102) (86.4) (131) (88.5)
Love After Intercourse ( 16) (13.5) ( 17) (11.5)
Not in Love Relationship 111 48.5 37 20.0
Total 229 100.0 185 100.0
Current/Most Recent Intercourse Relationship
In Love Relationship 75 32.8 63 42.6
Love Before Intercourse ( 44) (58.7) ( 42) (66.7)
Love After Intercourse ( 31) (41.3) ( 21) (33.3)
Not in Love Relationship 154 67.2 85 57.4

Total 229 100.0 148 100.0

 

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