The Perception of Premarital Sex Among Students in a Religious Moral Based University
Introduction: Previous studies have shown that premarital sex is prevalent among youth in schools and universities. Most institutions use methods such as rules, seminars, or sex prevention programs to help prevent students from engaging in premarital sex. Not many institutions have used religious moral development activities to prevent premarital sex among young people. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between religious moral development on perception of premarital sex among students in a religious based university in Thailand, and to also explore the factors that shape students’ perceptions of premarital sex. Methods: The research design of this study was quantitative, non-experimental and descriptive, using the survey method of data collection. Permission was granted from the university research committee for distribution of the survey through the university intranet, and the data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The total number of participants was 103 undergraduate students from the international programme. Results: The findings of the study suggest that most university students are against sex before marriage. Moral development activities taught them not to have premarital sex. Participants responses showed that the factor that most impacted perceptions of premarital sex was the internet. The findings also suggested that movie/television viewing, is an important factor that shapes perceptions of premarital sex. The result show that moral development activities and perceptions of premarital sex are related, however it was a weak correlation (r=.03). Moral development activities may have a small influence on students’ perceptions of premarital sex. Discussion: There is a need for improvement of moral development activities such as the implementation of more discussions on premarital sex to help students understand the value of sex. Future research in this area could use qualitative approaches to examine the factors that impact perceptions of premarital sex, and regression analysis to investigate the influence of moral development on perceptions of premarital sex.