Attitude towards premarital sex among college students

Pages: 1563-1566
Priyata Doshi and Divya Dovina T. (Department of Psychology, University of Madras, Chennai)
S. Sasikala (Department of Psychology, Ethiraj College, Chennai)

The abundant availability of the internet and reality television has a corrupting influence on the people all over the world in general and citizens of India, in particular and they reach a conclusion that Premarital Sex (PMS), extra-marital affairs, divorce without valid reasons, dating, etc. do not stand out of their culture and values. The impact of the technological advancement is more on school and college students. Moreover, in India, sex education is not compulsory in schools and colleges, due to which there is a higher prevalence rate of AIDS in the country now. With theories stating that attitude leads to behavior, proper empirical data on attitude of youngsters is essential to help the Government of India to initiate and introduce sex education in all schools. Thus, the need to study the attitude of students towards pre-marital sex was felt and an attempt was made in this study. Qualitative research method was used and convenient sampling procedure was used to collect data. A questionnaire containing open and closed ended questions were administered to a group of 30 college students. The data was analyzed using both content analysis and percentage analysis. The results were interpreted based on the cultural factor and the role of westernization.