1. Vashisht Asrani (vasrani90@gmail.com), Melanie MacEacheron
Can an individual’s relationship with his parents and social influences such as peers have
a profound impact on his sexual beliefs and attitudes?
For the present study, male participants were asked to fill out different questionnaires
asking about their risk taking tendencies around peers, sexual attitudes, and relationship with
parents. Data were collected from undergraduates (N=78, ages 18-23) at a large Canadian
University. No relationship between participants’ sexual attitudes relating to birth control and
perceived parental warmth was found. Resistance to peer influence was marginally, positively
correlated with lesser self-reported sexual “permissiveness” (Brief Sexual Attitudes Scale:
Hendrick, Hendrick & Reich, 2006, r=.21, p=.06).
Abstract
Methods
Results
Conclusions
Participants-97 male undergraduates were recruited from the research pool and asked to fill out
the following questionnaires online:
-demographics questionnaire
-Resistance to Peer Influence (Steinberg & Monahan, 2007)
-Brief Sexual Attitudes (Hendrick, Hendrick & Reich, 2006)
-Parenting Perceptions Questionnaire (Berndt, Cheung, Lau, Hau & Lew, 1993)
(Sub)Scale scores assessed for correlations:
-“Parental warmth”: mean score on 5 highest-loading ‘warmth’ items from PCA of
Berndt et al. (1993) Parenting Perceptions Questionnaire (Likert-type scale),
assessing how loving each parent is seen as having been during participant’s
childhood – greater score indicates greater reported warmth
-“Resistance to Peer Influence”: measures conformity to group norms as opposed
to standing out as an individual – greater score indicates greater resistance to peer
influence
-“Permissiveness” and “Birth Control”: scores on the sub-scales of the Brief
Sexual Attitudes scale
-“permissiveness” sub-scale measures opinions on casual sexual activity
--lower scores indicated greater permissiveness
--items include: “I do not need to be committed to a person to have sex
with him/her”, “Casual sex is acceptable”)
-“birth control” sub-scale measures attitudes on responsibility for birth
control
--lower scores indicate responsibility for birth control is part of responsible sexuality,
and to be shared by both partners
FIGURE 1-RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PEER INFLUENCE AND SEXUAL ATTITUDES
Introduction
This purpose of this study was to examine the influence of peers and parents on sexual
attitudes of male undergraduate students. A previous study by Yan et al. (2010) found that
close relationship with parents was positively, strongly correlated with more conservative
sexual attitudes in female undergraduates. The opposite effect was seen in families with
stricter parental attitudes. Another study by Gardner and Steinberg (2005) had found that peer
pressure had a moderately high degree of influence on adults ages 18-24, when these
individuals participated in risky activities. Conventionally, pre-marital sex is often classified as
a risky activity.
The present study intended to investigate whether such findings applied to male
undergraduates living with peers or family. It was predicted that the participants living with
their parents would show more conservative sexual attitudes, as opposed to their counterparts
living with peers.
The present study did not support the findings from the Yan et al. (2010). Scores on the Resistance
to Peer Influence scale were found to have a marginally-significant, positive correlation with
reported sexual “permissiveness” (Brief Sexual Attitudes Scale sub-scale: r= 0.212, p=0.062). No
significant relationship was found between parental warmth and participant sexual attitudes
pertaining to birth control. On average, participants reported a higher degree of closeness with their
mothers than their fathers (mother was chosen more often on warmth related items on the Parenting
Perceptions Questionnaire).
Due to sample constraints (very few of participants lived with their parents), the study was unable to
investigate the influence of parental closeness. This could be a direction to explore in future studies
on this topic.Sampled male undergraduates’ sexual attitudes as regards “permissiveness” (Brief
Sexual Attitudes scale) may be somewhat influenced by peers. The cultural differences between the
current study’s sample and that of Yan et al. (2010), as well the different gender of participants,
could be reasons behind the failure to replicate the latter study. Such reasons for this failure could
be examined in future work. This study indicates that peer influence may play a role in sexual
attitudes pertaining to permissiveness held by young university men in a North American context.
References:
Gardner, M., & Steinberg, L. (2005). Peer influence on risk taking, risk preference, and risky decision
making in adolescence and adulthood: An experimental study. Developmental Psychology, 41(4),
625-635.
Hendrick, C., Hendrick, S. S., & Reich, D. A. (2006). The brief sexual attitudes scale. The Journal of Sex
Research, 43(1), 76-86.
Berndt, T. J., Cheung, P. C., Lau, S., Hau, K., & Lew, W. J. F. (1993). Perceptions of parenting in mainland
China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong: Sex differences and societal differences. Developmental
Psychology, 29(1), 156-164.
Yan, H., Li, L., Bi, Y., Xu, X., Maddock, J. E., & Li, S. (2010). Family and peer influences on sexual behavior
among female college students in Wuhan, China. Women & Health, 50(8), 767-768.
Sample characteristics:
-97 male undergraduates: N=78 provided valid data
-Mean age:18.68 years (SD=0.83 years)
-Preferred sex of intimate partner:
-83% preferred female intimate partners
-9% preferred male intimate partners
(-two participants chose not to answer this question)
-Living arrangement while at University: 7% of participants lived with their parents, while the rest lived on residence or off-
campus, without parents. Out of the participants not living with parents, 84% had roommates
Questionnaires’ Descriptive Statistics:
-Parenting Perceptions Questionnaire (Cronbach’s alpha=.70):
-Mean closeness to mother=3.54 (SD= 0.53)
-Mean closeness to father=3.39 (SD=0.61)
-Mean closeness to both parents=3.47 (SD=0.49)
-Mean warmth scores for mothers positively correlated with mean warmth scores for fathers: r = 0.471, p<0.001, N=78
-Resistance to Peer Influence scale: Mean=41.00 (SD=6.91)
-Brief Sexual Attitudes permissiveness subscale: Mean= 27.48 (SD=8.45)
-Brief Sexual Attitudes birth control subscale: Mean= 4.94 (SD= 2.16)
RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
1) Was greater parental warmth related to attitude that responsibility for birth control is part of
responsible sexuality, and to be shared by both partners? NO
-mean parental warmth (Parenting Perceptions Questionnaire) not correlated with Brief Sexual
Attitudes-Birth Control sub-scale: r = 0.009, p=ns, N=78
2) Was higher resistance to peer influence score related to permissiveness of sexual attitudes? YES
-scores on the Resistance to Peer Influence scale marginally, positively correlated with scores on
the permissiveness subscale of the Brief Sexual Attitudes scale: r = 0.21, p= 0.06, N= 78
Thus, reporting higher resistance to peer influence was related to reporting less permissive sexual
attitudes.
POSSIBLE MEDIATION OF MEAN PARENTAL WARMTH BY RESISTANCE TO PEER INFLUENCE ? NO
-Mean Parental Warmth (Parenting Perceptions Questionnaire) does not predict Resistance to Peer Influence score under
OLS regression using the former as sole predictor. As such, Resistance to Peer Influence score does not mediate the
relationship between Mean Parental Warmth and Permissiveness sub-scale score, or the relationship between Mean Parental
Warmth and Birth Control sub-scale score.