Spirituality, Religiosity, Shame and Guilt as Predictors of Sexual Attitudes and Experiences

Abstract

This study examines the relationship among levels of spirituality, religiosity, shame, and guilt on sexual attitudes and experiences. A convenience sample that included graduate and undergraduate students (N = 176; mean age = 37) completed a five-factor measure of personality as well as measures of spirituality, religiosity, shame, guilt, and sexual attitudes and experiences. Spirituality was negatively correlated with sexual permissiveness, and engaging in high risk sex. The moral emotion of shame increased when people had multiple sex partners within the past three months while those more spiritual or connected to God were less likely to have had sex after use of alcohol and/or drugs. Also, the more often someone attended religious services the less likely they were to have had multiple partners within the past three months. A sense of alienation from God predicted shame and guilt, but shame and guilt themselves did not predict sexual practices. These findings suggest that sexual attitudes and experiences are related to both spirituality and religious practices independently of personality, whereas they have no relationship to shame and guilt.