Premarital sex
Premarital sex is sexual intercourse engaged in by persons who are not yet unmarried. It is generally used in reference to individuals who are presumed not yet of marriageable age, or between adults who will presumably marry eventually, but who are engaging in sexual activity prior to marriage.
In some interpretations it is considered a sin in Christianity. Others see only sexual immorality as forbidden, which is not well-defined in the New Testament, and some interpret is as not including premarital sexual relations. In the Old Testament portion of the Bible, which many Christians view as part of the Bible, premarital sex was treated more as a property crime--taking the property of the father of the virgin. The punishment was paying money to the father. [Note 1] See also how the Old Testament allowed men to take captive women (seemingly considered property of the captor at that point) and either turn them into a wife, or let her go, after having had sexual relations with her in Deuteronomy 21:10.
Historically, premarital sex was considered a moral issue which was taboo in many cultures and considered a sin by a number of religions, but since about the 1960s, it has become more widely accepted, especially in Western countries. A 2014 Pew study on global morality found that premarital sex was considered particularly unacceptable in "predominantly Muslim nations", such as Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt, each having over 90% disapproval, while people in Western European countries were the most accepting, with Spain, Germany and France expressing less than 10% disapproval.
Definition
Until the 1950s, "premarital sex" referred to sexual relations between two people prior to marrying each other. During that period, it was the norm in Western societies for men and women to marry by the age of 21 or 22, and there was no considerations that one who had sex would not marry. The term was used instead of fornication, which had negative connotations, and was closely related to the concept and approval of [[virginity]], which is sexual abstinence until marriage.
The meaning has since shifted to refer to any sexual relations a person has prior to marriage and removing the emphasis on the relationship of the people involved. The definition has a degree of ambiguity. It is not clear whether sex between individuals legally forbidden from marrying, or the sexual relations of one uninterested in marrying would be considered premarital.
Alternative terms for premarital sex have been suggested, including non-marital sex (which overlaps with adultery), youthful sex, adolescent sex, and young-adult sex. These terms also suffer from a degree of ambiguity, as the definition of having sex differs from person to person.
Prevalence
In some cultures, for example in many modern-day Western cultures, many people do not hold value in sexual abstinence before marriage.
Historically, at least a significant portion of people have engaged in premarital sex, although the number willing to admit to having done so was not always high. In a study conducted in the United States, 61 percent of men and 12 percent of women born prior to 1910 admitted to having premarital sex; the gender disparity may have been caused by cultural double standards regarding the admission of sexual activity or by men frequenting prostitutes.
Starting in the 1920s, and especially after World War II, premarital sex became more common; this was especially prevalent among women. By the end of the 20th century, between 75 and 80 percent of Americans had vaginal intercourse before the age of 19. This has been attributed to numerous causes, including the increasing median age at marriage and the widespread availability of efficient contraceptives.
According to a 2001 UNICEF survey, in 10 out of 12 developed nations with available data, more than two-thirds of young people have had sexual intercourse while still in their teens. In Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States, the proportion is over 80%. In Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, approximately 25% of 15-year-olds and 50% of 17-year-olds have sex. In a 2005 Kaiser Family Foundation study of US teenagers, 29% of teens reported feeling pressure to have sex, 33% of sexually active teens reported "being in a relationship where they felt things were moving too fast sexually", and 24% had "done something sexual they didn’t really want to do". Several polls have indicated peer pressure as a factor in encouraging both girls and boys to have sex.
A majority of Americans have had premarital sex, according to a 2007 article in Public Health Reports. This fact is true for current young adults and also young adults in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Data from the National Survey of Family Growth indicate that in 2002, 77% of Americans had sex by age 20, and of that percent, 75% had premarital sex. In comparison, of women who turned 15 between 1964 and 1993, approximately 91% had premarital sex by age 30. Of women who turned 15 between 1954 and 1963, 82% of them had had premarital sex by age 30. Additionally, when comparing the General Social Survey of 1988-1996 to the one of 2004-2012, researchers found that participants of 2004-2012 did not report more sexual partners since the age of 18, nor more frequent sex or sex partners during the past year than those respondents of the 1988-1996 survey. Furthermore, there appears to be no substantial change in sexual behavior contrasting the earlier era to the current one. However, one of the differences included sexually active respondents of the current era were more likely to report having sex with a casual date or friend than reporting having sex with a spouse or regular partner. From 1943 to 1999, attitudes toward premarital sex changed such that young women’s approval increased from 12% to 73% and from 40% to 79% among young men. People’s feelings of sexual guilt also decreased during this period. Nowadays, less than 25% of people believe premarital sex is “always or almost always" wrong.
See also
Notes
- ↑ see Exodus 22:16 - 17 and Deuteronomy 22:28 - 29.
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