An Investigation of Premarital Sexual Permissiveness of University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the premarital sexual permissiveness of a random sampling of the 1971-72 summer school student body of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. A secondary purpose of this study was to determine the degree of equalitarianism females showed regarding premarital sexual attitudes. The population sample consisted of 52 females and 38 males who were all undergraduate summer school students. All of the students were given a self-administered anonymous questionnaire containing questions regarding both male and female premarital sexual standards. The data were analyzed by using the "contrived" five item scale to determine same sex and opposite sex permissiveness for both male and female respondents. A test of unrelated measures was used to check for significant differences between male and female premarital sexual attitudes and for self and opposite sex permissiveness as a measure of equalitarianism. An analysis using percentages was made of the total responses with regard to agreement with coital items, to find out the overall permissiveness level for men and women. The results of these analyses indicate the following: that females expressed more permissive attitudes regarding male standards than did males; that males expressed more permissive attitudes toward female standards than did females; and that females were less equalitarian than males