According to a recently published study, people who observe sexual abstinence until marriage are three times more likely to have greater stability in their relationship. Sex before marriage is no longer taboo in America, the UK or Europe, but a new study suggests that abstinence until after marriage ensures a happy and stable life.
Researchers at Brigham Young University found that 45% of men and women who had sex only with their spouse reported a “very high” level of relationship stability in their marriage. But only 25% of people with five to nine sexual partners reported similar levels, and only 14% of those with 10 or more partners. The researchers suggest that the results could be due to the risk of comparison or previous sexual partners interfering with marriage. The researchers noted that the study was “controlled for religiosity, which found for each participant how much spirituality is an important part of their life, how often do they pray and how important religious faith is to them.” Being very religious correlates with having fewer sexual partners and longer relationships. “We wanted to make sure that the differences found by sexual history were not simply related to the religiosity of the people in the sample,” the study says.
The report included surveys of 3,750 people in committed relationships who were asked to report relationship satisfaction on a scale of one to five. The team found that in the United States the average number of sexual partners before marriage is 6.7, and that men and women reported almost identical numbers. The study also assessed participants’ sexual satisfaction using a similar questionnaire. Again, those in the inexperienced group were most likely to report being “very satisfied” with all aspects of their sexual relationship, with more than one in five reporting high sexual satisfaction (20% of women and 21% of men. “These results call into question the idea that sexual experimentation over the years of dating helps people ‘settle down’ and prepare for marriage,” the study says.
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