Assessing the Association Between Religion, Relationship Status, Sexual Activity, and Self Worth Among College Students

The course of romantic relationships has changed greatly over the past century especially among young people. This research explores the relationship between the importance of religion and relationship status and sexual activity on self worth in a sample of over 70,000 college students aged 18-25 in the United States. Data for this research come from the Healthy Minds Study, an online survey of college students conducted from 2018-2019 by the University of Michigan. Using chi-square tests, I first examine the relationship between religion and number of sexual partners, relationship status, and agreement with two statements about self worth: I am a good person and live a good life and people respect me. I hypothesized that students with higher levels of religiosity would report lower levels of self worth if they had a greater number of sexual partners, but higher levels of self worth if they reported being in a relationship.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/stander_posters/3626/thumbnail.jp