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This study examines the intersection between spirituality and premarital sexuality. College students from a Midwestern university (N = 151) completed measures of their beliefs about the sanctification of sexual intercourse in loving, nonmarital relationships. A subsample of 65 participants completed parallel measures regarding current sexual relationships. Greater sanctification was related to increased sexual satisfaction in this subgroup. Increased belief in the sanctification of sexual intercourse was related to increased sexual behavior in the total sample. Finally, the sanctification of sexual intercourse demonstrated incremental validity in the prediction of sexual behavior and satisfaction beyond the effects of attitudes toward premarital sex, dating status, and general religiousness. Overall, these results suggest that sanctification is a unique and useful way to examine the connection between sexuality and spirituality.     

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No abstract available for this article.     

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No abstract available for this article.     

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Books reviewed:
Apprehending Politics: News Media and Individual Political Development. By Marco Calavita. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. 2005. 285 pp. Reviewed by Doris A. Graber University of Illinois, Chicago
Talking about Politics: Informal Groups and Social Identity in American Life. By Katherine Cramer Walsh. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2004. 292 pp.Reviewed by Doris A. Graber University of Illinois, Chicago     

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No abstract available for this article.     

TOPOLOGICAL AND EUCLIDEAN SPATIAL FEATURES NOTED BY CHILDREN

The question explored in this study is whether the spatial-perceptual difficulties experienced in some cultures could be partly accounted for in terms of a persistence of predominantly topological functioning. An oddity-choice task was devised consisting of one set of regular and another of irregular figures such that responses could be classified as topological (T), Euclidean (E) or “unrelated” (U), the last indicating failure to categorize figures consistently. A total of 415 children aged 4–12 were tested in Hong Kong, India, Scotland and Zambia. Few significant age trends but highly significant cultural and sub-cultural differences were found. Contrary to expectation, T responses were roughly constant while the proportion of both E and U responses showed systematic cross-cultural variations. There was evidence that it is U responses rather than the proportion of E responses which directly reflect spatial ability. The factors producing cultural and sub-cultural differences are discussed.