Premarital sexual intercourse among single college students: A discriminant analysis

This study assesses the relative importance of interpersonal psychological variables in the prediction of the number of premarital sexual partners of single college students. Using data from a sample of 466 college students from a large mid-Atlantic university, various discriminant functions were formulated and used to predict a student's premarital sexual partners group membership. A virgin group, a monogamous group, a moderate partners group, and a extensive partners group were identified. The variables selected by the computer for inclusion in the functions are of theoretical importance. Males and females differed in the sets of weighted variables chosen by the computer to enter the discriminant functions. Different functions were found to best discriminate the virgin group from the monogamous group, the moderate partners group, and the extensive partners group, especially for males. When subjects were reclassified using the discriminant functions, the predictive accuracies were significantly increased above chance in 14 instances of reclassification. The data support the view that male and female single college students are moving toward an equal standard with regard to premarital intercourse behavior. However, the interpersonal psychological correlates of sexual intercourse appear to be quite different for males and females. Male variation along the power or dominance dimension of Leary's Interpersonal Adjective Checklist was most reflective of their sexual partners group, while females were best discriminated using variables related to the affiliation or affection dimension. A three-stage theory of normative change is formulated to explain the existing data.