The influence of tradition, of what is done in youth. But religion does not prevent, in most cases, sexual relations before marriage.
A new one concluded that the frequency with which a woman participates in religious services is one of the strongest factors in predicting whether get married before having children.
The research, based on longitudinal data collected over more than two decades in the US, suggests that religion continues to play a decisive role in the way many women structure their family life.
This study analyzed information from 4,333 women born between 1980 and 1984, monitored between 1997 and 2020.
Researchers sought to understand which factors influence the sequence of so-called “family formation events”, such as marriage, a cohabitation and the birth of children.
The results show that only 14% of the women studied married before living with a partner or having children. The most common pattern was prior cohabitation.
Still, within this minority group, the religion turned out to be a particularly important element.
More than half of women who married first said attend religious services at least once a week during youth.
Among women who chose to cohabit before marriage, only one in five had this same level of religious practice, highlights the .
The investigation also concluded that belonging to religious denominations conservative — such as some Baptist, Pentecostal, Mormon, Orthodox Jewish, or Muslim communities — was associated with a greater likelihood of early marriage and no prior cohabitation. These women also tended to get married earliernormally between 22 and 23 years old, while the others started their family life later.
Despite this, the authors emphasize that the religion does not preventin most cases, the sexual relations before marriage.
Even among the most religious women, the majority reported having had sexual activity before getting married. According to the researchers, this suggests that the main impact of religion is not only in defending sexual abstinence, but above all in the cultural promotion of marriage as an ideal model of family life.
Sociologist Paula England, from New York University in Abu Dhabi and co-author of the study, explains that marriage without prior cohabitation has become relatively down among younger generations in the United States, which makes it particularly relevant to understand who continues to follow this traditional path.
