Book

Forbidden Fruit: Sex and Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers

Mark D. Regnerus

A sociological study examining how organized religion shapes adolescents' sexual attitudes, decision-making, and behavior in America, drawing on data from the National Study of Youth and Religion and other large-scale surveys.

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Themeresearch-bulk-chunkffsr

Contextresearch_analysis

Appears in

Sex & Religion

What this book knows

Religion shapes American teenagers' sexual behavior less through conviction than through social networks, norms, and imperfectly internalized guilt.

Sex: Primary
Work: Absent
Learning: Present
Religion: Primary

religion-and-sexobedience-and-authorityshame

religion-and-sex

Religion plays a role but is hardly a totalizing influence — it has to get in line with other competing demands.
FFSR-RC-159
Simply attending church is not going to cause adolescents to delay first sex or engage with fewer sexual partners.
FFSR-RC-161
Even the most religious African Americans tend to exhibit first sex about as early as the least religious white adolescents.
FFSR-RC-171

shame

I deal with so many Christian young people torn apart with guilt over masturbation; they want to stop and just can't.
FFSR-RC-196

obedience-and-authority

Respondents who rank moral or religious guilt below pregnancy risk or threat of discovery would not be considered intentionally religious.
FFSR-RC-200
We think we know why we act as we do, but we are easily deceived and often only account for socially acceptable motivations.
FFSR-RC-160

Illuminates

6 published passages · book excerpt · research analysis

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