Campus Location
Abilene Campus (Residential)
Date of Award
5-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Marriage and Family Therapy
Degree Name
Master of Marriage and Family Therapy
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Greg Brooks
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Joanna Méndez-Pounds
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Lisa Merchant
Abstract
Recent changes in abortion law created a need to study how these changes may affect the most at risk and sexually active community: launching adults. This study investigated if abortion attitude and political identity predict risky sexual behavior of launching adults, even in the presence of the reliable predictor of sexual attitudes. Forty-one unmarried launching adults (18-25) were recruited through snowballing and convenience sampling. Results revealed that abortion attitude was a significant predictor of risky sexual behavior (F(1,39) = 5.25, p < .05, ß = .462, R2 = .119), but not while in the presence of sexual attitudes. There was not a significant change in predicting power between sexual attitudes and the variables of interest, abortion attitudes and political identity. Political identity was not a significant predictor of risky sexual behavior. The implications of the study are discussed, including how abortion attitudes may potentially impact risky sexual behavior and the importance of clinicians, physicians, families, and lawmakers to consider how abortion law may put launching adults at risk considering the results of the study.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Gardenhire, Brandon Hunter, "Predictors of Sexual Behaviors of Launching Adults in a Post-Roe World" (2024). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 769.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/769