Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5559/di23.1.06
Religiosity and Attitudes Towards Sexuality and Marriage of the Adult Population in Croatia
Dinka Marinović Jerolimov
orcid.org/0000-0002-6511-3124
; Institut za društvena istraživanja, Zagreb
Branko Ančić
orcid.org/0000-0003-1438-2647
Abstract
Attitudes of the adult population in Croatia on some of the
issues in the field of marriage and sexuality are analysed in
this paper. The aim was to explore the extent to which it is a
dominantly Christian, specifically Catholic population in
accordance with norms of traditional church morality in these
issues, and if recent data show any changes in this respect.
Based on previous research considering congruence with
church moral norms in the field of sexuality and marriage, a
general hypothesis on religious respondents as a
heterogeneous group was set. This implies that a higher
religiosity (observed through indicators of religious
identification and practice) points to the lower permissiveness
in attitudes toward sexuality and other issues in the area of
marital relations. The paper used data from two studies:
Social and Religious Change in Croatia (SRC) from 2004 and
the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) module
Religion from 2008/2009. The analysis showed that religious
respondents are not a homogenous group, while an
indicator of religious practice proved to be a consistent
predictor of a greater chance that those respondents who
regularly attend church for religious services are more
traditional in attitudes about sexuality and marriage.
However, the findings indicate the presence of a combination
of traditional and modern values in the population of
believers. In the context of socio-demographic and socio-
-structural correlates, younger respondents, better educated,
males and those in urban areas show a greater
permissiveness in the investigated attitudes.
Keywords
religiosity; sexual permissiveness; marriage
Hrčak ID:
121881
URI
Publication date:
1.3.2014.
Visits: 5.683 *