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David Burnett
Psychology, Southern Oregon University

Lani Fujitsubo, Mentor

Sexual Information, Attitudes, Behaviors, and Satisfaction

The present study explores correlations between the sources of sexual information and people's current sexual attitudes, behaviors, and levels of satisfaction. Questionnaires completed by 101 eligible college students at Southern Oregon University during the summer of 2005 formed the data set. The Index of Sexual Satisfaction and the Sexual Attitude Scale were used to evaluate sexual satisfaction/dissatisfaction and attitude. The study focused on several related hypotheses: 1) the majority of respondents would indicate having received most of their information from peers and media, 2) this group of respondents would be more liberal in their views of sexuality, 3) would have more sexual partners, 4) would be more likely to have engaged in sexual behavior often seen as atypical (e.g., bondage, spanking, or voyeurism), 5) would be more likely to have had unprotected sex, and 6) would have a higher level of sexual dissatisfaction than those who reported receiving more information from parents and sex education classes. Results tended to support hypotheses 1, 3, and 6, but not hypotheses 2 and 5. Results for hypothesis 4 were inconclusive.