The relationship between college students' knowledge of contraceptive devices and techniques and their attitudes toward premarital sexual permissiveness

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between college students knowledge of contraceptive devices and techniques and their attitudes tovra.rd premarital sexual permissiveness. This study also examined background variables of the respondents to determine if they might innuence the relationship between knowledge of contraceptive devices and techniques and attitudes toward premarital sexual permissiveness. The sample was composed of 392 students currently enrolled in two colleges in Virginia. A questionnaire was developed using Reiss' (1964) premarital sexual permissiveness scale, items measuring knowledge of contraceptive devices and techniques devised by the investigator, and items gathering information on background variables.

The relationship between knowledge of contraceptive devices and techniques and attitudes toward premarital sexual permissiveness was influenced by each of the following background variables: race, sex, religious denomination, and college major. Also males were found to be more permissive than females while knowledge of contraception was highest among white females followed by white males, black females and black males respectively.