TY  - JOUR
A1  - Caltabiano, Marcantonio
A1  - Rosina, Alessandro
A1  - Dalla Zuanna, Gianpiero
T1  - Interdependence between sexual debut and church attendance in Italy
Y1  - 2006/05/30
JF  - Demographic Research
JO  - Demographic Research
SN  - 1435-9871
SP  - 453
EP  - 484
DO  - 10.4054/DemRes.2006.14.19
VL  - 14
IS  - 19
UR  - https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol14/19/
L1  - https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol14/19/14-19.pdf
L2  - https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol14/19/14-19.pdf
N2  - The influence of religion on an individual’s life-course in general – and on sexual behaviour in particular – has long been recognised by social scientists, although few studies have explored the reciprocal causal interdependence between religiosity and sexual debut, mainly in an overwhelmingly Catholic European context. 

In this paper, we study the dynamic bi-directional effect between first coital experience and discontinuance of church attendance among a representative sample of Italian students. Both effects work, contrasting the results of other authors regarding the USA, where only the effect of religion on sex has been detected. The present results do not change when the two processes are considered simultaneously and unobserved heterogeneity is taken into account. Some possible explanations are discussed.

ER  -