ABSTRACT
In the preface, I observed that our knowledge of premarital sexuality has been fragmented and lacked unity. Because of the limitations with which all researchers must work, investigations have often focused on a single group of sexual correlates while sampling youth from a single developmental stage. For example, attitudes or personality characteristics may have served as an investigative focus, without considering the important influence of peers, family, or relationship partners. Additionally, the majority of the work in sexuality could be characterized as atheoretical despite potentially useful and readily available theories (Weis, 1998, explores the issue of the use of theory in sexuality research). These two weaknesses in previous premarital sexuality work led me to establish two overarching goals that guided the development of this book.
