Int J Adv Counselling (2012) 34:259–267

DOI 10.1007/s10447-012-9156-6

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Premarital Sex, Social Support, Submissive Behaviors,

and Loneliness Among Turkish University Students

İlhan Yalçın & Ahu Arıcıoğlu & Asude Malkoç

Published online: 30 June 2012

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate whether differences in social support,
submissive behaviors, and loneliness existed among Turkish university students who had
had premarital sexual intercourse and those who had not. Using self-reported questionnaires,
students who had experienced sexual intercourse were contrasted with those who had not.
Data were gathered on 420 university students in Ankara, Turkey. MANOVA statistics were
used in the data analysis. Results indicated that more than 75 % of the total respondents
reported that they had never had sexual intercourse; the frequency of sexual intercourse was
higher among males than females. It was found that students who had had sexual intercourse
reported less perceived support from family. The two groups were not significantly different,
however, in perceived support from friends, submissive behaviors and loneliness. Possible
interpretations of these data and implications for future study are suggested.

Keywords Premarital sex . Social support . Submissive behaviors . Loneliness . Turkish

university students

Introduction

Attitudes toward premarital sexual intercourse are not invariable, but involve various patterns in
different cultures. Even in the Western world, countries differ in their emphasis on the accept-
ability of premarital sexual experience. Widmer et al. (1998) conducted research on attitudes
towards premarital sex, extramarital sex, homosexual sex, and teen sex in 24 countries.
According to these researchers, the mean percent agreeing that premarital sex was ‘not wrong
at all’ was 61 % across the 24 countries. The Philippines was the least accepting, with only 11 %
saying premarital sex was acceptable, whereas Sweden was the most accepting, with 89 %

We would like to thank Craig S. Cashwell for his helpful comments on earlier draft of this paper.
İ. Yalçın (*)
Department of Guidance and Counselling, Faculty of Educational Sciences,
Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
e-mail: yalcini@ankara.edu.tr

A. Arıcıoğlu
Department of Guidance and Counselling, Faculty of Education, Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey

A. Malkoç
Department of Guidance and Counselling, Faculty of Education, Trakya University, Edirne, Turkey
260 Int J Adv Counselling (2012) 34:259–267

saying that it was not wrong. In the United States, 41 % of respondents stated that premarital sex
was not wrong at all, while 69 % of respondents from Canada held this view. It seems apparent,
then, that attitudes toward premarital sex differ between countries and cultures.
Turkey represents a complex picture in terms of sexuality attitudes (Aydın and Gülcat
2001). Turkish society has experienced quite rapid cultural and social change from being
essentially an agricultural-based society to a modern society (Çok and Gray 2007). Ongoing
social change is very evident in Turkey. Improvements in technology, industrial advance-
ment, education, and mass media have strong effects on this social change.
Turkey is located with close connections to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. For this
reason, Turkish society experiences mixed views regarding sexual beliefs and behaviors. Besides
liberal sexual lifestyles, conservative values are evident in Turkey. Premarital sexual intercourse
has been prohibited by the Islamic religion, which is widespread in the country (Çok and Gray
2007). On the other hand, since the Republic of Turkey was declared in 1923, structural reforms
have been undertaken to build a new country that is secular according to the Constitution.
Because of its rapid transformation, Turkish society has faced significant difficulties in various
areas, such as in regard to religion and socio-cultural values (Aydın and Gülcat 2001).
According to Çok et al. (2001), in general, premarital sexual intercourse for men is tolerated
in Turkey, whereas women are expected to have no sexual experience before marriage. These
notions seem to be supported by research findings. In one study conducted on Turkish
university students (Çok et al. 2001), 67 % stated that they had never had sexual intercourse,
but this finding differed by gender, with 52 % of males and 80.8 % of females reporting no
sexual intercourse. Recent findings from a study of Turkish university students have revealed
that 66.4 % of all participants reported that they had never had sexual intercourse (Gölbaşı and
Kelleci 2011). In another study with Turkish university students, it was found that 84.1 % of the
study sample had never had sexual intercourse (Şentürk Erenel and Gölbaşı 2011). Similar to
Çok et al. (2001), Aras et al. (2007) found that the self-reported frequency of sexual intercourse
among male students (61.2 %) was higher than that among female students in Turkey (18.3 %).
Two studies recently conducted on Turkish university students have shown similar findings to
the literature cited above. In one study (Yasan et al. 2009), 39.34 % of males and 5.88 % of
females, and in another study (Bal Yılmaz et al. 2010) 73.2 % of male students and 27.4 % of
female students reported having had sexual intercourse.
Undergraduate-aged students are at an interesting period of transition, where they are
approaching the end of their adolescent years and entering young adulthood (Pepin and
Banyard 2006). The transition into a new academic environment may have negative consequen-
ces for some people (Newman et al. 2007). Supportive social networks help to buffer the impact
of challenging life events. Specifically, communication with family members and friends may
have a strong influence on individuals’ decisions about sexual intercourse. Pepin and Banyard
(2006) found that feelings about parental and peer interactions positively influenced development
in college-aged students. Parks et al. (1983), similarly, reported that romantic involvement was
positively associated with perceived support from the subject’s own network of family and
friends. In another study (Newman et al. 2007), results indicated that changes in parental support
and peer support were significantly associated with depressive symptoms during school transi-
tions. Siyez and Siyez (2007) found that precocious sexual behaviors among Turkish adolescents
was associated with decreased rates of perceived social support from family members.
Loneliness is a concept that researchers almost always consider to be an aversive and
undesirable experience (Çeçen 2007a). According to Segrin et al. (2003), loneliness occurs
when people feel that their social contacts and relational qualities are not adequate. A review
of the literature reveals that loneliness is related to poor social skills (Deniz et al. 2005),
humor styles (Çeçen 2007b), shyness (Jackson et al. 2002), and depression (Swami et al.
Int J Adv Counselling (2012) 34:259–267 261

2007). Weiss (1987) identified intimate and social loneliness as two kinds of experiences
that result from deficits in different types of relationships. Intimate loneliness can be
described as an experience that results from a lack of one-on-one relationships or friend-
ships. Social loneliness occurs when one has a limited means of developing friendships and
social networks. Segrin et al. (2003) found that relational quality was negatively associated
with loneliness. Further, according to Jackson et al. (2000), one major focus of research on
interpersonal correlates of loneliness has been on the size and quality of social networks.
Common cultural stereotypes promote women’s submission to men, particularly within
intimate heterosexual relationships (Kiefer et al. 2006). McCreary and Rhodes (2001) found
that dominant acts were perceived to be more stereotypical of men, whereas submissive acts
were perceived to be more stereotypical of women. Further, submissive behaviors can be
affected by culture. Because of the complex structure of Turkish society, it was considered
important to examine submissive behaviors of Turkish university students and their sexual
experiences.
Although there are several studies that have investigated Turkish peoples’ premarital
sexuality (e.g., Çok et al. 2001; Gölbaşı and Kelleci 2011; Gürsoy and Vural 2003; Ozan et
al. 2005), there is still need for comprehensive studies on Turkish premarital sexual
behaviors and related factors. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether
differences in social support, submissive behaviors, and loneliness exist between undergrad-
uate students who have had sexual intercourse and those who have not.
More specifically, the study aimed to answer the following research questions:
a) What is the frequency of having experienced sexual intercourse among undergraduate
Turkish university students?
b) Is there any significant difference in social support, submissive behaviors, and loneli-
ness levels of undergraduate Turkish university students who have had sexual inter-
course and those who have not?

Method

Participants

Participants involved 420 (259 female, 161 male) undergraduate volunteers recruited from the
Colleges of Engineering (55.4 %), Education (28.6 %) and Arts (16 %) at a university in
Ankara, Turkey. The sample age ranged between 17 and 24 years of age (M020.8, SD01.46).
The majority of participants (86.4 %) identified their socio-economic status as middle class,
whereas 7.6 % described themselves as upper class and 6.0 % described themselves as lower
class. No participants were married.

Instrumentation

Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS)

This scale was developed and then revised by Yıldırım (2004). It is a self-report measure
assessing individuals’ perceived social support levels. In this study, the 2004 revised form of
the PSSS was used. The scale consists of 50 items grouped into three subscales (i) Family
social support scale, (ii) Teacher social support scale, and (iii) Friend social support scale.
Respondents rated each item on a 3-point scale. Higher scores obtained from this scale
indicate a higher degree of perceived social support. The scale has been shown to have
262 Int J Adv Counselling (2012) 34:259–267

adequate internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha of .93 for the total scale. Evidence of
subscale internal consistency is also available, with the family support, friend support, and
teacher support scales having Cronbach alphas reported as .94, .91, and .93 respectively.
Test- re-test reliability for the scale has been reported as .91. For the family support, friend
support, and teacher support scales, re-test reliability coefficients have been reported as .89,
.85, and .86, respectively (Yıldırım 2004).

Submissive Acts Scale (SAS)

This scale was originally developed by Gilbert and Allan (1994) to assess submissive behav-
iors. The scale consists of 16 items. Respondents rate each item on a 5-point scale ranging from
1 (does not describe me at all) to 5 (describes me exactly). Total scores range from 16 to 80 with
higher scores indicating greater evidence of submissive behaviors. Cronbach’s alpha reliability
coefficient of the Turkish adaptation was reported as .74 (Savaşır and Şahin 1997).

UCLA Loneliness Scale

This scale was developed by Russell et al. (1978) to assess individuals’ generalized
loneliness levels. It was translated to Turkish by Demir (1990) who also tested its psycho-
metric properties with a Turkish sample. The scale has 20 likert-type items ranging from 1
(never experience) to 4 (always experience) on which respondents rate how frequently they
experience each statement. Total scores range from 20 to 80 with higher scores indicating
greater loneliness. Internal consistency based on Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the
loneliness scale was reported as .96. Five-week test- re-test reliability yielded a correlation
coefficient of .94 (Demir 1990).

Procedure

The participants completed questionnaires in groups of 25–30 during a class meeting, and all
completed the procedure in less than 50 min. Prior to collecting data, students were informed
about the research study. Then, those who volunteered to respond the questionnaires were
given the package. Before filling the scales, students were also informed that they should not
write down any distinguishing personal information on the forms and that the answers given
to the questionnaires would be kept confidential. Questionnaire packets contained a brief
demographic form, in which students were asked various non-identifying informational
questions and whether they had ever had sexual intercourse, followed by the Perceived
Social Support Scale (PSSS), the Submissive Acts Scale (SAS) and the UCLA Loneliness
Scale.
The data obtained from participants were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance
(MANOVA). In addition to tests of statistical significance, effect sizes were calculated for
comparisons. Eta squared (η2) was adopted for analysis. Effect sizes can be categorized as
small (.01), medium (.06), or large (.14) (Cohen 1988; Stevens 2002).

Results

The majority of students (76 %, n0319) reported that they had never had sexual intercourse.
When the data were analyzed in terms of gender, 54.7 % (n088) out of 161 males and
89.2 % (n0231) out of 259 females stated that they had never had sexual intercourse.
Int J Adv Counselling (2012) 34:259–267 263

Perceived Support from Family

A significant multivariate test statistic was obtained: Wilk’s Lambda (λ)0.935, F (4,415)0
7.21, partial η2 00.065, p<.001. Follow-up univariate F-tests revealed statistically significant
differences on perceived social support from family (F (1,418)024.95, partial η2 00.055, p<
.001) between students who reported having had sexual intercourse and those who reported
that they had not. The mean score of perceived social support from family for students was
not greatly different, with those who reported having had sexual intercourse being 49.75
whereas the mean score of perceived social support from family for students who had never
had sexual intercourse was 53.72 (see Table 1).

Perceived Support from Friends

F-tests revealed no statistically significant between-group differences on perceived support

from friends for students who had had sexual intercourse and those who had not (F (1,418)0
0.132, p>.05). The mean score of perceived social support from friends for students who
reported having had sexual intercourse was 33.24 whereas the mean score of perceived
social support from friends for those who had never had sexual intercourse was 33.46.

Submissive Behaviors

There was no statistically significant difference in reported submissive behaviors between

students who reported having had sexual intercourse and those who had not. The two groups
were similar in their level of submissive behaviors, with means of 35.04 and 35.24
respectively (F (1,418)00.038, p>.05).

Loneliness

The MANOVA analysis revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between
the groups in terms of levels of loneliness (F (1,418)04.61, partial η2 00.011, p<.05).
Although this finding was statistically significant, the effect size was so small that there
was no “practical” significance in the differences.

Table 1 Means, standard deviations, and univariate test statistics for between-group comparisons

Variables Sexual Intercourse M (SD) Univariate test statistics Partial Eta squared

F Df P

PSS-Fa Yes 49.75 7.82 24.950 1 p<.001 0.055

No 53.72 6.75
PSS-Fr Yes 33.24 4.96 0.132 1 p>.05 0.000
No 33.46 5.51
SAS Yes 35.04 9.51 0.038 1 p>.05 0.000
No 35.24 9.04
UCLA Yes 36.54 10.57 4.6080 1 p<.05 0.011
No 34.13 9.60

PSS-Fa Perceived Social Support from Family, PSS-Fr Perceived Social Support from Friends, SAS Submis-
sive Acts Scale, UCLA Loneliness Scale
264 Int J Adv Counselling (2012) 34:259–267

Discussion

Results of the current study provide interesting information about premarital sexual inter-
course in Turkey. First, the fact that the frequency of the experience of premarital sexual
intercourse differed by gender is consistent with the findings of previous studies (Aras et al.
2007; Bal Yılmaz et al. 2010; Çok et al. 2001). This finding can be attributed to attitudes in
Turkish society on premarital sexual intercourse and virginity, so that dynamics in Turkish
society still today influence people to expect no premarital sexual intercourse from females.
Even though Turkish society has been changing from a more conservative family-type style,
which accepts certain stereotypes and roles for different genders, to a more contemporary
lifestyle, conservative beliefs are still commonly held. Therefore, this type of expectation
determines the way that young females live their lives and make choices about premarital
sexual intercourse.
Second, perceived social support from family does appear to have an effect on the
premarital sexual intercourse behaviors of university students. With a Turkish adoles-
cent group, Siyez and Siyez (2007) found negative correlations between family
support and having had sexual intercourse. Within Turkish society, family plays an
important social support role. University students who have supportive relationships
with their families seem less likely to engage in premarital sexual intercourse, which
is generally regarded as unacceptable behavior in Turkish society. However, this
finding should be considered with caution, as the mean difference was relatively
small. Considering rapid cultural and socio-economical changes in the society, this
fact should be reviewed with future studies.
Third, while the two previous factors affected premarital sexual intercourse behaviors,
perceived support from friends did not seem to have an effect. According to Erikson (1968),
a primary psychosocial task of individuals who are in early adulthood is to establish
intimacy, in contrast to isolation. During this developmental period, individuals attempt to
reveal their personal characteristics to others through setting up close relationships, drawing
on their communication abilities, and being accepted. Love and passion become important
factors in intimate relationships. More specifically, whether individuals have had a sexual
relationship or not, they can receive social support from significant others. In other words,
individuals have various social support sources in this developmental stage. They might
successfully experience this stage with satisfying relationships, regardless of whether they
are sexually active.
Another result in the current study was that submissive behaviors and loneliness were not
found to have an effect on premarital sexual behaviors. There were no significant differences
in the means of the SAS and UCLA scores between sexually experienced and non-
experienced students. These findings have not been compared to other findings because
there are few studies that evaluate relationships between premarital sexual intercourse,
loneliness, and submissive behaviors among undergraduate students.
In conclusion, this study was an effort to investigate relationships between premarital
sexual intercourse, social support, submissive behaviors, and loneliness among undergrad-
uate students. The findings have implications for providing more effective counseling
services at universities and other educational institutions. First, often individuals adopt
traditional attitudes toward premarital sexual behaviors from their families while they are
growing up in Turkish society. On the other hand, traditional attitudes and values are
transforming and it is obvious that the lifestyle of university students differs in many ways
from that of their parents. Therefore, students may benefit from counseling services about
sex-related issues. University counseling centers should provide individual, couple, and
Int J Adv Counselling (2012) 34:259–267 265

group counseling services suitable for the developmental stages and problem areas of
university students.
Second, although the percentage of students who had had premarital sexual relationships
was relatively small in the current research, studies carried out with young people in Turkey
(e.g., Ege et al. 2011; Kaya et al. 2007) have revealed that young people can become
sexually active at an early age. This might be a problem in terms of sexual health. Therefore,
preventive counseling services should be provided to students in early stages of their
educational life.
In one study, a majority of first-year undergraduate Turkish student stated that they would
participate in sex education if it was available (Kaya et al. 2007). Through psycho-
educational programs, students might be informed about negative results of risky sexual
behaviors, such as sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy. Such problems
might negatively affect individuals psychologically, physically, and socially. For that reason,
such programs should be provided through an interdisciplinary team, including counselors,
physicians, and nurses.
Third, the current study revealed that students who had had premarital sexual intercourse
perceived lower social support from their families than students who had not. According to
results of one study (Ege et al. 2011), only 9.1 % of Turkish students reported that their
source of knowledge about sexual and reproductive health was their families. However,
57.2 % of them stated books and media as being sources of knowledge about sexual health.
Individuals who have no chance to talk about sexual issues with their families risk being
misinformed through sources such as media, magazines, and the Internet. Preventing this
risk would be possible through enriching relationships between students and their parents.
For this purpose, school counselors in elementary and high schools might provide services
such as parent education, communication training for families, and informing parents about
developmental stages of their children. Thus, students might perceive more support from
their parents and share more aspects of their own lives.
As with all research, the findings must be considered within the context of the limitations
of this study. Firstly, the diversity of the sample was limited in that the participants consisted
largely of middle-class undergraduate students from a single university. A more economi-
cally diverse sample might yield different results. Future studies may be strengthened if
attempts were made to gather samples more representative of the general population.
Secondly, all of the data collected in this study were self-report questionnaires. Thus,
results of the study must be interpreted tentatively, as self-reporting is subject to respondent
bias. In particular, social norms within Turkey might lead some women to deny having had
sexual intercourse when in fact they could have been sexually active. Further, more research
is needed to better understand contemporary attitudes toward premarital sexual relationships.
Researchers might need to consider familial, cultural, and religious influences on sexual
behavior choices.

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