“Like A Virgin”. Correlates Of Virginity Among Italian University Students

In this paper we describe the correlates of virginity in Italy. We use a dataset of students enrolled in bachelor programs of Economics and Statistics stemming from the SELFY survey, conducted in Italy in 2001 and 2017. Descriptive results show a reduction of students, both males and females, which are virgin at the time of the interview between 2001 and 2017. Regression analyses suggest that self-esteem and own body image, the relationship with parents (in particular the mother), and religion exert the strongest correlation with virginity. Models augmented with interaction terms between time and religion variables show that the relationship between religion and virginity has weakened over time. Our results also show that the participation in religious groups is more important than the importance attributed to religion in favouring being virgin. In all, our findings extend research on sexuality among Italian young adults and underscore the important variability that exist in the sexual experiences of students as highlighted by the salience of a multitude of individual, familial, interpersonal, and community-level factors associated with their virginity.