Washington D.C., Mar 11, 2010 / 02:14 am
A study which claimed that Catholic college women are likelier to “hook up” than women with no religious affiliation has been criticized by researchers. Parts of the survey report were based on a sample size of only 39 Catholic college women, while the report wrongly saw a college's religious affiliation as more influential than parents.
The Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate’s (CARA) research blog Nineteen Sixty-four relayed the researchers’ criticisms in an article titled “Replicate Before You Speculate Too Much …”
CARA discussed the peer-reviewed Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion article “‘Hooking Up’ at College: Does Religion Make a Difference?”
The study reported that Catholic women at non-Catholic and Catholic colleges display about a 72 percent increase in the odds of “hooking up” compared to women with no religious affiliation. Its results found that women at Catholic colleges and universities are almost four times as likely to have participated in “hooking up” compared to counterparts at secular schools.