Abstract
BACKGROUND: Young people's attitudes toward marriage have been undergone changes in recent years and it seems to be contradicting in the struggle between conservative and modern liberal attitudes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the attitude of new grooms toward intact hymen in Kerman. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study has been conducted on 790 new grooms in Kerman, Iran. In this study, we examined the attitudes in two aspects of sexual norm and personal attitude toward premarital relationships in new grooms. The sampling method was purposive sampling and the data were analyzed using t-test and analysis of variance. RESULTS: The results of this study have showed a more conservative sexual attitude toward the sexual norms of premarital sex. The average score of the participants in the sexual norm and personal attitude was, respectively 15.86 and 48.15, indicating that their conservative views have been overcome. Most of the samples (90%) have believed in required preserving virginity before marriage, and 82% believed in virginity as the most valuable asset of the girls. In this study, the conservative attitudes of men were inversely related with their age and were directly related with perceived sexual norm and the level of affinity to religious affairs. CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, conservative attitudes toward premarital relationships are predominating in new grooms, but this is not generalized. The conservative attitude of new grooms may have harmful effects on their interpersonal behaviors after marriage, which requires purposeful training.