U. S. and Icelandic College Student Attitudes Toward Relationships/Sexuality

Seven hundred and twenty-two undergraduates from a large southeastern university in the U. S. and 368 undergraduates from The University of Iceland in the Reykjavik, Iceland completed a 100 item Internet questionnaire revealing their (mostly white and 20-24 years old) attitudes on various relationship and sexual issues. Significant differences (.01) included the desire to marry (U. S. undergraduates higher desire), interracial marriage (U. S. more willing), interreligious marriage (U. S. less willing), impulsiveness about love (U. S. more impulsive), love at first sight (U. S. more likely), cheating on partner (U. S. more likely), regret for early sexual behavior in relationship (U. S. more regretful), spanking versus time out (U. S. more likely to spank), same-sex marriage (U. S. less approving). There were no differences between U. S. and Icelandic students in regard to desire to have children (both high desire to have children), in commitment to end a relationship with a partner who cheated on them and in condom use (both did not use consistently). Implications and limitations are identified.