Being Pure and Being Ashamed: Purity Culture and Sexual Shame Among Survivors of Nonconsensual Sexual Experiences

The intertwining of religion and sex, particularly sexual shame, is a pertinent but underexplored phenomenon among survivors of nonconsensual sexual experiences (NSEs). Sexual shame, defined as shame related to one’s sexual self, experiences, thoughts, and desires, is a commonly reported outcome of sexual violence and is known to negatively impact future sexual well-being. Purity culture – a strict sexual ethic rooted in Evangelical Christianity – may independently exacerbate sexual shame. The present online study examined associations between childhood purity culture exposure, adulthood acceptance of purity culture beliefs, and sexual shame in child sexual abuse survivors (n = 100), adult NSE survivors (n = 101), and controls (n = 100). Data were analyzed using General Additive Models with bootstrapped confidence intervals. As hypothesized, sexual shame was significantly higher among both NSE groups. Adulthood acceptance of purity culture beliefs independently predicted sexual shame for both men (β = 0.01, p < .001) and women (β = 0.004, p < .001), whereas childhood exposure to purity culture was a significant predictor only for men (F(2.11, 114) = 4.313, p = .01). These findings underscore sexual shame as a clinically relevant outcome of NSEs and highlight the influential role of religious sexual messaging in shaping that shame.