Cross-Sectional Study of Virginity beliefs through Influences from Religion and Age groups among Malaysian adults

This study examines religious affiliation and age group influences on virginity beliefs among Malaysian adults, corresponding to Gift, Stigma and Process metaphors. Malaysians are majorly religious. Religiously, premarital sex is often stigmatized, because virginity considered as marriage gift except in Buddhism tends towards secularism while non-religious hold individual perspectives; young adults face virginity-related tensions, while most older Malaysians hold traditional views on virginity. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 423 Malaysian adults, using adapted Virginity Belief Scale (VBS), measuring three frames via mean value (higher mean value, stronger frame endorsement). Respondents were divided into four religious affiliations (Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism) and No religious affiliation and six age groups (18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65 or above) and. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis tests conducted, with pairwise comparisons conducted on significant frames. For religious affiliation, significant differences showed across all frames, for gift (H = 45.076, p < 0.001, ƞ𝐻2 ≈ 0.098) and stigma (H = 116.523, p < 0.001, ƞ𝐻2 ≈ 0.27), for both endorsement Hinduism showing highest while Buddhism lowest for both, and Christianity/Islam/non-religious affiliation intermediate. Significantly weak differences for process frame (H = 9.508, p = 0.050, ƞ𝐻2 ≈ 0.013). Age groups showed significant differences for the gift frame (H = 45.375, p < 0.001, ƞ𝐻2 ≈ 0.097), lowest in 25-34, highest in 65 or above and significant differences for the stigma frame (H = 132.216, p < 0.001, ƞ𝐻2 ≈ 0.31), highest in 35-44 and lowest in 25-34 while age groups showed no significant differences for the process frame (H = 9.135, p = 0.104, ƞ𝐻 2≈ 0.0099). To conclude, this study among Malaysians found that gift and stigma frames varied with religious affiliation and age groups, weakly varied process frames for religious affiliation. While stable process frames among age groups suggested a more universal developmental perspective on virginity.