The Relationship Between Childhood Unpredictability And Permissive Sexual Attitude Of Female College Students:a Moderated Mediation Model

With the rapid development of society and the trend of value diversification,the attitude of Chinese universities towards sexuality is changing continuously.Sexual attitudes are linked to one’s perception of life in general,and can affect one’s choice of sexual partners,occurrence of risky sexual behaviors,and thus affect an individual’s sexual health.In addition,women bear the primary responsibility for reproduction and their physical and sexual health affects the health of future generations.Evolutionary psychology studies the adaptability of individuals to their living environment.The life history theory says,childhood environmental stress has a great influence on the tendency of life history strategy and the risk degree of sexual behavior.The more unpredictable of childhood environment,the more likely individuals were to exhibit a tendency toward a fast-life history strategy and a more casual sexual relationship.Combined with self-determination theory,parental autonomy support can stimulate the initiative of children’s behavior,promote children’s independent development,encourage children to make self-choice,and promote children’s behavior performance.In childhood,female college students with high self-support from their parents are encouraged to be active in their behaviors during childhood,helping them perceive the external environmental threats that could not be controlled in the unpredictable environment and cope with them through behavioral changes.Therefore,this study combined the perspectives of evolutionary psychology and self-determination theory to explore the influence of unpredictability of childhood environment on female college students’ indulgent attitude and its mechanism.In this study,the method of convenient sampling was adopted and the measurement was carried out by questionnaire.The Childhood Unpredictability Questionnaire,Permissive Sexual Attitude Scale,Sense of Control Scale and Parental Autonomy and Autonomy Support Scale was used.The subjects selected 1033 female college students aged 17-24 for the questionnaire survey.SPSSwas used for descriptive statistics,difference test and partial correlation analysis.SPSS macro plug-in PROCESSwas used for mediation analysis and moderated mediation analysis,and related influencing factors,such as family monthly income,were controlled.The results show that:（1）Childhood unpredictability of female college students was significantly negatively correlated with sense of control,and positively correlated with permissive sexual attitude,and sense of control was negatively correlated with permissive sexual attitude.（2）Childhood unpredictability positively predicted permissive sexual attitude of female college students;The sense of control plays a mediating role between childhood unpredictability and permissive sexual attitude of female college students.（3）The mediating effect of sense of control was influenced by the moderating effect of parental autonomy support.When parental autonomy support was at a high level,the unpredictability of childhood environment significantly negatively predicted sense of control.The unpredictability of childhood environment also negatively predicted the sense of control when the individual’s parental autonomy support was at a low level.Based on the life history theory and self-determination theory,this study explored the influence of childhood unpredictability on permissive sexual attitude of female college students,including the mediating of sense of control and the moderating of parental autonomic support.It is helpful to better understand the psychological mechanism of the influence of childhood unpredictability on permissive sexual attitude and provide constructive suggestions on how to adjust and improve the psychological mechanism.