Attitudes toward premarital and casual sex in Canada: A secondary analysis of the seventh wave of the World Values Survey.

This study explores attitudes toward premarital and casual sex in Canada’s general adult population using data from the 2020 seventh wave of the World Values Survey (WVS) with 4,018 participants. Findings show moderately positive attitudes toward premarital sex and comparatively lower approval for casual sex, with religion-related variables (religious identity, service attendance, and importance of religion) exhibiting the strongest negative associations with approval of both behaviors. Other sociodemographic factors such as political orientation, family status, ethnocultural background, language spoken at home, and province of residence (notably Quebec) showed smaller but significant associations, while gender differences were minimal for premarital sex and small for casual sex. The study highlights Canada’s ethnocultural and provincial particularities and emphasizes the central role of religiosity in shaping sexual attitudes, while noting limitations including the use of single-item measures, binary gender classification, and exclusion of certain populations.