Abstract: Life history is an evolutionary approach to the study of the timing of developmental milestones and reproductive activities. We follow this theoretical approach in an analysis of the sexual attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of over 13,000 12 to 19 year olds who participated in a sexual education program promoting abstinence until marriage. Factor analyses of this survey data revealed a general factor – Sexual Restrictiveness – hypothesized to be a dimension of the life history strategy and that underlies a variety of self-reported sexual beliefs and attitudes. The corresponding responses include expressed intentions to abstain from sex, endorsed personal and social reasons to refrain from sex, positive attitudes towards teenage abstinence, and lack of endorsement of positive aspects of sex; related responses perceived refusal skills regarding sex, endorsed health reasons to abstain from sex, and religiosity. As expected, lower scores on the Sexual Restrictedness factor were associated with more frequent endorsement of sexual behavior, even when statistically controlling for age and gender. The relation between these sexual attitudes and reported sexual behaviors and life history evolution in humans is discussed

Key words: life history approach, sexual restrictiveness, sexual behavior, sexual attitudes