A cross-sectional study of factors associated with adolescent sexual activity

Perception, practices, and understanding related to teenage pregnancy among the adolescent girls in India: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

Teenage pregnancy is a concerning public health problem in India. Misperception and misunderstanding about pregnancy and its preventive methods lead to pregnancy when adolescents are involved in unsafe sexual intercourse. This scoping review aims to discuss the evidence on the perception, practices, and understanding related to teenage pregnancy among adolescent girls in the Indian context.

METHOD

The Arksey and O'Malley scoping review framework and Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewers' Manual were used for the scoping review. The Population, Concept, and Context strategy (PCC) ensured the review questions, eligibility criteria, and search strategy. The Systematic Review and Meta-analysis: Extension for Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR) was used. A literature search was done using electronic databases by specific keywords such as "teenage", "adolescences", "pregnancy", "perception", "knowledge", "awareness", etc. Relevant grey literature was identified through further searching. The review included studies that fulfil inclusion criteria having female adolescent groups aged from 10 to 19 years in the Indian context between the years 2000 and 2021.

RESULT

We found 40 eligible studies; more than half of these were from southern (35%) and northern (27.5%) regions, and studies from the rest of India were very sporadically distributed. Most studies (72.5%) were published in the last 10 years. The relevant extracted data from individual studies were synthesized and presented in the two major sections, perception, practices, and the second one, understanding and experiences among teenage girls. The understanding of pregnancy and teenage pregnancy-related preventive methods was detailed analysis in about 72% of papers whereas other aspects, such as perception (22.5%), practices (25%), and experiences (7.5%) were discussed in the remaining papers related to pregnancy among adolescent girls.

CONCLUSION

Evidence in the selected studies shows that understanding and practices are the major areas that were primarily explored, where perception, practices and experiences are the topics that are relatively less investigated. Literature synthesis derives misconception, lack of understanding, and practices without knowing the consequences are the key factors responsible for early pregnancies. Future interventions like increasing awareness, providing comprehensive reproductive knowledge, convenient health care aids, and proper counselling are adequate measures for minimalising the problem. The present analysis showed that studies are limited in their scope concerning various aspects of teenage pregnancy in India, so this scoping review gives essential perspectives on future research and implementation plans and policies in this field.

Exposure to Sex Education and Its Effects on Adolescent Sexual Behavior in Nigeria

Sexual behavior during adolescence fundamentally steers the future life of both girls and boys, and it should be guided with appropriate education, especially as it also represents a key factor to be considered in attainment of sustainable developmental goals. The study assessed the effect of exposure to sex education on adolescents' sexual behavior. The primary and cross-sectional survey data used for this study were analyzed using basic descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression analytical technique. The results, among others, highlighted that the most common sources of first sex education among the respondents are school (54.6%), family (21.6%), social media (9.5%), and others like television (7.6%) and books or magazines (4.9%). Frequency of discussion on sexual matters is positively associated with the use of protection such as condom (β = 0.261; p ≤ 0.01). The study gave support to the increasing pursuit of sexuality education. However, since adolescents' needs could vary by demographics, streamlining sex education need by age and sex characteristics could enhance its effectiveness.

Adolescent sexual behaviour and its determinants: A hospital-based study

Aim:

To know the prevalence of sexual activity, their sexual behaviour and attitude towards sex among unmarried adolescent females.

Materials and Methods:

It was a hospital-based prospective observational study. The study duration was 1 year. The study participants were unmarried girls between the age group of 10–19 years who gave written informed consent. In the case of a minor, consent was obtained from parents also. Pre-designed, pre-structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used to evaluate the sexual behaviour.

Results:

Out of the 320 adolescents presented to the OPD, only 165 consented to participate in the study. Prevalence of sexual activity was 16.9% (28/165) in the study. Eight (8/165) adolescent girls have not attained menarche and all were not having any knowledge of sex. Three girls were the victims of sexual exploitation. Around 64% of these girls were sexually active with their classmates. All the sexually active females were having intercourse through the vaginal route, however non-vaginal route was also practiced by 6 girls. Home (11, 39%) was the preferred place followed by the hotel (10, 35.7%) for sexual activity.

Conclusion:

Prevalence of sexual activity is low among Indians as compared to the western world but it may be a tip of iceberg as it is a hospital-based study. This is the first study that assessed the route of intercourse, frequency of sexual activity, and place preferred by these adolescents to evaluate the sexual health behaviour.

Sexual Intercourse and Its Correlates Among School-aged Adolescents in Indonesia: Analysis of the 2015 Global School-based Health Survey

Objectives

This study aimed to determine the prevalence and correlates of sexual intercourse among junior secondary and high school students in Indonesia from the 2015 Global School-based Health Survey (GSHS).

Methods

The survey was conducted among 11 110 students from 75 schools in Indonesia using a self-administered questionnaire. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to explore associations between sexual intercourse and socio-demographic variables, substance use, mental distress, and protective factors.

Results

Overall, 5.3% of students reported having ever had sex (6.9% of boys and 3.8% of girls). Of students who engaged in sexual intercourse, 72.7% of boys and 90.3% of girls had an early sexual debut (before reaching the age of 15) and around 60% had multiple sex partners. Sexual intercourse was associated with gender, school grade, smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use, suicidal ideation, truancy, peer support, and parental supervision.

Conclusions

These findings indicate a pressing need to develop more comprehensive sexual health education in the national curriculum. An effective strategy should also address other risky behaviours.

Transitions in adolescent boys and young Men's high-risk sexual behaviour in India

Background

The sexual behaviour of adolescents is of importance due to the engagement in risky sexual activity at a too early age, which may be associated with the adverse outcomes. The study aims to understand the transitions in adolescent boys and young men’s high-risk sexual behaviour in India using two rounds of Indian demographic health survey, NFHS-3 (2005–06) and NFHS-4 (2015–16).

Methods

A total of 25,538 in NFHS-3 (2005–06) and 35,112 in NFHS-4 (2015–16) men were considered for the analysis. Men have been divided into two age groups as 15–19 years (adolescent) and 20–24 (young men) for comparison purposes. Descriptive and multivariate statistics have been used.

Results

Overall, high-risk sexual behaviour has increased among adolescent boys (64 to 70%) and young men (18 to 27%) from 2005–06 to 2015–16. The trend of live-in relationship has increased among adolescent boys of rural areas (0.6 to 6.0%) as well as in urban areas (3.1 to 10.9%) over the last 10 years. Adolescent boys having 10th and above years of schooling (AOR = 1.98; p < 0.01), residing in urban areas (AOR = 2.23; p < 0.01), and belonging to the affluent class of households (AOR = 1.41; p < 0.05) were more likely to engage in high-risk sexual activity than the young men in India. The odds of high-risk sexual behaviour was higher among alcohol-using adolescent boys (AOR = 1.82; p < 0.01) and young men (AOR = 2.38; p < 0.01) in 2015–16.

Conclusions

The study concludes that early sexual debut, lower prevalence of condom use at first sexual experience, tendency of live-in-relationship, and alcohol consumption indicate the hazardous interconnection between such behaviours among adolescent boys over the last decade which placed them at higher-risky sexual behaviour as compared to young men. Adolescent’ sexual behaviours have both short-term and long-term consequences, and interventions that focus on multiple domains of risk may be the most effective in helping to promote broad reproductive health among young adults.

Risky sexual behavior practice and associated factors among secondary and preparatory school students of Aksum town, northern Ethiopia, 2018

OBJECTIVE

As adolescence is a stage in which human beings face once throughout a lifetime and it is the experimental period for this reason risky sexual behavior is common among young people, and it has several sexual and reproductive health consequences. But it doesn't get enough attention the status of risky sexual behavior practice and factors' contributing to it, so this study aimed to identify the prevalence of risky sexual behavior and factors associated with it.

RESULTS

From the total respondents 115 (23.7%) had history of sexual intercourse and the mean age for sexual initiation is 15.48 ± 1.99 year. From whom 110 (98.2%) had sexual contact below the age of 18 and only 68 (60.8%) initiate first sex by their own willing. Overall 97 (19.6%) had practiced risky sexual behaviors. Students not facing peer pressure were 0.36 times less likely to develop risk sexual behavior (AOR = 0.357, 95% CI 0.172, 0.744).

Ethnicity, gender and risky sexual behaviour among Nigeria youth: an alternative explanation

BACKGROUND

While studies in demography and public health have acknowledged the role of ethnic differences, the influence of ethnicity on youth sexual behaviour in Nigeria has received little or no attention. It is important to know how cultural norms and gender roles, which vary by ethnicity, may promote or prevent risky behaviour. Such information could provide insights into previously undetected sexual behaviour in multi-ethnic situations.

METHODS

The Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS) for 2003, 2008 and 2013 were pooled to examine the relationship between ethnicity and youth sexual reproductive health, proxied by age at sexual debut, multiple sexual partners (MSP) and condom use at last sexual activity, among the 6304 females and 1549 males who reported being sexually active in the four weeks preceding the survey. Multivariate analysis using a Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to determine the risk factors for early sexual activity among young people (15-24). Logistic regression was used to predict condom use at last sexual activity and MSP.

RESULTS

The median age at first sexual activity was 16 for females and 17 for males. 43% of male youths used condoms in their last sexual activity, compared to only 16% among females and a higher number of males (81%) had multiple sexual partners compared to females (35%). For females, elevated risks of first sex was higher among Hausa/Fulanis aged 15-19 and elevated risk of first sex was higher among Yoruba males.

CONCLUSION

This study provides further evidence that in order to promote protective sexual behaviours among youth in Nigeria, social, cultural and gender-specific tactics should be put in place for the prevention of HIV and other STIs.