Sexual behavior and contraception use among secondary-school students in north-east Slovenia
Abstract
Background: Age at first intercourse is declining, probably due to a false sense of maturity of the secondary-school students as well as due to the impact of different media. The purpose of this research is to examine the pattern of sexual behaviour and awareness of contraception among secondary school students in some of the major cities of northeastern Slovenia. Methods: The survey was done between April and June 2009 in nine secondary-schools in the cities of Maribor, Murska Sobota, Slovenj Gradec and Ravne na Koroškem. The questionnaires were filled out during class hours in complete anonymity and privacy. The data processing was done by SPSS 13.0 programme . Results: We distributed 5456 questionnaires, 4415 (80.9 %) were returned, out of them 4184 were suitable for analysis. There were 1426 (34.1 %) male and 2758 (65.9 %) female students included in the analysis. The average age of the 4184 students was 16.8 ± 1.2 years, the average age of male students being the same as for female students. 53.0 % of students have already had vaginal sexual intercourse , and the age at which 50 % of secondary-school students experienced vaginal sexual intercourse was 17.0 years. Oral sex was already experienced by 40.0 % of the students, and 12.0 % of all students had already had anal sex. At the first sexual intercourse, a reliable contraception was used by 86.2 % of female and 89.1 % of male students. In the last three months, for protection purposes, the condom was mostly used by boys (54.0 %) and oral hormone contraceptives were used by girls (49.9 %). The first source of information on sexuality, as stated by students, were the media (47.3 %), but the most useful information they got was that from their parents (35.2 %). Less grammar-school students have ever had sexual intercourse compared to other secondary-school students (46.0 % vs. 65.0 %, p = 0.000). Conclusions: The age at which a half of secondary- school students experienced vaginal sexual intercourse was 17.0 years. Students are very conscious about protection, however the rate of anal sexual intercourses is a bit concerning. There are some differences in sexual behaviour among secondary school students: thus we found that students of other secondary-schools were more sexually active then students attending grammar school.Downloads
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