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Thursday, July 13, 2006
Pre-marital sex among RP youths on the rise: study
THE gap between adolescent Filipino females and their male counterparts practicing pre-marital sex (PMS) is becoming narrow, a study conducted by the University of the Philippines-Population Institute (UPPI) showed.
A Young Adult Fertility Survey (Yafs) disclosed that males are more into pre-marital sex than females but over the years, young women are catching up with men. The survey covered 20,000 Filipino youths aged 15 to 24 years old across the country.
Yafs project coordinator and Uppi professor Corazon Raymundo said that in 1994, pre-marital sex prevalence rate among young Filipino men was double than that of the women, adding that the prevalence rate of pre-marital sex for both males and females in such age bracket is on the rise.
A 2002 study indicated that males' PMS experiences were 2.25 times than their counterparts.
According to Raymundo, exposure to the Internet is one major reason for the increasing number of females practicing pre-marital sex. "The media plays an important role here. I think the females now are more exposed to the Internet and even to the chat rooms," she said.
In 1994, the prevalence rate was at 18 percent but in 2002, it went up to 23 percent, representing 3.7 million of the 16.5 million Filipino youths.
"Majority of first sex experiences were not planned and wanted, with girls more prone to unwanted and unplanned sex," Raymundo added.
She said although majority of the pre-marital sex were unprotected, boys were surprisingly found to protect themselves more than the girls by using contraceptives. "Casual sex is practiced more by males than females. Fifty-four percent of sexually active adolescents had sex with the same partner. Males tend to have more than one sexual partners than females," she said.
The same study showed that only one-fourth of young women use contraceptives while the rest engage in unprotected sex and are more likely to get pregnant and contract sexually transmitted infections.
Raymundo said that teenage pregnancy is more common among less educated people.
With the rise of pre-marital sex among youths, Raymundo underscored the importance of integrating sex education in the curriculum as the survey revealed that students who did not learn sex education tend to become sexually active more.
He said there are fewer students who practice pre-marital sex in schools that teach sex education than in educational institutions that do not adopt the subject. (MSN/Sunnex)
(July 13, 2006 issue)
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