Role of risk and protective factors in risky sexual behavior among high school students in Cambodia

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Songky Yi¹  Krishna C Poudel²  Masamine Jimba²  Siyan Yi²  Junko Yasuoka²  Paula H Palmer³ 

[1] Battambang Provincial Department for Education, Youth, and Sports, Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports, Cambodia, Road No 57, Phoum Damnak Luong, Sangkat Wat Kor, Battambang Provincial Town, Cambodia;Department of Community and Global Health, Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo, Japan, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan;School of Community and Global Health, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California, USA, 18 East Via Verde, Ste.100, 91773, Claremont, CA, USA;

关键词: Protective Factor;    Sexual Intercourse;    Risky Sexual Behavior;    Family Violence;    Community Violence;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-10-477

 received in 2009-07-30, accepted in 2010-08-12,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIn many developing countries, adolescents have become increasingly prone to engage in habitual risky sexual behavior such as early sexual initiation and unprotected sex. The objective of this study was to identify the operation of risk and protective factors in individual, family, peer, school, and community domains in predicting risky sexual behavior among male and female adolescents in Cambodia.MethodsFrom October 2007 to January 2008, we collected data from 1,049 students aged 14 to 20 years. Risky sexual behavior was measured using a scale consisting of four items: sexual intercourse during the past three months, number of sex partners during the past three months, age at first experience of sexual intercourse, and use of condom in last sexual intercourse. The risk factors examined included substance use, depression, peer delinquency, family violence, and community violence. Studied protective factors included family support function, frequency of family dinner, and school attachment.ResultsOf the 1,049 students surveyed, 12.7% reported sexual intercourse during the past three months. Out of those sexually active students, 34.6% reported having two or more sex partners over the same period, and 52.6% did not use a condom during their last sexual intercourse. After controlling for other covariates, a higher likelihood of risky sexual behavior remained significantly associated among male participants with higher levels of substance use, higher levels of peer delinquency, and higher family income. In contrast, risky sexual behavior did not retain its associations with any of the measured protective factors among male participants. Among female participants, a higher likelihood of risky sexual behavior remained significantly associated with higher levels of substance use, higher levels of community-violence witnessing, and lower levels of family support.ConclusionsThe findings suggest the importance of considering gender-related differences in the effects of risk and protective factors when designing and implementing prevention programs. In interventions for both male and female adolescents, prevention of substance use and risky sexual behavior should be integrated. For boys, efforts should focus on the reduction of peer delinquency, while, for girls, improvement of family support should be emphasized.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Yi et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.