Factors related to risky sexual behaviours among high school students in Thaketa township, Yangon region, Myanmar

Abstract

Risky sexual behaviours among youths and adolescents are a global public health issue and lead to dangerous health problems worldwide, such as unwanted pregnancy, abortion, and transmission of sexually transmitted infections. A cross-sectional study was conducted to examine risky sexual behaviours and their associated factors among high school students in government basic education high schools of Thaketa Township, Yangon Region. A total of 182 respondents completed self-administered reported questionnaires from September to November 2022. The data were summarized with descriptive statistics and analyzed with chi-square and Pearson (r). The prevalence of high risky sexual behaviours was 12.1% among high school students. Nearly half of the respondents (47.8%) still had poor knowledge toward avoiding risky sexual behaviours. The majority of the respondents (86.3%) had a good attitude toward avoiding risky sexual behaviours. 19.2% of the students had a low level of perceived self-efficacy in avoiding risky sexual behaviours. Interestingly, 84.6% had a poor level of perceived social support from their family members, friends, teachers, and mass media. Meanwhile, 55.5% were considered easily able to access media. The study found that gender was statistically significantly associated with the level of risky sexual behaviours in high school students (p-value = 0.002). The relative risk of male students is four times more likely than female students to engage in risky sexual behaviours. A positively high correlation was found between media exposure to sexual content and risky sexual behaviours, and students who used media-related sexual desire had a high level of risky sexual behaviours (r=0.54 at p-value < 0.001 at significance level 0.01). Similarly, perceived self-efficacy in avoiding risky sexual behaviours was positively correlated with risky sexual behaviours (r=0.21 at p-value = 0.004 at significance level 0.01). There was a positive correlation between social support for avoiding risky sexual behaviours and risky sexual behaviours with a significance level of 0.01 (r=0.302). IMPLICATION OF THE THEMATIC PAPER: The findings in this study indicate a need to explore more about specific practices that they performed in the past and more factors that are related to risky sexual behaviours. Protective factors to prevent risky sexual behaviours should be evaluated in order to reduce risky sexual behaviours, and law enforcement and specific sources of information are required to be established for intervention programs. Further studies should be explored to understand their real conditions and how the respondents would like to retrieve correct information from reliable sources.