Psychosocial predictors of adolescent sexual behavior

Objective. To find out the psychosocial factors associated with adolescent sexual behavior. Methods. A cross sectional study was carried out in Chandigarh Union Territory of India by enrolling 11th class students from six randomly selected schools. A pre-tested questionnaire containing 83 items was administered after ensuring privacy and confidentiality. Socio-economic status, residence, gender, grade in the class, religion, acculturation level, self esteem, social support and coping behavior were considered as independent explanatory variables and physical sexual contact (which included kissing, hugging and sexual intercourse) was taken as dependent variable. Results. Two hundred and fifty seven students enrolled for the study had mean age of 17 yr. The prevalence of sexual activity was 20% (95% CI: 13.6%-28.1%) among males and 6% (95% CI: 1.3%-18.8%) among females. Four percent of males and 1% of females reported sexual intercourse. The main reason for not having sexual physical contact was societal norms. After adjusting for confounders in multivariate analysis, male gender (OR: 3.5; 95%CI: 1.5-8.1) and modern attitudes (OR: 0.77; 95%CI: 0.6-0.98) were found to be the risk factors for initiation of sexual activity in adolescence. Conclusion. Cultural norms rather than the individual/psychological factors tend to govern adolescent sexual behavior in Indian society.