The relationships of school-based sexuality education, sexual knowledge and sexual behaviors—a study of 18,000 Chinese college students

Autor: Chunyan Li, Zixi Cheng, Taiwen Wu, Xiao Liang, Junjian Gaoshan, Lihe Li, Ping Hong, Kun Tang
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: Reproductive Health, Vol 14, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2017)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1742-4755
DOI: 10.1186/s12978-017-0368-4
Popis: Abstract Background A growing prevalence of unexpected pregnancies and younger age of sexual debut is observed among Chinese young people, while they lack formal sexuality education from schools and parents. It is necessary to measure their knowledge level of sexual and reproductive health, and how such knowledge associates with their sexual behaviors and reproductive health outcomes, which would shed light on the effectiveness of sexuality education in China. Methods An Internet-based questionnaire survey was conducted from January to August, 2015. 130 colleges were selected from eastern, central, and western parts China with a good balance of geographic distributions. The survey link was subsequently delivered to the focal points in each college for voluntary participation, targeting on undergraduates aged 18 ~ 25. Information on demographics, experience of school-based sexuality education (defined as any course introducing information on sexual and reproductive health) and SRH knowledge quiz was collected. Multivariate linear regression and logistic regression were applied to explore the relationship between students’ SRH knowledge, sexual behaviors and reproductive health outcomes, such as sexual intercourse (penetrative sex by vaginal or anal), unprotected sex, pregnancy and abortion, etc. Results A total sample of 17,966 Chinese college students (mean age = 20.2, 60.4% female) eventually entered the analysis. Only 55.6% of the respondents self-reported having received sexuality education before, and they scored significantly higher (2.33/4.00) in the SRH knowledge quiz than those who had not (1.75/4.00). Among the sexually experienced students (n = 3639, 20.2%), both males and females with higher SRH knowledge were less likely to report having experience of (partner’s) pregnancy or abortion (OR
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