Abstract
The incidence of sexually transmitted diseases has alarmingly increased among Chinese youth in the past decade, and newly diagnosed cases of AIDS have almost doubled between 2010 and 2015. However, little is known about classes of sexual behavior among Chinese youth and associations with their other health behavior or experience of sex education. This study aimed to first identify classes of sexual behavior using latent class analysis and then to examine their associations with sex education, smoking, alcohol drinking, and pornography use. Data were from 13,865 unmarried youth aged 18–24 from the 2009 National Youth Reproductive Health Survey. Six indicators were used: timing of the first sexual intercourse, the number of past-year sexual partners, sex outside of a relationship, incidence of pregnancy, and contraceptive use at the latest and the first sexual intercourse. Four classes were identified: no sex (Class 1, 69%), safer sex (Class 2, 13%), early risk (Class 3, 13%), and multiple risk (Class 4, 5%). Smoking, drinking, and regular pornography use were associated with increased odds of being in the multiple risk class relative to the safer sex class. Sex education, smoking, and pornography use were associated with decreased odds of being in the no sex class relative to the safer sex class. The findings revealed qualitatively different classes of sexual behavior among Chinese youth and important roles of sex education, substance use, and pornography use. Reproductive health service providers can offer individually tailored services to serve youth with different profiles and needs.
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The authors would like to thank the Institute of Population Research at Peking University and the United Nations Population Fund.
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The data used in this study were from the published secondary statistics of the 2009 National Youth Reproductive Health Survey (NYRHS). There was no information in the secondary data source of NYRHS that can be used to identify or to link data back to respondents. This study did not fall within the regulatory definition of research involving human subjects, and human subject protection was not an issue. A review from an Institutional Review Board was not required.
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Zhang, Y., Wang, C. & Liang, M. A Latent Class Analysis of Sexual Behavior and Associations with Sex Education, Smoking, Drinking, and Pornography Use Among Chinese Youth. Arch Sex Behav 51, 1351–1361 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02091-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02091-9