Factors associated with premarital sexual behaviour of adolescents who lived in a former prostitution area.

Abstract

Premarital sexual behaviour is a common behaviour in adolescence. The environment around the prostitution area can adversely affect the behaviour and personality development of adolescents. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors associated with premarital sexual behaviour among adolescents who lived in former prostitution area based on transcultural nursing theory. A cross-sectional method was used for this study. The samples were 109 students who lived in the former prostitution area of Surabaya, chosen using the purposive sampling technique. The independent variables were knowledge, economic, lifestyle and cultural values, family and social support, religiosity, rules and policies, and technology. The dependent variable was premarital sexual behaviour. Data were collected by questionnaires and then statistically tested with Spearman's rho (ρ ≤ 0.05). The results showed that only religiosity had significant association with premarital sexual behaviour among adolescents (p = 0.004). While the other factors were not significantly associated with premarital sexual behaviour among adolescents. Religiosity is the most motivating factor to prevent deviant behaviour, including in terms of sexuality. These findings indicate the importance of religious teachings in educating children to behave properly.