Perceptions of peer sexual activities in Korean adolescents

Abstract

Sex is considered a private issue in Korean culture; thus, sexual topics are not usually discussed. The present study, which pointed to heterosexual relationships, explored perceptions of peer sexual activities among Korean adolescents. The three main focuses of this study explore how many Korean adolescents in the 1990s were involved in misbehavior relating to sex; how they perceived their peer sexual activities, such as coitus, visiting prostitutes, or pregnancy; and how they perceived the coital wishes of date‐initiators. Participants were recruited from seven high schools and five universities located in the southwestern area of Korea, and consisted of 395 men and 392 women ranging from 15 to 22 years of age. Proportions of adolescents who had coitus were 24.3% for males and 10.5% for females. The perceptions of the peer sexual activities and the coital wishes were analyzed according to the respondents' gender, school age, coital experience, smoking or drinking experience, or having a steady date. In general, male adolescents were more liberal in their perceptions than females. High school students showed more liberal perceptions in peer sexual activities and date‐initiator's coital wishes than college students.