Premarital sexual activities among adolescents in prostitution circumstance and influencing factors

Abstract

Background: Lifestyle in globalization era gives negative impacts on adolescent's premarital sexual activities. The wide gap between the age of menarche and marriage encourages an increase in premarital sexual activities, especially in socially vulnerable areas. This research presented premarital sexual activities among adolescents in the prostitution area and the influencing factors.Methods: This study was an analytical observational study with a cross-sectional design, involving as many as 70 adolescents who lived in the Dolly prostitution area of Surabaya, the second biggest city in Indonesia. The dependent variable in this study was adolescent premarital sexual activities. The independent variables were age, sex, education level, knowledge towards reproductive health, attitude, social-economic status, the onset of puberty categories, closeness to parents, access to sexual media, and peer pressure. Data were analyzed using simple and multiple logistic regressions.Results: The results showed that sociosexual behavior (sexual activity with partners) was significantly influenced by knowledge (OR=59.05; 95% CI=1.12-3114.22; p= 0.04). Adolescents who had less knowledge of reproductive health were more likely to engage in sociosexual behavior.Conclusions: The right knowledge about reproductive health is essential for adolescents. The government must implement a more effective intervention in order to increase adolescent’s knowledge about the accurate reproductive health information in socially vulnerable areas.