Religiousness and sexual behaviors in young

Abstract

Objective: Adolescents’ behaviors are generally influenced by socio-cultural context, including religion. To evaluate the association between religion and sexual behavior in a group of young. Methods: Questionnaire applied in 2010 to Portuguese young to evaluate sexual behaviors, comparing 4 study groups: religious; non-religious; religious and practicing; religious and non-practicing. Results: We included 2341 questionnaires, with mean age 18.5±2.35 years, and 78% were religious-young. There was no difference between genders concerning first sexual intercourse mean age (16.4±1.91 vs. 16.4±1.65 years-old, p=0.827, in male and female sex, respectively) nor number of sexual partners. Females report having forced sexual intercourse more frequently than male sex (4.3% vs. 2.2%, p=0.009). Non-religious group have more sexual transmitted infections compared to religious young (3.6% vs 2.0%, p=0.039) but there were no differences between studied groups about having sexual intercourse with active sexual transmitted infections. About other risk behaviors, male sex, non-religious and religious and non-practicing young reported more often to date more than one person at the same time, to have more unprotected sexual intercourse and to have sexual intercourse under the effect of alcohol and drugs more frequently. Conclusions: Males, non-religious and religious and non-practicing young had more risky sexual behaviors like date simultaneous partners, have unprotected sexual intercourse or under influence of alcohol or drugs.