| dc.description.abstract | Back ground: The rising occurrence of teens‟ early sexual practice is one of the most
alarming public health concerns, worldwide. Regardless of the proclamation of the jeopardy
of early sex, students increasingly pick interest in sexual practice at a very early age than ever
before. However, its magnitude in Nakaseke district is not known and it is crucial that we
fathom the various potential factors that are associated with early sexual practice, targeting
effective prevention interventions and policies to encourage postponing of sexual debut until
marriage in order to improve the reproductive health of the teenagers.
Objective: To determine the factors that influence early sexual practice among secondary
school teenagers in Nakaseke District, Uganda.
Methodology: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted and 391 secondary school
students (13-19) years old were recruited from 4 secondary schools in Nakaseke district by a
random sampling. Data was collected by use of structured questionnaire and focus group
discussions, analysed by Graphical tests Prism 6.0. Chi-square tests were used to determine
the relationship between demographic factors, social-economic factors, and environmental
factors influencing early sexual practices. For all statistical tests, p value less than 0.05 were
considered significant.
Results: Almost half (47%) of the respondents had experienced intercourse before the age
of 18 years, 38% started sex as early as before 13 years, 89.1% had sex willingly, 46.2% had
multiple sexual partners. The findings also showed that sex (χ 2 =27.45, p-value of <0.001),
religion (χ 2 =37.31, p-value of 0.001), class (χ 2 =15.22, p-value of 0.001), parental formal
education (χ 2 =8.377, p-value of 0.015), fasting (χ 2 =99.37, p-value of 0.001) and cultural
beliefs (χ 2 = 14.33, p-value of 0.001).Among the social economic factors, father‟s sexual
education (χ 2 =8.704,3, p value 0.03 accessibility of information on media (χ 2 =12.42, p-value
of 0.002), different sources of information on sexual issues (χ 2 =28.62, p-value of 0.001),
parental employment (χ 2 =21.94, p-value of 0.001), (χ 2 =124.1, p-value of 0.001), number of
girl/ boyfriends (χ 2 = 15.98,1, p- value of 0.001), pressure for sex (χ 2 = 15.98, p-value of
0.001), peer influence (χ 2 =87.99, p-value of 0.001), lack of negotiation skills (χ 2 =203.2, p-
value of 0.001), substance use (χ 2 =19.79, p-value of 0.001, attending night club ( χ 2 =38.73 p-
value of 0.001), and sex for goods (χ 2 =116.4, p-value of 0.001) were significantly associated
with sexual practice among the respondents.
Conclusion and recommendation: Due to the high prevalence of early sexual practices as
early as before 13 years of age, there is need for re enforcement of policies about adolescents,
raise awareness to the public about the dangers of early sexual practices and address youths
about sexual and reproductive health. In addition, the church in partnership with other
organisations can actively emphasize the “NO SEX BEFORE MARRIAGE” message. | en_US |
