Sexual risky behaviour among Slovak adolescents and young adults: social and psychological factors

PhD ceremony: Mr. O. Kalina, 14.30 uur, Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

Dissertation: Sexual risky behaviour among Slovak adolescents and young adults: social and psychological factors

Promotor(s): prof. S.A. Reijneveld

Faculty: Medical Sciences

The aim of this thesis was to explore the relationships between sexual risky behaviour (SRB) of Slovak adolescents and young adults and behavioural factors (e.g. alcohol use, previous sexual behaviour), psychological factors (e.g. extroversion, well-being) and social factors (e.g. family structure, parenting, social support).

Behavioural factors were found to be more closely related to SRB than (other) psychological factors. Factors like being drunk and having early sex were strongly associated with SRB (multiple sexual partners and sex in risky conditions) of young adult males and females. From the five psychological factors, only two (extroversion and religiousness) were associated with SRB. Moreover, those students who reported having had sex for the first time at the age of 17 or later, were significantly less likely to report participating in the two types of SRB being explored (sex under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and having had multiple sexual partners).

Among adolescents our research on parental processes showed that parental monitoring was more strongly associated with SRB than parental social support. In particular, lower monitoring by the father was significantly associated with early first sexual intercourse among girls and with inconsistent condom use among boys. On the other hand psychosocial variables such as anxiety, social support from others and friends, social dysfunction and positive self-esteem do discriminate between adolescents who have had sex (either risky or safe) and adolescents who had not, but they do not discriminate between adolescents who have had risky sex and those who have had safe sex.