Behavior and Attitudes of Adolescents Relevant to Their Reproductive Health

Abstract

Increase in adolescent sexual activity is a phenomenon noticed in modern societies, as well as in Serbia. The sexual activity reveals new health related problems, in relation to the unpremeditated pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Reproductive health is vulnerable especially in case of persons having first sexual experiences being adolescent, what could be explained by the physical immaturity and psychosocial infirmity to be responsible in sexual behaviour.

The study of 300 sexualy active adolescent women aged 19, attending The Youth Advisory Center of The Mother and Child Health Care Institute of Serbia was conducted between 1995 – 1997.

The aim of this study was to evaluate how much the reproductive health in this population was endangered, by analyzing their sexual behavior, their attitudes in the spheres of sexuality and reproduction, as well as some variables of social microenvironments that might be relevant to adolescent sexual behavior. Questionnaire included investigation of youth opinion about some acceptable social measures in this field.

According to the results of this study the adolescents reproductive health is seriously endangered. Interwieved adolescent females most frequently used traditional birth control methods, like coitus interruptus (54,3%), and often didn't think about the risk of acquiring sexually transmitted disesase (with new sexual partner the regular condom use was reported only in case of 55,6% girls). Adolescent girls had also poor health behaviors so that 31,0% of interviewed adolescent females visited gynecologist for the first time not earlier than one to three years after their first sexual experience. That resulted in large number of unplanned pregnancies (16,0% of interwieved girs had one or more induced abortions) and, possibly, a high prevalence of sexually transmitted infections.

The model of sexual behavior, that was accepted by adolescent females was partly due to the lack of adolescents knowledge about sexuallity, contraception and sexually transmitted disesases. Improper were the main sources of relevant knowledge (peers, parents, mass media), therefore, youth had many misconceptions in this sphere (about the harmfulness of modern contraception, reliability of coitus interruptus method, lack of risk for sexually transmitted diseases transmission).

The social adolescent sexual and reproductive health programme doesn't exist in Serbia. Parents of adolescent females were passive, and school and health care workers are not engaged in these matters enough.

The possibility for social intervention programme exists, because young people were willing to improve their knowledge about sexuality and reproduction (83,3%) mostly by sex education in schools (51,0%) and through mass media (33,3%). The most appreciated sources of relevant knowledge would be physicians (67,0%), from whom they expect to have time and patience for them and their problems (91,3%).