Adolescents - Sex & Sexuality

I encourage you to discuss this issue with your child at home.

Why is it important to share this sort of information with adolescents?

The Fourth National Survey of Secondary Students and Sexual Health 2008 was published in July 2009. This confidential survey involved nearly 3,000 Year 10 and Year 12 students from more than 100 secondary schools from the Government, Catholic and Independent school systems and from every jurisdiction in Australia. I have included some of the findings in this article.

Knowledge

Students had a relatively high knowledge about HIV

Student knowledge of other STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections) was relatively poor

There were no gender differences in students HIV knowledge, however young women

demonstrated better knowledge generally in terms of STIs, HPV, cervical cancer and hepatitiscompared with young men.

Behaviour

78% of students have experienced some form of sexual activity.

Over one quarter of year 10 students and just over half of year 12 students had experienced sexual intercourse.

30% of students reported having three or more sexual partners in the past year.

38% of young women reported having unwanted sex at some point (17% cited the reason as being too drunk)

Just under half the students surveyed had experienced oral sex. 28%of these students had oral sex with 3 or more people.

Almost 1 in 10 students surveyed reported their most recent sexual encounter was withsomeone of the same sex. For young men, the likelihood of having a same sex encounterat the most recent sexual experience has increased over the past five years

Most students report positive feelings after having sex, however for young women this has declined in the past five years.

Almost a quarter of sexually active students reported that the last time they had sex they were either drunk or high

There has been an increase in student confidence with respectto talking with their parents about sex and sexual health related matters in the past five years.

Use of the birth control pill and morning after pill has increased in the past five years

Health

80% of students reported that they had drunk alcohol. Year 12 students were more likely to drink alcohol (90%) than their year 10 counterparts (71%).

21% of students reported drinking either weekly or more frequently.

84% of female year 12 students reported binge drinking in the past fortnight

Almost one quarter of the sample reported smoking marijuana and a significant minority

of students (12%) had used the drug on several occasions in the past year.

Few students (2%) have injected drugs.

Not using a condom during sex was only associated with increased perceived risk of infection

with HIV/AIDS and STIs where a student’s sexual partner was someone they had met for the

first time.

Most students (88%) had sought information regarding sexual health. Students most commonlysought information from their mothers (56%), female friends (55%), the school sexual healthprogram (49%) and pamphlets (44%).

As you can see from these statistics, it is important for us as parents to talk about these issues (which are well and truly out there) with our children.