| dc.description.abstract | The objective of this study was to assess the socio demographic correlates of sexual debut among in-school young people (15-24) in Adjumani district, West Nile, Uganda. The assessment focused on young people’s socio-demographic characteristics.
The analysis was undertaken using secondary data based on a sample of 1151 in-school sexually active young people using frequency distributions and correlation analysis.
In the results, 65.7% were predominantly males and 34.3% were females, those with older siblings were 60.2% while the rest 39.8% had no older siblings, according to age 84.4% were between the ages of 15-19 in completed years; and the highest percentage of students were Catholics by religious affiliation 70.9% , the median age at first sex is 15 years ranging from 5-
23 years with the highest proportion of young people in senior three 51.0%) followed by senior four with 35.3%.
Regarding living arrangements, 34.7 % of the young people lived with both parents, 26.9% lived with their mothers only, 20.7% lived with the guardians, and 10.8% with fathers only and 7.6% lived alone.
In correlation, all the socio demographic variables were positively correlated with age at first sex except for sex and religion, thus (r=-0.03; p<0.05,r= -.097< p0.05) respectively.
These findings point the need to; (i) review the school health policy to allow sex education to be formally taught in primary and secondary levels; (ii) encourage parents/guardians to educate their children about sex related issues and how to handle adolescence issues. (iii) Promote measures that restrict exposure to sexual debut among adolescents e.g. access to pornographic sites and use of drugs should be restricted. | en_US |
