Sexual attitudes and behaviors of school students in India - grades 6-12

Journal of Sex Research, Wntr, 1997 by Minakshi Tikoo

Measures

The questionnaire involved 99 items in 2 parts. The first part consisted of 86 questions, and the second part, 12 questions specific to sexually active students. Question 99 asked for general feedback regarding the questionnaire. The questions pertained to demographics, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding human sexuality and AIDS. Twenty single items were used to assess attitudes toward sexuality; of these, four items (53-56) comprised the ATTSEX scale, which measured an individual's attitude toward premarital sex. Sixteen single items were used to gain insight into the respondents' behaviors.

Results

Analysis

The data were subjected to simple descriptive statistical analyses: Frequencies and t-tests were computed to search for and establish meaningful relationships. One-way analyses were conducted to give additional information about the relationship between the independent variables and the single items used to measure attitudes and behaviors. Reliability, alpha values) for the ATTSEX scale was generated post hoc and had a reliability coefficient of .70. The scale was additive, with a maximum possible score of 12 and a minimum score of 4.

Respondents

Of the 893 completed questionnaires, 890 were analyzed, as 3 students did not identify their gender. The mean age of the students completing the questionnaire was 13.46 years. Of the sample, 873 described themselves as Indian, with 1 student describing himself as a citizen of the world, 1 as Kuwaitian, and 15 giving no response. The gender breakdown was 45% female (n = 397) and 55% male (n = 493). Eighty-one percent of the students lived with their natural parents (of these, 8% had their grandparents living with them), another 7% lived with one parent, 5% lived with other relatives, and 7% did not respond to this question. The number of children each student lived with ranged from 0 to 5 (M = 2.43, SD = 1.21) children. All social classes were represented. The religious composition of the sample was 89% Hindu, 4% Sikh, 2% Muslim, 1% Christian, and 3% secular, and most participants rated religion as important or very important. The breakdown of students by grade was as follows: 186 (Grade 6), 117 (Grade 7), 119 (Grade 8), 101 (Grade 9), 117 (Grade 10), 134 (Grade 11), and 119 (Grade 12).

Attitudes

A quarter of the sample (27% girls, 23% boys) agreed with the statement "boys like sex more than girls," and about one third (28% girls, 34% boys) agreed with the statement "girls want love more." This suggests that the students believe girls to be more emotional and feelings oriented than boys. Very few students agreed (12% girls, 16% boys) with the statement "homosexual relationships are OK"; this could be because the students do not understand what being a homosexual means.

Most students (girls more than boys) had a traditional opinion toward sex outside of marriage. Of the sample, 51% of the girls and 34% of the boys disagreed with the statements "it is OK for a boyfriend and a girlfriend to have sex"; 51% of the girls and 42% of the boys disagreed with the statement that "it is OK for good friends to have sex"; 51% of the girls and 43% of the boys disagreed with the statement "sex is OK before marriage"; 36% of the girls and 30% of the boys disagreed with the statement "sex is OK if you plan to marry"; and 49% of the girls and 53% of the boys agreed that "sex is OK only if you are married." As the level of commitment in the relationship increases, so does their acceptance of premarital sexual behavior. On the ATTSEX scale the mean score for the sample was 6.66 (SD = 2.29), which indicates that the students neither disagreed nor agreed with the statements measuring permissive attitudes toward sex. Boys scored higher (M = 7.18, SD = 2.33) on the ATTSEX scale than did girls (M = 5.86, SD = 2.00), indicating that boys were more accepting of premarital sex than were girls.