Sexual behaviour, diseases, and teen pregnancies

Exposure to sexual risks

Increased risk when:

• Other risk factors: Living in an economically disadvantaged community,

substance abuse, antisocial behaviour, and proximity to problematic peers.

- They start sexual activity early.

- They have multiple partners.

- They do not use contraception regularly.

- They have inadequate or misinformation about sex.

Factors in the early onset of sexual activity

• Early onset of puberty.

• Poverty.

• Poor school performance and lack of academic and professional goals.

• History of sexual abuse.

• Parental neglect, father's absence.

• Cultural or familial patterns of early sexual experience.

Contraceptive use

• The majority state that they use some form of contraception in their relationships (91.3%).

• The majority use condoms as a method of contraception (89.6%).

• 8.7% reported not using any.

• There are no gender differences.

• Have refused sexual intercourse if a condom was not available: 58.8% (more girls).

• The most influential factor is → the perceived risk of pregnancy due to its immediate effect.

• When they start using other contraceptive methods, they stop using condoms, leaving them unprotected against STIs.

• Best safeguard for sexually active adolescents > regular condom use

Sources of information on sex

• They are getting information from friends, parents, sex education at school and in the media/internet.

• Embarrassment when discussing contraception with the doctor.

• Favourable attitudes towards safer sex if adolescents can discuss sex with older siblings and parents.

• Importance of sexuality education programs.

Sources of information on sex

• Benefits of sexuality education programs:

- They reduce misinformation or misinformation.

- They increase scientific knowledge on the subject.

- They clarify values.

- They improve self-esteem.

- They increase the ability to make more responsible and less risky decisions.

- Improve perceptions of peer pressure norms.

- Increase communication with parents and other trusted adult

Prevalence of STDs in adolescents

• In a single unprotected encounter, there is a 1% risk of acquiring HIV, a 30% risk of acquiring genital herpes and a 50% risk of acquiring gonorrhea.

• One in four adolescents will have a sexually transmitted disease before the age of 18.

• Young people aged 15-24 account for 50% of those diagnosed with STDs each year, and 25% carry HPV.

Prevalence factors of STDs in adolescents

Early sexual activity increases the likelihood of multiple high-risk partners.

• Not using condoms or not using them regularly and correctly.

• They are maintaining relationships with older partners.

• Irrational beliefs → “If you have sex sporadically, it is difficult to get infected”, etc.

Main STDs: Human papillomavirus (HPV).

• Most common STDs.

• Increased risk to 50% in girls with three or more partners.

• Severe genital HPV → cancers if chronically infected: the leading

cause of cervical cancer in women.

• Vaccines to prevent the types of HPV that cause most cases of

cervical cancer.

Gonorrhea and chlamydia

• Most common curable STDs.

• Bacteria cause it.

• Symptoms: discharge and burning during urination.

• If left untreated, they can cause infertility and other diseases.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

• It causes AIDS, a serious chronic STI.

• Body fluids transmit it.

• Attacks the body's immune system → dramatically increases vulnerability to several fatal opportunistic diseases.

• Symptoms → extreme fatigue, fever, swollen lymph glands, nodules, weight loss, diarrhoea and night sweats.

Adolescent pregnancy and childbearing

Alfaro et al. (2015):

• 3.6% reported having become pregnant or having made their partner pregnant (5.3% of boys and 1.3% of girls).

Teenage pregnancy

• According to some studies, more than 90 percent of pregnant adolescents describe their pregnancies are unplanned.

• Fifty per cent of them occur within 6 months of sexual initiation.

Main physical consequences of teenage pregnancy

Lack of medical care from the beginning of pregnancy.

• Low birth weight of the newborn due to organic causes.

• High maternal mortality has become, in developing countries, one of the most frequent causes of death in adolescents (due to

embolism, hypertensive disease and ectopic pregnancies).

• Anemia in young pregnant women.

• Higher likelihood of miscarriage.

• Sometimes pregnancy coexists with sexually transmitted diseases

Preventing adolescent pregnancy

• Universal sexuality education programs → encourage delaying sex until it is completely safe and using contraception:

• Sexuality education.

• Acquisition of skills to make responsible sexual decisions and to communicate with partners.

• Information on risks and consequences of teenage pregnancy, birth control methods and where to get medical help and contraceptives

• Access to reproductive services → contraceptives are provided free of charge to adolescents.

• Programs that motivate you to succeed teach you how to make decisions, manage emotions and deal with peers and adults

• Pregnancy in adolescence is a serious social problem and risk situation → notable acceleration of the course of life, forcing the adolescent to go through life situations that are not appropriate to their evolutionary stage.

Adolescent pregnancy → early initiation of sexual intercourse and inadequate use of contraception:

Explanatory factors for adolescent pregnancy

• Less stigmatisation of childbearing outside marriage

• Glorification of sex in the media

• Lack of a clear message about the dangers of early childbearing

• The inability of parents to communicate with their children

Main psychological and social consequences of adolescent pregnancy

• Placing the newborn for adoption → guilt and regret.

• Forming a single-parent family → school drop-out, unemployment or low-paid employment, parenting difficulties, unstructured environment.

• Forming a marriage → financial difficulties, lack of skills, emotional maturity and social support.

• Increased risk for children of unmarried adolescent mothers → academic and. developmental problems, depression, drug abuse and early sexual activity, delinquent behaviour, to also be single parents.