There is a change in the sexual communication and behavior of the young population due to access to digital technology. Thus, this study examined the relationship of high sexual risk-taking behavior with sexting and pornography viewing among school youth in Ethiopia.
This study was done by using a cross-sectional study design. It was conducted by selecting school youth using a multistage sampling procedure. The required data were collected using a pre-validated anonymous facilitator-guided self-administered questionnaire. Poisson regression was run to calculate the adjusted prevalence ratio with 95% confidence intervals.
5924 total questionnaires related to outcome variables were distributed. Out of the total 5924 questionnaires distributed only 5306 school youth responded in full to questions. Of these respondents, 1220 were involved in high sexual risk-taking behavior; 1769 had experienced sexting and 2679 were viewing pornography. The proportion of high sexual risk-taking behavior was three-fold among pornography viewers and two-fold among sexters as compared with their counterparts.
The study concluded through its findings that exposure to sexually explicit materials via communication technology is associated with increased high sexual risk-taking behavior among school youth in northern Ethiopia.
Reference: https://srh.bmj.com/content/45/3/200
