THE majority of sexually active adolescents start having sex before they are 16, with one in 10 admitting to having had intercourse at 13.
Only half of those same school children, always use a condom, with one in 10 admitting to having had an unwanted pregnancy and a smaller percentage claiming to have contracted a sexual transmitted disease at some point.
The shocking statistics were revealed yesterday by the Cyprus Youth Board and Institute of Reproductive Medicine during the presentation of an in-depth study on the ‘Health in Sexuality and Relations’ among 1,670 secondary school students across all districts.
Presenting the study was its scientific co-ordinator, Aretaeio hospital gynaecologist Dr Andreas Chrysanthou.
“The results may shock, but they will not surprise people who live alongside young people, especially those who have contact with their problems, such as doctors, teachers, psychologists and sociologists,” Chrysanthou said.
The researchers were particularly concerned by teenagers’ ignorance regarding sexually transmitted diseases.
“They know about HIV and syphilis but they haven’t got a clue about the other stuff,” the doctor said.
The study found 93.3 per cent wrongly thought AIDS and syphilis were the most frequently transmitted STDs, with few displaying knowledge about the effects of HPV, genital warts and Chlamydia.
Knowledge did not improve with age and was the same for second and third year secondary students, indicating a need for greater education, he said.
The majority of boys and girls said the average age to start having sex was between 15 and 16, and that multiple partners before the age of 18 were the norm.
“Only 24 per cent of students questioned are sexually active and yet other students wrongly believe the rest of their classmates are having sex when they’re not. This can put pressure on those who have yet to have sex to do something they’re not ready to. We need to get the message across that they have time to wait and mature and to teach them to have the right attitude towards sex,” Chrysanthou said.
However, over two thirds of those who were sexually active had started before the age of 16, and one in 10 admitted to experiencing the problem of sexual dysfunction at some point.
Over 50 per cent of children said they knew of a girl who’d had an abortion under the age of 18 and 64.8 per cent said the girl they knew was under 16.
“It should be noted that this is the children’s opinion and is not the statistical frequency of abortions, because they are not answering about themselves but about cases they’ve heard of. It is also likely that the children at the same school know the same girl who had the abortion and it is likely that in reality the numbers are smaller…
“Nevertheless, it is frightening that girls of such a tender age, who do not yet know their bodies, are subjected to such a painful experience, which has huge and sometimes permanent consequences on a young girl’s body and soul,” he said.
The research also showed that over a third of all students wanted to learn more about healthy sexual behaviour as well as sexually transmitted diseases, with two thirds supporting the introduction of sex education at gymnasium level.
More than half of all students said intercourse should take place in a loving and respectful relationship. However, significantly more girls (72.2 per cent) than boys (39.7 per cent) held this view.
“We can use this high percentage and convince students to persuade other youngsters that sex is not just a physical act,” Chrysanthou said.
The results of the study will be used as part of a wider programme to introduce the subject of health in sexuality and relations in the ministry’s secondary school curriculum.
The subject has currently being taught for four years on a pilot basis at six schools and encourages greater communication through discussion rather than one-sided teaching.
More encouragingly, 89.7 per cent rated honesty and dignity as the most important values, followed by career development (70 per cent) and social interest/social good at 33.4 per cent.
“We’d say that our youth generally have proper values, which as a society we can build upon in the right way and in the right time,” Chrysanthou said.
