Comparing sexual behaviours and knowledge between domestic students and Chinese international students in Australia: findings from two cross-sectional studies

Abstract

<jats:p> Few studies investigate sexual health among Chinese international students in Australia. We recruited domestic (n = 623) and Chinese international (n = 500) students for separate online surveys on sexual behaviours and knowledge. Samples were compared using Chi square, Fisher’s exact and equality of medians tests. Domestic students were more likely than international students to have ever touched a partner’s genitals (81% vs. 53%, p &lt; 0.01), had oral sex (76% vs. 44%, p &lt; 0.01), vaginal intercourse (67% vs. 41%, p &lt; 0.01) and anal intercourse (31% vs. 6%, p &lt; 0.01). Domestic students were younger when they first touched a partner’s genitals (16 vs. 18 years, p &lt; 0.01), had oral sex (17 vs. 18 years, p &lt; 0.01) and vaginal intercourse (17 vs. 18 years, p &lt; 0.01). Domestic students were less likely than Chinese international students to report only one lifetime partner for touching genitals (22% vs. 50%, p &lt; 0.01), oral sex (25% vs. 55%, p &lt; 0.01), vaginal intercourse (30% vs. 58%, p &lt; 0.01) and anal intercourse (54% vs. 88%, p &lt; 0.01). Domestic students were more likely than Chinese international students to use the oral contraceptive pill (48% vs. 16%, p &lt; 0.01) and long-acting reversible contraceptives (19% vs. 1%, p &lt; 0.01). Domestic students scored higher than international students on a contraception and chlamydia quiz (4/5 vs. 2/5, p &lt; 0.01). Domestic and Chinese international students differed in sexual behaviours and knowledge highlighting the need for relevant sexual health promotion for both groups. </jats:p>

Gender Differences in the Association Between Sexual Orientation and Risky Sexual Behavior Among College Students With Sexual Experience in Sichuan Province, Chinese

“…28,29 The results showed that China's college students have a lower proportion of early sexual debut compared with other studies, 30 which may indicate the relatively conservative attitude towards sex among Chinese college students 31 However, a considerable number of Chinese students have sexual debut at an early age, which may bring negative health consequences to them, including unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. 32 Consistent with previous researches, 22,33 our findings showed that college students tended to have multiple sexual partners, which is a great risk factor for HIV/STD infection. 34 More attention should be paid to this phenomenon, especially in the context of China, where there is not enough formal and comprehensive sexual education and counseling for adolescents.…”

“I always prefer to withdraw than use a condom”: contextualising condomless sex among East Asian and sub-Saharan African international students in Sydney

“…Thus, there is a need to provide sexual health programmes that are tailored to the specific needs of this population. Such programmes will be impactful if they are evidence-based and evidence around sexual health of international students in Australia is still evolving [19][20][21][22][23]. The present study adds to this emerging body of evidence.…”

Portraying the ‘Chinese international students’: a review of English-language and Chinese-language literature on Chinese international students (2015–2020)

“…For instance, while a dominant body of research in both languages still focuses on undergraduate and master’s level Chinese international students’ experiences, a nascent group has begun to probe into various aspects of the lives of pre-university (Montalbano et al, 2016 ; Ren [任], 2018 ; Will, 2017 ; Wu & Tarc, 2019 ; Wu, 2020a , 2020b ), vocational education (Cao & Tran, 2015 ) and doctoral level students (Ding, 2016 ; Ding & Devine, 2017 ; Hu et al, 2016 ; Weng, 2020 ; Xu et al, 2020 ; Yue [岳], 2015 ). There has also been research that accentuates their diverse gender and sexual experiences (Douglass et al, 2020 ; Martin, 2017 ), emotional lives (Coates, 2019 ; Montsion, 2020 ) and religious beliefs (Chen [ 2015 ; Yu, 2019 ). Due to space constraint, this article cannot get into more details of these aspects, but they together demonstrate the notable heterogeneity of the Chinese international students.…”