Relationships, love and sexuality: what the Filipino teens think and feel

Abstract

BackgroundIn order to achieve a change among teens' sexual behavior, an important step is to improve our knowledge about their opinions concerning relationships, love and sexuality.MethodsA questionnaire including topics on relationships, love and sexuality was distributed to a target population of 4,000 Filipino students from third year high school to third year college. Participants were obtained through multi-stage sampling of clusters of universities and schools. This paper concentrates on teens aged 13 to 18.ResultsStudents reported that they obtained information about love and sexuality mainly from friends. However, they valued parents' opinion more than friends'. They revealed few conversations with their parents on these topics. A majority of them would like to have more information, mainly about emotion-related topics. Almost half of respondents were not aware that condoms are not 100% effective in preventing STIs or pregnancies. More girls, compared to boys, were sensitive and opposed to several types of sexism. After adjusting for sex, age and institution, the belief of 100% condom effectiveness and the approval of pornography and sexism were associated with being sexually experienced.ConclusionThere is room for further encouraging parents to talk more with their children about sexuality, specially aspects related to feelings and emotions in order to help them make better sexual choices. Indeed, teens wish to better communicate with their parents on these issues. Condoms are regarded as safer than what they really are by almost half of the participants of this study, and such incorrect knowledge seems to be associated with sexual initiation.

First Sexual Intercourse and Subsequent Regret in Three Developing Countries

“…Data were collected using standardized data-collection protocols. 21 Prior to administering the survey to students, consent was obtained through the schools.…”

The relationship of religion, religiosity, and parental communication in the sexual behaviors of Filipinos aged 18-25 years in the United States and the Philippines

“…In general, Filipino values view sex as a private matter. As a result, parents do not openly speak about many aspects of sex (Chung et al, 2005;de Irala et al, 2009;Nadal, 2009). …”

“…In general, Filipinos believe that the only morally and legally acceptable sexual behavior is heterosexual intercourse within a monogamous marriage. Sexual abstinence is intensely promoted for those who are not married (de Irala et al, 2009;Delgado-Infante & Ofreneo, 2014;Gipson et al, 2012).…”

“…The epidemic of HIV/AIDS in the Philippines has been stigmatized and avoided in personal and societal levels resulting in lack of sex and HIV education in households, schools, and the health care system (de Irala et al, 2009;Nadal, 2009). For a long time, the Catholic Church and conservative politicians opposed and delayed the passage of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012.…”

“…Participants reported having inadequate information regarding biological and emotional aspects of sexuality and desired more information about the emotional aspects of sex from their parents (de Irala et al, 2009). …”