IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jocnur/v22y2013i23-24p3270-3279.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sexual activity and adolescent health risk behaviours amongst high school students in three ethnic Chinese urban populations

Author

Listed:
  • Jason Ong
  • William Wong
  • Albert Lee
  • Eleanor Holroyd
  • Song Yuen Huang

Abstract

Aims and objectives To compare sexually active Chinese high school students in three major Asian cities with their non‐sexually active counterparts in order to determine prevalence and associations with selected health outcomes. Background There have been limited studies to date on the association between sexual activity and substance use in Chinese high schools. While the role of the school nurse in the development of sexual health and harm reduction education in secondary schools has been well documented in international studies, this has received little attention in Asia. Design Cross‐sectional survey. Methods This study was administered in 2003/2004 to 13,895 Grades 6 to 12 high school students in Hong Kong (3498), Macau (6286) and Taipei (4111). Descriptive analysis was conducted followed by univariate analysis comparing sexual behaviour with (1) substance use including alcohol, smoking, illicit drugs; (2) feeling depressed for greater than or equal to two weeks in last 12 months; contemplating suicide during the last 12 months; and (3) perception of poor health/academic performance. Results The students (8%) reported being sexually active had marked differences in selected health outcomes when compared with the nonsexually experienced students. More than 90% of the sexually active students had tried alcohol, with more than 50% being regular drinkers, more than 30% testifying to binge drinking and nearly 50% reported depression in the past 12 months. Substance use, poorer perception of health and academic performance were also significantly higher in the sexually experienced students relative to their nonexperienced counterparts. Conclusions Sexually experienced Chinese high school students surveyed were at higher risk of substance abuse, poorer psychological health and academic performance. Relevance to clinical practice Community and public health nursing needs to address Asian adolescent sexual health education needs, in particular provide culturally targeted interventions for associated substance abuse and psychological health within the context of high school sex education.

Suggested Citation

  • Jason Ong & William Wong & Albert Lee & Eleanor Holroyd & Song Yuen Huang, 2013. "Sexual activity and adolescent health risk behaviours amongst high school students in three ethnic Chinese urban populations," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(23-24), pages 3270-3279, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:22:y:2013:i:23-24:p:3270-3279
    DOI: 10.1111/jocn.12267
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12267
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jocn.12267?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:22:y:2013:i:23-24:p:3270-3279. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2702 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.