| dc.description.abstract | This study set out to investigate the factors associated with age at first sex among female
youth in Coast province by using the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2008/9.The
main objective of the study was to establish factor
s that were closely associated with sexual
debut among female youth aged 15-24 years. The dependent variable was age at first sex and
the independent variables included; education, type
and place of residence, age, literacy,
religion, wealth index, and exposure to mass media
i.e. newspapers, magazines, radio.
The study sample was 487 female youth aged 15-24 years obtained from the overall survey
sample of 8,444 women aged 15-49 years. The study used descriptive statistics and Cox
regression analysis. The results showed that 61.8%
of the 487 female youth aged 15-24 were
already sexually experienced as at the time of the
survey. The age at first sex ranges between
age 10 and 23 years among the study population. The
average age at sexual debut was 16.14
years.
Bivariate results showed that education, age and readership of newspapers and magazines
were significantly associated with age at first sexual debut. However the results of Cox
regression analysis indicated that only education and age had statistically significant effects
on early sexual debut. Female youths who reported t
o have no education were at the greatest
risk of initiate sexual activity early and those with at least secondary education had the least
risk..Adolescents aged 15-19 were significantly more likely to initiate sexual activity than the
older adolescents (20-24).
In view of the study findings, there is a need for
the government to implement the life skills
curriculum targeting female youths in schools and t
hose out of school. Programmes targeting
the out of school youth should also be initiated to
also facilitate in delaying age at sexual
debut among the youth who have no education. More emphasis on youth friendly health
services should be encourage to help expose the youth to more reproductive health
information that will enable them to make informed
decisions. Newspaper pullouts and
magazine articles on reproductive health should be
made available to the youth and a reading
culture be captivating among the youth to increase
their awareness on reproductive health
matters, captivating puzzles on reproductive health
and competitions may be included to
capture their interest | en_US |
