Insitute of Health and Welfare Policy, Research Center for Health and Welfare Policy, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
BMC Public Health. 2012 Jul 18;12:527. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-12-527.
Cigarette/alcohol use and premarital sex, and their subsequent consequences on the well-being of college students, are international health promotion issues. However, little is known about the temporal relationship of these risk behaviors among Taiwanese college students.
This study utilizes data from the Taiwan Youth Project, a cohort sample of 20-year-olds (N = 2,119) with a 2-year follow-up, to explore the relationship between adolescent cigarette/alcohol use, and subsequent premarital sex. To incorporate the Taiwanese context where the normative value of abstinence until marriage remains strong, multivariate logistic regression models included data on premarital sex attitudes, stressful life events, peer influence, as well as family and individual factors which might influence this relationship.
The sample consists of 49% male and 51% female college students. About 16% of the sample report having had premarital sex by age 20. After excluding sexually active youth, 20% of males and 13% of females report engaging in premarital sex in the 2-year follow-up interview. Multivariate logistic regression analyses reveal adolescent alcohol use is significantly associated with a higher likelihood of engaging in premarital sex for both genders; adolescent smoking is significantly associated with premarital sexual activity among males, but not females. Our results indicate liberal premarital sexual attitudes and stressful personal events are also significantly associated with premarital sexual activity.
These findings suggest health promotion programs for college students need to take developmental and gender perspectives into account. Future research to incorporate a broader, multi-cultural context into risk reduction materials is recommended.
吸烟/饮酒和婚前性行为及其对大学生健康的后续影响是国际健康促进问题。然而，对于台湾大学生这些风险行为之间的时间关系知之甚少。
本研究利用了台湾青年计划的数据，这是一个 20 岁（N=2119）的队列样本，有 2 年的随访期，以探讨青少年吸烟/饮酒与随后的婚前性行为之间的关系。为了纳入台湾的情况，即直到结婚才禁欲的规范价值观仍然很强，多变量逻辑回归模型包括了婚前性行为态度、生活压力事件、同伴影响以及可能影响这种关系的家庭和个人因素的数据。
样本由 49%的男性和 51%的女性大学生组成。约 16%的样本在 20 岁时报告有过婚前性行为。排除有过性行为的年轻人后，20%的男性和 13%的女性在 2 年随访访谈中报告有婚前性行为。多变量逻辑回归分析显示，青少年饮酒与两性发生婚前性行为的可能性增加显著相关；青少年吸烟与男性发生婚前性行为显著相关，但与女性无关。我们的结果表明，宽松的婚前性态度和个人压力事件也与婚前性行为显著相关。
这些发现表明，大学生健康促进计划需要考虑到发展和性别视角。建议未来的研究将更广泛的、多文化的背景纳入到减少风险的材料中。
