Abstract:
There has been a growing concern over the potential harms of pornography amongst young
people as a result of the development and the expansion of new forms of social media and
technology. Little has been known about the experience of in-school youths' usage of
pornographic materials and associated risky sexual behaviour in Ethiopian context. This
study investigated pornography use and other determinants of risky sexual behaviour among
students of Assosa General Secondary School and College Preparatory. The study design
was cross-sectional descriptive and analytical with quantitative dominant mixed research
approach. 317 respondents participated in the survey, who were selected by using systematic
sampling technique. Two FGDs (one with female & one with male students) and nine key
informant interviews were conducted to collect qualitative data. FGD guide and interview
check list were tools used to collet qualitative data. A structured self-administered
questionnaire developed by the researcher was used after pre-test to collect quantitative
data. Both data types were collected from February to March, 2017. Descriptive and
inferential statistics for quantitative data analysis (using SPSS 20.0 version) and thematic
analysis for qualitative data were used. 24.6 % of pevalence of pornography use was
reported among the study participants. 31.2% of the study participants had started sexual
intercourse and among them, 22.7% were started sex before age 18 years. In the Multivariate
Logistic Regression analysis, sex (AOR [95% CI] = 3.2 [1.173, 8.734]), educational status of
the students (AOR [95% CI] = 0.141 [0.025, 0.797]), religious education attendance (AOR
[95% CI] = 0.259 [0.088, 0.765]), pornography use (AOR [95% CI] = 6.401 [1.788,
22.919]) and alcohol use (AOR [95% CI] = 3.449 [1.359, 8.754]) were significantly and
independently associated with students risky sexual behaviour. The qualitative findings of this
study revealed that peer pressure, exposure to western media and less communication about
sex related matters between students and their parents have also influence on students’
sexual behaviour. In sum, the study found that personal, interpersonal, behavioural and
perceived social enivarionmental factors strongly influenced students risky sexual
behaviours; early sexual initiation, unsafe sexual intercourse and having sex with multiple
sexual partners. Hence, there needs for urgent mitigation strategies of ameliorating the
problems of risky sexual behaviour that in-school youth of the study area have encountered
so far. Forthcoming researches should give prior attention for identification protective
factors for risk behaviour among early young people in the study area.
