Pornography Use and other Determinants of Risky Sexual Behaviour among Students in Assosa General Secondary School and College Preparatory, Western Ethiopia

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.