Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Many parents lack the necessary knowledge about sexuality, and many others are not at ease to
discuss sexuality issues with their children. As a result, schools and television assume ever-more influence over
many children. The sexual behavior of individuals can be predicted when the effect of these phenomenon on the
sexual value-system of individuals is known. The objective of this study was to identify the sexual value systems of
Jimma university students and determine socio-demographic factors and sources of sex information that affect
their sexual value systems.
METHODS: A cross-sectional survey using quantitative data collection methods was conducted on randomly
selected 713 (460 male and 253 female) students in May 2008. Data were collected using a piloted questionnaire
administered by trained data collectors, and analyzed using SPSS for windows version13.0. Descriptive statistics,
multinomial logistic regression, and chi-square tests were computed. Statistical tests were considered significant at
the level of significance of 0.05.
RESULTS: The mean age of the respondents was 20.9 (sd +2) and the sex ratio was181.82. Regarding their sexual
value systems, 400 (56.0%) were absolutists, 178 (25.0%) were relativists, and 136 (19.0%) were hedonists. Male
gender, Orthodox Christianity or having no religion, the habit of watching love related films or reading love related
materials, classroom sex education perceived as ‘sex is natural, but one should recognize its harm and use before
practicing it’, and being a senior student in the university were found to be independent predictors of hedonistic
and relativistic sexual value systems.
CONCLUSION: A significant proportion of the students had hedonistic or relativistic sexual value systems. Sex
education emphasizing both the importance of abstinence and the available options when abstinence is no longer
needed or impossible, regulating explicit sex videos and reading materials, and giving adequate emphasis to males
are recommended.
