Sexual Behaviour, Sexual Health and Pornography Consumption among Secondary School Students in Iceland (2017)

Researchers also note that anal sex rate of 30+ percent is higher than studies earlier this decade:

“Fewer had engaged in anal sex or about 30%, which is a considerable higher ratio than 6% found in the study conducted by Akers et al. (2011) and 10% found in a study conducted by Haydon, Herring, Prinstein and Halpern (2012). In addition, 12% of the participants in this study had engaged in group sex.”


Home > Vol 2, No 1 (2017) > Freysteinsdóttir

Freydís J. Freysteinsdóttir, Ástrós E. Benediktsdóttir

Abstract

The aim of this study was to gain knowledge about secondary school student’s sexual behaviour and sexual health as well as their pornography consumption. A questionnaire was prepared and answered by 384 students in five colleges selected based on a stratified random sample. Most of the students were 18-20 years of age or 87%. One of the main results was that the majority of the participants had seen pornography (86%). The mean age of participants when they saw pornography for the first time was 13. Men were significantly younger than women when they viewed pornography for the first time and spent more time watching pornography than women. Nearly half of all participants had not always used a condom when they had engaged in sex with a person that they did not have a long-term relationship with. Pornography and its consumption has been constantly growing over the past few decades. One of the main reasons for its growth is increasing technology and easier access to the Internet. Comprehensive sex education has not grown as rapidly as pornography, which can be considered a huge risk factor in the shaping of young people’s sexuality and their sexual health.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/rhs.v2n1p55

http://scholink.org/ojs/index.php/rhs/article/view/828


A FEW STATS FROM STUDY

As previously noted, 384 students from five secondary schools participated in this study. Nearly half were males or 187 (49%) and 193 (50%) were females. Two described themselves as non-gendered and few did not answer the question about gender or a total of 1%. The age range of the participants was from 18 to over 50, however, most of the students were 18-20 years of age (87%). 182 students were 18 years old (49,7%), 92 students (25%) were 19 years old.

As can be seen in Figure 1, the majority of the participants had watched pornography (86%), nearly all of the men (99%) and the majority of the women (73%). The difference was significant. The mean age of participants when they had seen pornography for the first time was 13. Of those who had seen pornography, the majority had started to watch pornography at the age of 11 to 17. Most women started to watch pornography at the age of 15 or 16. However, most men had started to watch pornography at the age of 12 or 13. Thus, men were significantly younger than women when they watched pornography for the first time. A few participants had watched pornography for the first time when they were only five years old or younger (1.7%).

Participants were asked to describe their emotions towards pornography. Nearly half of the participants (48%), answered that they had neither positive nor negative feelings towards pornography. A higher ratio of men thought that pornography was positive (41%) than women (17%). Similarly, more women thought that pornography was negative, 81% of those who answered that they viewed pornography as negative were women. Significantly more women had a negative view towards pornography than men (χ2(4) = 33.31, p < 0.001).

When participants who had watched pornography (86.1%) were compared to participants who had not watched pornography, the participants who had watched pornography were more likely to have experienced sexual acts.

Even though over 70% of the participants had tried all sexual acts that were asked about in this study, except anal sex (31%), participants who had watched pornography were more likely to have tried each of the sexual acts asked about in this study, than participants who had not watched pornography.