Relationship between the level of Sexual Contacts and Self-Esteem, Self-Assertiveness of Teenage Girls Who Have or Had Boyfriends
Authors: Lee Sun Kyoung 
Published: September 2023

This is a cross-sectional descriptive correlation study that aimed to understand the relationship between the level of sexual contacts during the dates and psycho-social factors in teenage girls who have or had boyfriends. The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between sexual contacts and self-esteem and self-assertiveness.The subjects of the study were 6,130 teenage girls who have or had boyfriends. They were selected convienently 12,733 teenage girls from 254 secondary schools located in 7 large cities and 9 provinces in Korea.A structured questionaire was used it included items one general characteristics, the levels of sexual contacts, self-esteem and self-assertiveness. Seven levels of sexual contacts were rated they were holding a hand, putting arms around each other's shoulders, kiss, french kiss, touching breast, petting genitalia, and sexual intercourse during the dates. Self-esteem and self-assertiveness were measured by the "Self-esteem scale" of Rogenberg (1971) and the questionaires developed by S. B. Chang et al(2000), respectively.The self-reported questionaires were collected from October 2, to October 28, 2000 and analyzed by using SPSS 10.0 Program. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, reliability, One-way ANOVA with Duncan method & Scheffe method.The results of the analysis were as follows.1.An average Percentage of the respondents who have (46.1%) or had (53.9%) boyfriends was 48.1% (n=6,130) and the most common sexual contact during the dates was french kiss (26.7%, n=1,634). While 7.5%(458) of respondents had a sexual intercourse, 13.7%(842) of respondents didn't have any sexual contact during the dates.2.Distribution of starting point of the first sexual contact demonstrates that 1,950 respondents (31.8%) held partner's hand at the first date and 1,367 respondents (22.3%) put arms around each other's shoulders at the 2nd or 3rd date. Sexual contacts such as kiss, french kiss, touching breast, petting genitalia, or sexual intercourse were experienced mostly at the later than the 10th date. However, surprisingly large number(1.7%) of respondents had genital contact and sexual intercourses at the first date.3. The means of self-esteem and self-assertiveness scores of the respondents who have or had boyfriends are 27.43(+/-4.03) and 17.96(+/-2.55), respectively. The range of scores for self esteem was 10-40, 40 with most self esteem. The range of scores for self assertiveness was 7-21, 21 with most self assertiveness.4. As sexual contacts proceeded. the means of self-esteem and self-assertiveness values decreased. In detail, the respondents having no or light sexual contacts (kiss, putting arms around each other's shoulder. holding a hand) had similar self-esteem values(p< or =0.05). However, ones having relatively intensive sexual contacts (french kiss, touching breast) showed significantly lower self-esteem values(p< or =0.05). Same trend has been obtained for self-assertiveness value.5. The higher values of self-esteem and self-assertiveness values the respondents had, the later they started the moderate sexual contact (kiss, french kiss) during the dates. Interestingly, among the respondents having intensive sexual contacts (petting genitalia, sexual intercourse) during the dates. those who experienced the such contacts at the first date or later than 10th date have higher self-esteem and self-assertiveness values than ones experienced the such contacts during the 2nd~9th dates, giving U-shape curve.6. There was a significant relationship between self-esteem and self-assertiveness in girls who have or had boyfriends(P< or =.001).In conclusion, the research shows that self-esteem and self-assertiveness values are significantly related with the sexual contacts of the teenage girls who have or had boyfriends. These results strongly suggest that proper sex education program for teenage girls should contain the program on improving the self-esteem and self-assertiveness. We believe that sex education program is the one of the best ways to prevent the unwanted sexual contacts and pregnancy of teenage girls.