Premarital Sexual Practice and Associated factors among Orphan Adolecents in Selected Charity Organizations of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2014.
Creators: name: Tena, Meheret
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2014

description: Background: Adolescence is a period of great physical, mental and emotional turmoil; teenagers in curiosity to prove their sexuality start experimenting sex. Premarital sex during adolescence is often unprotected against unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Ethiopia counts one of the largest populations of orphans in the world. Orphans may not receive the adequate caregiver monitoring that deters risky sexual behaviour. There is little or no information about the prevalence of premarital sexual risks among orphan adolescents in Ethiopia. Objective: To assess pre-marital sexual practice and associated factors among orphan adolescents (15-18 years) in Addis Ababa charity organizations. Methods: The study used mixed methods approach by combining institution based cross-sectional survey of orphan adolescents (15-18 years) who were beneficiaries of community based support in charity organizations. A total of 422 sample size was calculated using single population proportion formula &amp; simple random sampling technique was used to select the study units. The survey was complemented with qualitative FGDs and in-depth interviews with purposively selected orphan adolescents and guardians that work as child development projects in those selected charity organizations. For quantitative data Epi-Info version 3.5.4 software was used for data entry then data exported to SPSS Version 21 software for analysis. Bivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess the presence and degree of association between dependent and independent variables. Multivariate logistic regression model was applied to identify the important determinants for premarital sex and used to control for possible confounding effects. The transcribed and translated qualitative text data was imported into Open Code program and coded. Then codes were categorized and thematically described. Result: From the selected charity organizations that provide community based support, a total of 393 orphan adolescents aged 15-18 completed the questionnaire, giving a response rate of 93.1%. Eighteen (4.6%) orphan adolescents have ever had sex. The mean and median age at first sex were 14.5 (SD+-3.69) and 16 years respectively. Nearly 53% of the respondents were females; the majority (82.4%) were in the age group of 15-16 with mean age of 16 (SD 1.12). More than a quarter (26.7%) orphan adolescents were encouraged by their peer friends to have sexual partners. However, 86.5% of respondents had drunk alcohol but 3.8% of them practice sex after drinking alcohol. About one third (33.3%) of respondents viewed pornographic materials. In multiple logistic regression after controlling for confounders, age (17-18 years old), alcohol use, having boy/girl friend and peer pressure were found to be significantly associated with the out come variable. Conclusions and Recommendations: In the current study though the prevalence of sexual practice was smaller when compared to earlier studies done in other countries; those orphan adolescents affected by peer pressure, alcohol use &amp; who had boy/girl friend were more exposed to premarital sexual practice. Thus, sex education programs that focus on risky sexual behaviours shall be designed at school levels. Further studies shall also be conducted on premarital sexual risks of orphan adolescents.