Sexual Behavior and Contraceptive Knowledge and Use Among Adolescents in Developing Countries

From AcaWiki
Jump to: navigation, search

Citation: Blanc, A. K., Way, A. A. (1998) Sexual Behavior and Contraceptive Knowledge and Use Among Adolescents in Developing Countries. Studies in Family Planning (RSS)
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Sexual Behavior and Contraceptive Knowledge and Use Among Adolescents in Developing Countries
Tagged: uw-madison (RSS), wisconsin (RSS), sociology (RSS), demography (RSS), prelim (RSS), qual (RSS), WisconsinDemographyPrelimAugust2009 (RSS)

Summary

This article offers an overview of the sexual behavior and contraceptive knowledge and use among adolescent (15-19) women across a large number of developing countries. Data from DHS (Demographic and Health Survey) demonstrate that almost universally in sub-Saharan Africa an in the majority of countries in other regions, the gap between age at first sexual intercourse and age at first marriage has increased across age cohorts. The predominant pattern is one in which both age at marriage and age at first marriage have risen, but the increase in age at marriage is greater. In most countries of sub-Saharan Africa, current contraceptive use is higher among sexually active, unmarried teens than it is among married teens, whereas in Latin America and Caribbean, current levels are higher among married ones. However, relatively low adolescent women are currently using contraceptives (23% in Cameroon, 34.4% Indonesia, 8.1% in Brazil). The results also show that adolescents are unlikely to use a contraceptive the first time they have sex and are more likely to experience a contraceptive failure. Examples (Percentage that ever had sex/Ever Married): Sub-Saharan Africa Cameroon (1991) 68.5% / 44.2% Mali (1996) 66% / 49.7% Rwanda (1992) 14.2% / 9.8% Asia Bangladesh (1994) na / 49.5% India (1993) na / 39.3% Philippines (1993) 8.1 / 7.8 Latin America/Caribbean Brazil, Northeast (1991) 22.5% / 15.9% Paraguay (1990) 30.1% / 15.4% Peru (1992) 18.4% / 10.7%