ABSTRACT
Objective To assess pre-marital sex behavior and its relationship with gender and experience of migration among 16-24 years-old out-of-school youths in rural Hainan province,China.Methods 160 eligible youths from each of the 2 townships in County A and 80 from each of the 6 townships in County B were recruited,under equal proportion on gender,age distribution and experience of migration.An interviewer-administered,standardized questionnaire was used.Results 760 eligible participants (with each gender of 380) were interviewed.There were no significant differences in the proportions of reporting as sexually active (56.8％ and 57.9％ ) or having premarital sex (54.5％ and 50.0％ ) between male and female youths.However,among those sexually active participants,the average age at first sexual intercourse was (18.2± 1.9 years or 19.2 ± 1.8 years,P＜0.01 ),the average age of first-time leaving hometown for work (18.0 ± 2.3 years or 16.5 ± 1.9 years P＜0.01 ) and the percentage of having first sexual intercourse before 1 8 years old (59.3％ vs.35.5％,P＜0.01) were different between males and females.31.2％ of the male youths reported that their sexual debut happened before they left their hometown for work and 45.9％ of the sex debut appeared within 1 year after they left hometown.However,78.5％ of the sexually active female youths reported their sexual debut happened 1 year after leaving their hometown.Data from the multivariate analysis showed that being away from hometown for more than 3 months and having more friends who presumably had presumably pre-marital sex experiences were more likely to report pre-marital sex behavior.Older men were more likely to report pre-marital sex behavior than the younger ones.Married women were more likely to report pre-marital sex behavior than the unmarried ones.Through multivariate analysis on unmarried men,data showed that those having had experience on migration and at older age were associated with experiencing premarital sex.Conclusion Gender difference was identified on the pattern of migration and its relationship with premarital sex among out-of-school rural youths in Hainan province.When prevention program is developed for rural youth,these differences should be taken into account.