Title
Changes in Sexual Behavior and Attitudes Across Generations and Gender Among a Population-Based Probability Sample From an Urbanizing Province in Thailand
Date Issued
01 February 2016
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Techasrivichien T.
Darawuttimaprakorn N.
Punpuing S.
Musumari P.M.
Lukhele B.W.
El-saaidi C.
Feldman M.D.
Ono-Kihara M.
Kihara M.
Kyoto University School of Public Health
Publisher(s)
Springer New York LLC
Abstract
Thailand has undergone rapid modernization with implications for changes in sexual norms. We investigated sexual behavior and attitudes across generations and gender among a probability sample of the general population of Nonthaburi province located near Bangkok in 2012. A tablet-based survey was performed among 2,138 men and women aged 15–59 years identified through a three-stage, stratified, probability proportional to size, clustered sampling. Descriptive statistical analysis was carried out accounting for the effects of multistage sampling. Relationship of age and gender to sexual behavior and attitudes was analyzed by bivariate analysis followed by multivariate logistic regression analysis to adjust for possible confounding. Patterns of sexual behavior and attitudes varied substantially across generations and gender. We found strong evidence for a decline in the age of sexual initiation, a shift in the type of the first sexual partner, and a greater rate of acceptance of adolescent premarital sex among younger generations. The study highlighted profound changes among young women as evidenced by a higher number of lifetime sexual partners as compared to older women. In contrast to the significant gender gap in older generations, sexual profiles of Thai young women have evolved to resemble those of young men with attitudes gradually converging to similar sexual standards. Our data suggest that higher education, being never-married, and an urban lifestyle may have been associated with these changes. Our study found that Thai sexual norms are changing dramatically. It is vital to continue monitoring such changes, considering the potential impact on the HIV/STIs epidemic and unintended pregnancies.
Start page
367
End page
382
Volume
45
Issue
2
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Estadísticas, Probabilidad
Ciencias socio biomédicas (planificación familiar, salud sexual, efectos políticos y sociales de la investigación biomédica)
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84953636146
PubMed ID
Source
Archives of Sexual Behavior
ISSN of the container
00040002
DOI of the container
10.1007/s10508-014-0429-5
Source funding
Fujiwara Foundation
Sponsor(s)
The study was financially supported by the Department of Global Health and Socio-epidemiology, Kyoto University School of Public Health, and a partial research grant from Fujiwara Foundation, Japan for the academic year 2012. We are indebted to all respondents for their participation and their families for their hospitality allowing our teams into their homes. We would like to also extent great appreciation to communes/villages’ leaders and key informants, without their consents and support, it would have been absolutely impossible to initiate our fieldwork. We would like to thank the Policy and Statistical Techniques Bureau, National Statistical Office of Thailand for their guidance on complex sampling methodology. We gratefully acknowledge staffs of local Sub-district Municipality and local Sub-district Administrative Organizations of Nonthaburi province for assisting us with maps and directions to the EAs. Special thanks to Isabella K. Badenoch, Zuhal Sulaiman and Sakol Sopit-archasak for proof reading the earlier version of the article.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus