According to study: Out-of-school youth have narrow definition of sex

The result of a study conducted by a non-government organization, Remedios Aids Foundation, Inc., showed a huge problem in Cebu City concerning the way its out-of-school youth define sex.

During its research dissemination forum yesterday, RAF has reported that eight in ten out-of-school youths in the area view sex in very narrow terms.

Ten percent define sex as an act exclusive for married couples, as if what takes place among teenagers cannot be considered sex as well.

Close to 15 percent see it as an act between romantically linked couples, forgetting the reality that sex in the world happens also outside the context of love but pleasure.

At least 21 percent of the Cebu City out-of-school youths can only explain sex by stating a subjective remark about it that it is pleasurable or that it is an obscene act.

Others may not be as restrictive, dropping the intimacy clause in their definitions, but still, would view sex as an act between heterosexuals.

Those who adhere to this strain of narrow definition make another eight percent of Cebu City's out-of-school youth residents.

More or less 18 percent of out-of-school youths only think of sex as an act designed for reproduction or procreation, undermining the fact that it is also done by couples who cannot beget a child, like a couple who has undergone vasectomy or ligation.

Some also engaged in sex just for money, for fun and to prove one's sexual worth.

Many out-of-school youths in Cebu City adhere to yet another constricted view of sex wherein one in five believed that not act can be considered sex unless it involves actual penile-vaginal penetration.

Other who may have a less constricted view than this are rather selective in determining which acts are sex or not.

Normally, they would tend to drop those acts like hugging, rubbing of bodies, torrid kissing, and rather keep only those that involve direct genital stimulation like fingering or oral sex.

The number of those who think so does not even make up a quarter of the entire out-of-school youths in Cebu City.

RAF through its Youth Zone Cebu in partnership with Population Commission and Cebu City United Vendors Association Inc., with support from United Nations Population Fund, is currently implementing an adolescent health program in selected seven barangays in Cebu City.

These are barangays Ermita, Kamagayan, San Nicolas Proper, Luz, Labangon, Pasil and Camputhaw.

The study aimed at exploring the reproductive health profile of the sexually active out-of-school youths of the said areas to address the sexuality of young adults, level of awareness on different reproductive health concerns and issues and on how to taker care of their reproductive health. - Gregg M. Rubio