Abstract:
Currently, sexual risk behaviors among adolescents have become important social and public health concern resulting in a drastic increase of teenage pregnancy among school age students. Therefore, this study aimed to study sexual behaviors and to examine predictors of sexual behaviors among primary school students. Information-motivation-behavioral skills model was used as a conceptual framework in this study.Participants were 306 primary school students (grade 6th) in Chanthaburi selected by simple random sampling. Data were collected by questionnaires of sexual media access, perceived severity of AIDS and pregnancy, perceived friends sexual risk behaviors, convenience to communication with parents about sex, parental monitoring, self-efficacy for sex refusal, and sexual behaviors. Their reliabilities were .70, .83, .72, .74, .70, .85 and .72. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and hierarchical multiple regression. Findings demonstrated that 10.6% of males and 0.5% of females were sexually active. Hierarchical regression analysis controllinggender showed thatperceived friends sexual risk behaviors (β = 0.33, p < .001), pornography access (β = 0.24, p < .001), perceived severity of AIDS and pregnancy (β = -0.16 p < .001), and self-efficacy for sex refusal (β = -0.12, p < .05) accounted for 30.6% of variance in sexual behaviors (R2 = .31, p < .05). Results suggest that appropriate sexual behaviors among school age students could be promoted by changing their perceived sexual risk behaviors and its effects, guiding appropriate media access, and training their sex refusal skills.