Relación de las actitudes personales y de la norma social con la actividad sexual de los adolescentes*

Abstract

Using a sample of 326 high-school students (178 males, 144 females, 4 participants who did not indicate their sex) between 13 and 18 years old, from lower, middle and upper socio-economic levels, the relationship between personal attitude and the perceived social norm (perception of friends' attitude and of peer norm) was examined with several indicators of the sexual activity of participants.A self-report questionnaire was used in order to get information about the variables of the study. The analysis of information showed that only one 31 percent of the young participants had had penetrative sexual relationships. Correlation and regression analyses support the statements of Reasoned Action Theory on the importance of personal attitude and the youth's perception of the social norm in explaining sexual activity during adolescence. The study's predictive variables explain between a 10 percent and a 60 percent variability of each one of the sexual activity indicators. It was statistically verified that the influence of perception of sexual attitudes of friends on penetrative sexual activity takes place through the personal sexual attitude. These results confirm the role of cognition in healthy behaviour and point to the need to bear it in mind in programs of sexual and reproductive health promotion campaigns.

Keywords

• Sexual activity
• adolescents
• social norm
• sexual health.