Do family-planning workers in China support provision of sexual and reproductive health services to unmarried young people?

OBJECTIVE To ascertain the perspectives of family-planning service providers in eight sites in China on the provision of sexual and reproductive health services to unmarried young people. METHODS Data were drawn from a survey of 1927 family-planning workers and 16 focus group discussions conducted in eight sites in China in 1998-99. FINDINGS Family-planning workers recognized the need to protect the sexual health of unmarried young people and were unambiguous about the need for government agencies to provide information and education on sexual and reproductive health to unmarried young people; however, perceptions about the appropriate age for and content of such education remained conservative. While about 70% of family-planning workers were willing to provide contraceptives to unmarried young people, and about 60% approved government provision of contraceptive services to unmarried young people, only one quarter agreed that the services could be extended to senior high schools. CONCLUSION Family-planning workers in China are ambivalent about the provision of sexual and reproductive health services to unmarried young people, which potentially poses a significant obstacle to the adoption of safe sex behaviours by young people, as well as to the provision of sexual and reproductive health information and services to young unmarried people in China. Training programmes for family-planning workers are urgently needed to address this issue.