Premarital fertility is defined as fertility before the first marriage. In South Africa, in 1998, according to the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), about 65% of women under age 25 had had a premarital birth and close to 39% of all births were premarital. Although the total fertility rate had decreased drastically (down to 2.9), trends showed that premarital fertility was increasing. We inve...

BACKGROUND Gender norms have been challenged by unmarried rural women's migration for employment to urban Sri Lankan Free Trade Zones (FTZ). Men are described as looking for sexual experiences among the women workers, who are then accused of engaging in premarital sex, something seen as taboo in this context. Increased sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) risks for women workers are...

the rise, especially in urban areas, where an estimated 20–25% of unmarried young males and 6–10% of unmarried young females have experienced premarital sex.1 Other studies indicate that while adolescents’ attitudes toward premarital sex are becoming more liberal, their awareness of contraceptives remains poor.2 Studies on abortion and on the prevalence of STDs in India, though few, confirm tha...

CONTEXT Gender inequality is a long-recognized driver of the HIV epidemic. However, few studies have investigated the association between gender-based power and HIV risk in India, which has the world's third largest HIV epidemic. METHODS Population-based data collected in 2003 from 3,385 couples residing in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, North India, were used to examine associations between ...

OBJECTIVES To review the sexual behaviour data collected in the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and other similar national surveys from the perspective of data quality. METHODS Two indicators of premarital and higher risk sexual behaviour were analysed for 31 surveys in 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. The analysis focused on the internal consistenc...

Sexual health (SH) and sexual behavior of young people have become a growing public concern. But few studies have been conducted to investigate the prevalence and psychosocial correlates of this phenomenon. Purpose: To understand college students’ sexual knowledge (SK), sexual attitudes (SA), sexual desire (SD) and sexual behavior (SB). Methods: A self-reported questionnaire survey on SK, SA, S...

Maternal disapproval of premarital sex, maternal discussions about birth control and the quality of the parent-child relationship may have an important influence on adolescents' sexual activity and the consistency of their contraceptive use. Findings from a survey of 751 black youths showed that adolescent perceptions of maternal disapproval of premarital sex and satisfaction with the mother-ch...

Family environment is one of the most influential factors on youth sexual behavior but has received little investigation in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, a comprehensive understanding of family influences could improve the efficiency of reproductive health (RH) interventions. Using retrospective data from a population-based survey, life-table analysis was utilized to compute the median age at premar...