The Impact Of Traditional Confucian Culture On Sexual Related Knowleage, Attitude And Behaviors Among Unmarried Adolescents And Youths In Three Asian Cities

[BACKGROUND]It is well known that culture environment is an important and profound factor influencing sexual behavior of human being.Many Asian countries have long been impacted by Chinese traditional Confucian cultures.Nowadays,they have been undergoing remarkable socio-cultural changes in the wake of western cultures,modernization,swift industrialization and current globalization.At the same time,adolescents' sex behavior is increasing.So in this rapidly changing socio-cultural world,What challenge will the Confucian culture face? Whether the increasing of adolescent's sex behavior is related to the weaken of the Confucian culture? All of the questions still deserves exploration,So far,no similar researches have been reported.[OBJECTIVES]To assess the impact of Confucian culture concepts and values on unmarried adolescents' and youths' sexual related knowledge,attitudes and behaviors using data from reproductive health suvery conducted among 15-24 youths living in three Asian cities,Hanoi,Shanghai and Taipei.[METHODS]It is a cross-sectional survey conducted among 15-24 adolescents from Hanoi,Shanghai and Taipei.The field work began in May 2006 and finished in Janurary 2007.CASI(Computer Assessed Self-Interview) coupled with face-to-face interview was adopted in the survey.The questionnaire for the general information was filled in by interviewer while for sensitive information was filled out by respondents themselves.Information on subjects' backgrounds,Confucian culture concepts and values,sexual related knowledge,attitude and behaviors were collected in the survey which took about 40-50 minutes.Data from 16,554 unmarried youths were analyzed with SAS software 9.1 edition.Varied statistical methods including t test,ANOVA,chi-square test,liner regression model,logistic regression model and Cox regression model were used in the analysis.[RESULTS]1.General information.Totally,6,204,6,023 and 4,327 unmarried adolescents and youths from Hanoi,Shanghai and Taipei were included in the analysis sample, respectively.More than half of them were students.More 70%of them resided in city and the average age of them was 19.4.2.Confucian culture concepts and values.For the totally 11 items of traditional family concepts,more than 93%of the Hanoi and Taipei adolescents reported to agree with 5 items or more,compared to Shanghai(60%).For the totally 3 items of traditional values in personal development,more than 95%of the adolescents reported to agree with 2 items or more in Hanoi,compared to Shanghai and Taipei (about 80%).As to gender role concepts,totally 5 items,86%of the adolescents reported to agree with 2-3 items in Hanoi,compared to Shanghai and Taipei (about 1/3),and almost two thirds of Shanghai and Taipei adolescents agreed with 1 or less of it.For traditional sexual values,totally 2 items,more than 80%of the adolescents reported to agree with at least 1 items in Hanoi,compared to Shanghai (70%) and Taipei(45%).3.Sexual related knowledge,attitude and behaviors.Scores of sexual related knowledge were highest in Taipei girls and lowest in Shanghai,and scores of girls in three cities were higher than boys.Most of respondents had conservative attitude to premarital sex.The majority of reospondents couldn't accept intimate and sexual behaviors between girls/boys with a person causal acquaintance. Meanwhile the majority of respondents couldn't accept sex intercourse between girls/boys with a person she/he was in love with whether or not engaged,but they could accept their intimate behaviors.In Hanoi male and female,there were 7.1% and 2.2%of respondents had sexual experience respectively,in Shanghai,there were 16.1%and 8.5%of respondents from urban and rural area had sex, respectively,while in Taipei,there were 37.7%and 29.4%of respondents had sex intercourse experience respectively.4.Association between demographic factors and sex related knowledge,attitude and behavior.Adolescents in the higher age group,higher economic status group or higher education group were more likely to have higher knowledge score, meanwhile they had more open sexual related attitude,more acceptence of prematial sex and intimate behaviors and they were more likely to engage in sex intercourse more earlier.Compared to students,non-students were more likely to have more open sexual related attitude,more acceptence of prematial sex and intimate behaviors and more earlier first sex intercourse,but lower knowledge score.Compared to respondents living in the rural,urban respondents were more likely to have more open sexual related attitude,more acceptence of prematial sex and intimate behaviors.5.Association between Confucian culture concepts and values and sex related knowledge,attitude and behavior.For family concepts,adolescents in Hanoi and Taipei with less traditional family concepts were more likely to have more open sexual related attitude,more acceptence of prematial sex and intimate behaviors and they were more likely to engage in sex intercourse more earlier,contrary to Shanghai adolescents.For gender role concepts,adolescents in Shanghai and Taipei with traditional gender role concepts were more likely to have higher knowledge scores,conservative sexual related attitude,less acceptence of prematial sex and intimate behaviors and they were more likely to engage in sex intercourse more later,but Hanoi adolescents didn't show this association.For values in personal development and sexual values,adolescents in three cities with less traditional values in personal development or traditional sexual values were more likely to have higher knowledge scores,more open sexual related attitude, more acceptence of prematial sex and intimate behaviors and they were more likely to engage in sex intercourse more earlier.6.The acceptance of respondents' attitudes towards premarital intimate and sexual behaviors for unmarried male was higher than unmarrried female.[CONCLUSION]a.The sexual KAP are different in adolescents from Hanoi, Shanghai and Taipei,b.The influence of Confucian culture concepts and values is different in three sites;c.The associations between Confucian culture concepts and values and adolescents' sexual related knowledge,attitude and behaviors differ in the three sites,which need further research;d.The sex role still exist in three cities.