Abstract
Abstract
Backgrounds
Chinese youth have become more sexually active over the years with rapid modernization and improving gender equity. This study aimed to investigate sexual behaviors among Chinese university students and to identify factors influencing sexual behaviors.
Methods
A cross-sectional survey was conducted from April to August 2021 among 1006 students aged 15 to 25 years from universities in 30 provinces in mainland China. Binary logistic regression was used to explore the factors for ever having sexual behaviors. The mediation model and the moderated mediation model were constructed to display the association between sexual knowledge, attitude and behavior.
Results
A total of 1006 respondents were included. A total of 332 (33.0%) students reported ever having sexual behaviors, with a higher incidence in males (35.5%) than in females (27.0%). Family monthly income above 20,000 RMB (OR = 2.63, 95% CI: 1.42–5.01), ever having searched for sexual knowledge (OR = 1.70, 95% CI: 1.16–2.51), searching for pornographic information at medium frequency (OR = 2.66, 95% CI: 1.62–4.42) and high frequency (OR = 2.63, 95% CI: 1.43–4.85), higher AIDS knowledge (OR = 1.15, 95% CI: 1.04–1.28) and more open sexual attitude (OR = 1.35, 95% CI: 1.16–1.57) promoted the incidence of sexual behavior. The moderated mediation analysis revealed that sexual attitude partially mediated the association between sexual knowledge and behaviors (p < 0.01), and the effect of sexual attitude on sexual behaviors was moderated by monthly family income (p < 0.01).
Conclusions
One-third of university students had sexual behaviors in this study. Sexual attitudes were found to mediate the relationship between sexual knowledge and behavior, with family monthly income identified as a crucial moderating factor. It is essential to strengthen sex education to provide students with access to accurate sexual knowledge and promote healthy sexual values.
Publisher
Research Square Platform LLC
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