Sexual Behaviour and Its Determinants among Young Never-married Male Factory Workers in a South Indian Knit City

Abstract

995 young men workers, aged 15-24 years from a Knit city in south India, surveyed with semi-structured interview schedule to investigate the principal determinants of their sexual behaviour. 32 percent of young workers had the experience in any sexual activity and 19 percent had heterosexual intercourse before marriage. Logistic regression analyses show that the odds of participating in any sexual activity and sexual intercourse are found to be significantly higher among those who are participating at large in risk-taking behaviour, whose level of knowledge
about reproduction and sexuality is higher and migrated to the city than their counterparts. Conversely, young workers who expressed liberal attitudes to pre-martial sex are les likely to participate in sex than those who are conservative in such attitudes. Earning higher income and having more number of girl friends have exhibited grater likelihood to participate in any sexual act, middle school level of education has exhibited positive net effect on the likelihood of participating in hetero-sexual intercourse.