Organizer and Chair: Peter Xenos, East-West Center
Discussant: Charles Hirschman, University of Washington
This panel draws on recent survey data from several Southeast Asian societies, in which national samples of youth were asked about certain of their high-risk behaviors. In particular, data were obtained about pre-marital sex (and especially unprotected sex), drug use, drinking and smoking. Each author discusses a national setting in terms of gender and age patterns, earliest experience and frequency, and correlates of each kind of risk-behavior with class and family circumstances, urban versus rural residence, educational level and other factors found to be important. A number of important patterns and programmatic implications emerge.
Substances, Sex and Smoke: The Perils of Adolescence in Hong Kong
P. K. Luis, Wai-fong Ting, and Travis Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic
University
In the past decade Hong Kong has seen a deluge of surveys on high-risk behaviors of adolescents such as substance abuse, unprotected sex and smoking. Most of these surveys were guided by practical concerns and were meant to support governmental as well as non-governmental programmes. Some of them reflect certain theoretical or ideological inclinations. Their data quality varies. This paper attempts to form a balanced picture of the situation on the basis of the surveys by assessing their quality, bench marking key demographic variables against censuses, selecting key estimates, resolving contradictory findings between surveys, and collaborating them in the manner of a meta-analysis. We interpret the resulting picture in terms of macro-level (that is, class, culture, and policy), meso-level (family, school), and micro-level (gender, age) correlates as found in the surveys. Finally we discuss the social significance of these correlates and speculate on the prospects of the perils in Hong Kong.
Drugs and Sex Among Thai Youth: Results from the Family and Youth Survey
Chai Podhisita, Umaporn Pattaravanich, and Peter Xenos, Mahidol University
Drug abuse and untimely, unsafe sex among youth have recently become major concerns at the individual and family levels but also at the national level. This paper identifies current Thai patterns of youth behavior with regard to drinking, smoking, drug abuse and premarital sex, and investigates correlations in terms of individual and family factors such as gender, age, schooling status, work, socio-economic class, family circumstances and urban-rural residence. The paper draws upon the Family and Youth Survey of 1994 and examines research and policy implications of the findings. In all the behaviors under investigation, male youth are far more active than female youth; they are also more likely to engage in the behavior at an early age. Drinking and smoking are common among most young men but the proportion of young women who engaged in this behavior is also noticeable. By the age of 15, fifty percent or more of males who engaged in drinking or smoking had already had their first try. Use of other drugs-marijuana, amphetamines and glue sniffing, in particular-is found in a smaller proportion, but again among the ever-users an early start is almost the norm (although less than half of males and about one-third of females reported that they had sexual experience, premarital sex is nearly universal for the males who ever had sex, while nearly one out of two females in the same group had such experience). Our result contrasts with some earlier findings that premarital sex for (non-commercial) women is rare. As expected, rural women are more conservative than those in urban areas. The median age at onset of first sex is 16 for males and 18 for females. More than half of the young men had their first sex unprotected. The majority of youth, especially men, had their first sexual experience with non-commercial partners. This contrasts with a popular belief that young men usually have their 'first lesson' with prostitutes.
Smoking, Drug Use and Unprotected Sex Among Filipino Youth
Corazon Raymundo, University of the Philippines; Lita J. Domingo,
University of the Philippines
The 1994 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Survey (YAFS-II) provides, for the first time, national levels of important high risk behaviors, including smoking, drinking, drug use, and unprotected sex among Filipino youth (ages 15 to 24) while they were single. This paper examines these high-risk behaviors particularly in relation to their personal situations and characteristics as influenced by their family backgrounds, peers, socioeconomic activities and current living conditions. A number of important patterns and program implications emerge from the analysis.