Does Gender Moderate the Relationship between Polydrug Use & Sexual Risk-Taking among Australian Secondary School Students Under 16 Years of Age?
INTRODUCTION AND AIMS:
This
study examines the association of alcohol and polydrug use with risky sexual
behaviour in adolescents under 16 years of age and if this association differs
by gender.
DESIGN AND METHODS:
The
sample consisted of 5412 secondary school students under 16 years of age from
Victoria, Australia. Participants completed an anonymous and confidential
survey during class time. The key measures were having had sex before legal age
of consent (16 years), unprotected sex before 16 (no condom) and latent-class
derived alcohol and polydrug use variables based on alcohol, tobacco, cannabis,
inhalants and other illegal drug use in the past month.
RESULTS:
There
were 7.52% and 2.55% of adolescents who reported having sex and having
unprotected sex before 16 years of age, respectively. After adjusting for
antisocial behaviours, peers' drug use and family and school risk factors,
girls were less likely to have unprotected sex (odds ratio = 0.31, P = 0.003).
However, the interaction of being female and polydrug use (odds ratio = 4.52,
P = 0.004) was significant, indicating that girls who engaged in polydrug use
were at higher risk of having unprotected sex. For boys, the effect of polydrug
use was non-significant (odds ratio = 1.44, P = 0.310). Discussion and
Conclusions For girls, polydrug use was significantly associated with
unprotected sex after adjusting for a range of risk factors, and this
relationship was non-significant for boys. Future prevention programs for
adolescent risky sexual behaviour and polydrug use might benefit from a
tailored approach to gender differences.
- 1Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
- 2Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
- 3School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.
- 4Centre for Adolescent Health, The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.
- 5Population Health Studies of Adolescents and Health Services Delivery for Adolescents, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia.
- 6Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
- Drug Alcohol Rev. 2016 Mar 23. doi: 10.1111/dar.12394.
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