Assessment of Exposure to Sexually Explicit Materials & Factors Associated with Exposure among Preparatory School Youths in Hawassa City, Southern Ethiopia

According to the 2007 Ethiopian census, youths aged 15–24 years were more than 15.2 million which contributes to 20.6 % of the whole population. These very large and productive groups of the population are exposed to various sexual and reproductive health risks. The aim of this study was to assess exposure to Sexually Explicit Materials (SEM) and factors associated with exposure among preparatory school students in Hawassa city, Southern Ethiopia.

A cross-sectional institution based study involving 770 randomly selected youth students of preparatory schools at Hawassa city. Multi stage sampling technique was used to select study subjects. Data was collected using pre-tested and self-administered questionnaire. Data was entered by EPI INFO version 3.5.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 statistical software packages. The result was displayed using descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analysis. Statistical association was done for independent predictors (at p < 0.05).

About 750 students were participated in this study with a response rate of 97.4 %. Among this, about 77.3 % of students knew about the presence of SEM and most of the respondents 566 (75.5 %) were watched SEM films/movies and 554 (73.9 %) were exposed to SE texts. The overall exposure to SEM in school youths was 579 (77.2 %). Among the total respondents, about 522 (70.4 %) claimed as having no open discussion on sexual issues with in their family. Furthermore, About 450 (60.0 %) respondents complained for having no sexual and reproductive health education at their school. Male students had faced almost two times higher exposure to SEM than female students. Students who attended private school were more than two times more likely exposed to SEM than public schools. Students who drink alcohol and labelled as ‘sometimes’ were two times more likely exposed to SEM than those who never drink alcohol. Khat chewers who labelled “rarely”, “sometimes” and “often” had shown higher exposure, and than those who never chew khat, respectively. Regarding SEM access, school youths with label ‘easy access were exposed in odds of six folds than youths of no access.

High number of students was exposed to sexually explicit materials. Sex, school type, substance use and access to SEM were observed independent predictors of exposure to SEM.

Below:  Per cent of respondents passing leisure time in preparatory school of Hawassa city, May 2014. N.B: others include school compound film show, friend’s home, and buying VCD player pornography

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By:  Tony Habesha¹, Zewdie Aderaw² and Serawit Lakew^3* 

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