Associate Professor Nadine Shaanta Murshid and PhD student Andrew Irish publish article, "Understanding teen sex in Bangladesh: Results from Global School Health Survey 2014"

Congratulations to Associate Professor Nadine Shaanta Murshid and PhD student Andrew Irish on the publication of their article, "Understanding teen sex in Bangladesh: Results from Global School Health Survey 2014" in the Children and Youth Services Review.

Murshid, N. S., & Irish, A. (2020). Understanding teen-sex in Bangladesh: Results from Global School Health Survey 2014, Children & Youth Services Review.

• Boys in this population have approximately 75% greater odds of having had sexual intercourse than girls.
• Odds of having had sex increased with every year of age.
• Odds of having sex decreased by approximately 40 percent with each increase in grade level.
• Missing school in the past 30 days was strongly related to having had sex.
• An increase in mean parental involvement predicted a decrease in the odds of having had sex.

Objective

Absent sexual education amid a culture of sexual repression, unmarried youth of Bangladesh have sex, as they do all over the world. But, given lack of resources and institutional support for teens who have sex, particularly outside of marriage, they are vulnerable to a variety of concerns: reproductive and sexual health problems, sexual violence, and emotional and psychological harm. In this study, we examine factors that predict teen sex among a sample of school students as a way to identify teens who are potentially in need of sexual and mental health services.

Methods

Using the 2014 Global School-based Health Survey (GSHS) for Bangladesh we conducted a logistic regression to estimate whether socio demographic factors (age, gender, grade), psychological health (suicidality) and social ties (social support, friends, parental involvement, missing school) predict teen sex.

Results

We estimate that 9.11% of Bangladeshi students between ages 11 and 17 years have had sexual intercourse. In examining predictors of teen sex, our findings suggest that male students were more likely to have sex, as were older students. Teens who missed school without permission to do so were much more likely to have sex. Greater school social support, having a friend, nor a history of suicidality predicted sexual intercourse history. Greater education and parental involvement showed moderately negative relationships.

Conclusion

In identifying the frequency and characteristics of teens who report having sex, we suggest the incorporation of sex education in schools as well as in community settings given teens who have sex are more likely to miss school than their counterparts.