Most youths want marriage before sex, but can’t

A survey of 4,000 high school and college students showed that most Filipino youths wanted to marry first before having sex.

Despite the positive social attitude, many still fail to avoid pre-marital sex, according to Jokin de Irala, deputy director of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health of the University of Navarre in Spain.

De Irala supervised the conduct of the youth survey for the four-day 2nd International Congress on Education in Love, Sex and Life.

He said the survey indicated as much as 85 percent of the youth have expressed a desire to wait for marriage before engaging in sexual activity.

“Eighty-five percent of the total respondents have identified that they would like to wait until marriage before having sexual relations with a partner.

“However, the reality is around 23 percent are already considered to have had sexual relations,” De Irala said.

De Irala presented the results of the survey to the media, which showed that young adults who had admitted to having pre-marital sex had an average age of 17.

“If this statistic isn’t enough to call our attention, there’s also the average age of 17 during which these young adults perform such act,” De Irala said.

“Sadly, more than 50 percent of those who have had pre-marital sex admitted that they are not even ready for a steady relationship,” he shared.

De Irala observed a considerable gap between the youth’s aspirations and what is actually happening.

The survey also revealed that many of the youths received inadequate guidance from their parents on matters of love and sexuality.

This is a common occurrence despite the express desire of the youths surveyed to know more about love and sexual attraction.

It was learned that 80 percent of both males and females surveyed said they want to know more about the crucial topics, and their usual sources of such information were their peers, the Internet, books and magazines.