Let's talk about sex: Influence of peer communication on sexual initiation among Ugandan adolescents

Objective: Adolescents are confronted with multiple factors which increase their vulnerability to negative sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior, the purpose of this investigation was to examine the influence of sex related messages from varied referent groups on sexual initiation among Ugandan adolescents.

Methods: Secondary analyses were conducted on data collected in 2004. The original survey focused on 32 topics; these analyses used data related to AIDS, behavior, sex, sex education, and risk assessment. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to predict sexual initiation by demographics and sources where adolescents received pressure not to have sex.

Results: In Model 1, age, sex and urbanicity were found to be significantly associated with age of first sex (p< .05). Model 2 included variables related to pressure not to have sex (e.g. parents, peers, siblings and teachers) and expected negative outcomes of sex. The second model was also statistically significant (p < .001) and accounted for 47.3% of the variance. Among referent groups, findings revealed that only pressure from friends to abstain was associated with delays in age of first sex.

Implications: With Ugandan adolescents in this study, peers were the only salient referent group; unlike previous studies, peer influence was found to be protective, delaying age of first sex. As such, included targeted changes to peer norms in future interventions may in fact result in greater delays in engagement in sex. Peer led and modeled interventions are recommended to increase efficacy of sexual health interventions in Uganda.