Sexual behaviour and its determinants among young never-married male factory workers in a South Indian textile city

Narayanaswamy Audinarayana, Bharathiar University

995 young men workers, aged 15-24 years from a Knit city in south India, surveyed with semi-structured interview schedule to investigate the principal determinants of their sexual behaviour. 78 percent of young workers had the experience in any sexual activity and 19 percent had heterosexual intercourse before marriage. Logistic regression analyses show that the odds of participating in any sexual activity and sexual intercourse are found to be significantly higher among those who are participating at large in risk-taking behaviour and whose level of knowledge about reproduction and sexuality is higher than their counterparts. While young workers who expressed liberal sexual attitudes and earning higher incomes have exhibited greater likelihood to participate in any sexual act, spending more leisure time in selected activities and higher age (20-24 years) have discouraged to do so than their counterparts. Migrant status and some education have shown positive net effects on sexual intercourse.