Sexual activity and contraception use in young adults

241 (57 male and 184 female), well-educated, largely urban, young persons, voluntarily attended a lecture on sex; after the lecture they completed an anonymous questionnaire on their background, and attitudes to sex. A majority believed that premarital sexual activity was acceptable if there was some affectional tie between the couple. Most of the men were sexually active, while only a third of the women were so. However, a quarter of the sexually inexperienced men and women were engaging in forms of sexual stimulation which would seem to carry a high possibility of ending in intercourse. Knowledge of contraception, while high, tended to over-estimate the efficacy of the safe period and vaginal methods. Half the sexually active group had used contraception at sexual initiation but only a third had used reliable methods. Subsequent contraceptive practice however, was high (90 percent), with the pill being the most frequently used method. Twenty percent of the sexually active women had already been pregnant: of these only a quarter had carried their pregnancies to term. The limitations of the study are discussed and some suggestions for preventing pregnancy in the unmarried drawn.