Attitudes of young people towards problems connected with human procreation

The aim of the paper was to get acquainted with opinions and attitudes of secondary school students concerning the issues of human procreation. The survey was carried out in secondary comprehensive and technical schools in Lublin during the years 1999 and 2000 among 300 students aged 16-19. The survey shows that mass media play the leading role in conveying knowledge and shaping attitudes and behaviours of teenagers in the sphere of sexuality. The function of family and school in this field is realized to an insignificant extent. Media make use of issues and interests of teenagers that are natural at certain age and succeed in promoting acceptance of early sexual relationships, not showing the risk connected with them at the same time. Among the group under the survey 37% of the respondents have already had sexual initiation. Girls accounted for 41.5% of the total and boys--for 58.5%. The average age of sexual initiation among the respondents was 15.87. The declaration of love, according to the majority, gave the right to take up sexual activity. They accepted the rule that you can make sex whenever you wish and a stable partner is not necessary, which is a sign of psychological immaturity and willingness to grow up fast. The use of contraception was approved of by nearly all the respondents. The most frequent preventive methods they used were: condoms (44.8%), withdrawal method (15.3%), both characterized by easy accessibility but at the same time low efficiency. 7.6% of sexually active students do not use any method of contraception. Such behaviours create a serious risk of premature pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.