Abstract

SANABRIA FERRAD, PABLO ALONSO; GONZALEZ QUEVEDO, LUIS ARTEMO; PAREDES, OLGA  and  MORENO, SANDRA. MORAL STANDARD, SUBJECTIVE SOCIAL STANDARD AND ATTITUDES AS PREDICTIVE OF INTENT TO START SEX IN ADOLESCENCE. rev.fac.med [online]. 2013, vol.21, n.1, pp.63-74. ISSN 0121-5256.

The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) has identified the variables that predict the intention of adolescents to start having sexual intercourse, and has been shown that the inclusion of moral norm variable increases the explanatory power of TRA for adolescent girls, but it had not been established if this applies to men. Therefore, this study aimed at first instance to check the consistency of the TRA and the inclusion of moral norm variable to predict the intention of adolescents to initiate sexual intercourse and to establish whether the variables that predict intention are the same for both sexes. A sample of 355 volunteer students from three private schools in Bogotá, Colombia was used: military (33.5%) secular (32.7%) and religious (33.8 % of the total sample 52% were men and 48% female. 41% belonged to 9th grade, 42% to 10th grade and 17% to 11th grade. The mean age was 15.33 years (SD =1.03). They answered a structured self-report questionnaire with 136 questions, previous passive informed consent of their parents. This article only took into account the variables: attitudes toward sexual intercourse in adolescence, moral norm, subjective social norm (norm of parents and friends) and intention to have intercourse. With multiple regression analysis, it was confirmed that the moral norm variable improves the predictive power of TRA to predict the intention to initiate sexual intercourse during adolescence, that subjective social norm of friends is determinant in the intention of men, while for women is the parental social subjective norm. The findings are critical for designing strategies to prevent teen pregnancy.

Keywords : Sexual intercourse; adolescense; social norm; moral norm; attitudes; intention.

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