Sexual risk behaviour amongst young people in the Vhembe district of the Limpopo province, South Africa

Abstract

This study entailed a quantitative, cross-sectional survey amongst young people in four villages of the Vhembe district of the Limpopo province. The purpose of the research was to determine the sexual health risk behaviour indicators prevalent amongst young people that could contribute to the spread of HIV and AIDS in this district. The objectives of this study were (1) to identify sexual risk behaviour, (2) to establish the prevalence of substance use before sexual intercourse, (3) to determine the prevalence of coerced sexual intercourse and (4) to determine the prevalence of forced sexual intercourse amongst young people in the Vhembe district. Purposive sampling was used to select the four villages that participated in the study and simple, random sampling was used to select the respondents. A total of 400 respondents participated in the study, 227 of which were female and 173 were male. The following sexual risk behaviour indicators were identified (1) early sexual debut, (2) teenage pregnancy and (3) early marriage. It was found that young people expose themselves to sexual intercourse without condoms, and that they are likely to have sexual intercourse without a condom in return for reward, and to have sexual intercourse with a famous person. Approximately 20% of the sexually active respondents had used substances before sexual intercourse. Alcohol and marijuana ('dagga') were most commonly used amongst those respondents taking substances before sexual intercourse, and these were used predominantly in coerced and forced sexual intercourse.