Factors related to sexual behaviors during the 2019 coronavirus pandemic among university students in a selected university in Chon Buri province

Abstract

Currently, there is a coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak that is a serious problem in many countries worldwide, including Thailand. Sexual behavior is one of the causes of the COVID-19 epidemic and leads to illness and death. This cross-sectional descriptive study aimed to determine the sexual behaviors and factors related to sexual behavior among university students in Chon Buri province during the 2019 coronavirus outbreak. An online questionnaire was used to collect data from 394 university students in July 2021. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and a chi-squared test was used for correlation analysis. The results showed that 69% were female, 73.6% were heterosexual, 44.9% had sexual intercourse, 74.4% had a negative attitude toward sex, 58.9% had a good level of sexual health literacy during the COVID-19 outbreak, and 40.6% had inappropriate sexual behaviors. According to an association analysis of the factors related to sexual behaviors during the COVID-19 outbreak (p<0.05) were as follows: 1) Predisposing Factors: having boy/girlfriend, hug experience, kiss experience, foreplay experience, sexual intercourse, sexual attitude, and sexual health literacy; 2) Enabling Factors: cohabitant and access to sexual arousal; and 3) Reinforcing Factors: influence people. In summary, these results showed that nearly half of the university students had inappropriate sexual behaviors during the COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, universities and related organizations should have training activities to increase sexual attitude and sexual literacy for appropriate sexual behavior.