Sexual health literacy and sexual health behaviours report - Adolescence and young adulthood are critical periods in the development of healthy sexual health and relationships, as patterns of behaviour that develop during these life stages shape outcomes throughout the life course. Recent rises in notifications of certain sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among young people in Ireland have raised concerns over the extent to which young people have the skills and information to make healthy choices in relation to their sexual health and wellbeing. In this context, sexual health literacy – i.e., the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand and use information and services to inform decisions and actions – is a key protective factor for the prevention of negative sexual health outcomes and for allowing young people to be more in control of their own sexual and reproductive health. In this report, we used data from Cohort ’98 of Growing Up in Ireland, the national longitudinal study of children and young people in Ireland, to examine the factors associated with sexual health literacy among young adults, and how sexual health literacy is associated with sexual health behaviours (i.e., condom and contraception use). The Growing Up in Ireland data on sexual health literacy were collected in 2018 when the young people were 20 years of age, and the measure of sexual health literacy was based on answers to two questions that gauged knowledge of female fertility and STI prevention methods.  

P.19 Data from the ISSHR 2005 showed that inconsistency in contraceptive use was strongly related to the type of relationship that the person had with their partner. Sex in casual relationships or recently-formed relationships was far more likely to occur without protection, largely because respondents were not prepared, sex was unexpected or the individual had been drinking or taking drugs...

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Sexual initiation and sexual health behaviours report - The experience of sexual intercourse for the first time is a significant life event, and influenced by a range of individual, cultural and societal factors. Age of first sexual initiation is a major area of policy and research focus, as the circumstances of first sex (e.g. whether contraception was used, whether it was perceived to have occurred ‘at the right time’), and the consequences of first sex for later outcomes (e.g. diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), early parenthood), have important implications for health and wellbeing. In this report, we use data from the ’98 Cohort of Growing Up in Ireland (GUI), the national longitudinal study of children and young people in Ireland, to examine the factors associated with age of sexual initiation among young adults, and the way in which age of first sex influences the circumstances of first sex and selected outcomes. Age and circumstances of first sex, and selected outcomes, are all based on data collected during the fourth wave of data collection for the ’98 Cohort of GUI, when the young people were 20 years of age.  

P.12 In the context of health behaviours more generally, problem behaviour theory (PBT) (Jessor, 1991) views early adolescent sexual activity as part of a cluster of risky health behaviours (e.g. alcohol and drug use) that are influenced by a common set of social background and contextual variables (e.g. parents’ income, occupational status) and social-psychological variables (e.g. motivational and personal belief structures; parental and peer influences) (Windle et al., 2013). Social control theory notes that adolescents who have strong connections with social units such as the family, school, church, and community organisations are less likely to transgress societal norms and to engage in risky behaviours (Windle et al., 2013). However, while some sexual activities in adolescence and young adulthood are undeniably risky (e.g. unsafe sex), the assessment of behaviours as problematic relies on a normative assessment of behaviour (i.e. how it relates to social, cultural, gender and legal norms within a society).

P.29 ... In keeping with the approach used by Quail (2010), a scale is created based on the proportion of the local population with low levels of educational qualifications, unemployed and in the unskilled manual group; this scale is then divided into quartiles, with the highest quartile being the most disadvantaged. In addition, a scale of neighbourhood disorder was created based on the mother’s report (when the young person was 13) of the prevalence of issues like graffiti or public drinking/drug-taking locally.