Magnitude of Premarital Sexual Practice and Associated Factors among Goba High Schools and Preparatory School Students, Bale Zone, Ethiopia

Premarital sexual practice is a voluntary sexual intercourse between unmarried persons. It is a worldwide reproductive health problem. It is estimated that 20% of the Ethiopian population, mostly unmarried students, fall within the age range of 15-24 years. Studies on premarital sexual practices of high school or preparatory schools from different parts of Ethiopia varied from 19 to 33% in magnitude. The national premarital sex among young people (10-19 year) was also found to be 19%. Meanwhile there is no such information is available for Goba town, Bale Zone, southeast Ethiopia. This study was conducted to investigate the magnitude of premarital sexual practice and associated factors among two Goba high schools and preparatory school students. A school based cross sectional study design was used. Data were collected using questionnaire from 545 students’ selected using simple random sampling and systematic sampling techniques. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23. Association between dependent and independent variables were assessed using bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression at p-value less than 0.05. One hundred fifteen (21.6%) of the students revealed that they practiced premarital sexual intercourse predominantly due to falling in love (44.3%), desire to have sex (35.7%) and peer pressure (12.2%). Having a boy/girlfriend, watching pornography film, living alone, come from rural areas and drinking alcohol were identified as risk factors. All concerned bodies should provide sufficient information about reproductive health in general and premarital sexual practices plus associated risk factors in particular formally and informally to the students in a coordinated manner to minimize or avoid the negative consequences premarital sexual practice..<br> 3