Premarital Sexual Behaviors: Youth and Romantic Relationship

Aries Yulianto

Psychology Study Program, Universitas Pembangunan Jaya, Tangerang Selatan, Indonesia

Keywords: Sexual Behavior, Premarital Behavior, Youth, Romantic Relationship, Guttman Scale.

Abstract: Sex is one of the pleasures of life are the most controversial, especially in youth who had been unmarried.

The objective of this study is to describe premarital sexual behavior among youth who involve in a romantic

relationship. Respondents were 353 youth (167 men, 186 women) age 15 – 24 years old (M = 20.91, SD =

3.012), live in around Jakarta and Tangerang. Premarital sexual behavior was measured by premarital sexual

behavior scale, consists of 11 items Guttman-type scale. Items were described four types of sexual behavior,

i.e. touching, kissing, petting, and sexual intercourse. The coefficient of reproducibility (CR) and coefficient

of scalability (CS) of the scale were .971 and .865, respectively. It means that sexual behavior measured by

scale can be sorted by level intimacy with their partner, from touching to sexual intercourse. Results showed

that 23% respondents had sexual intercourse with their partner, 33%-48% had petting, 77%-88% had kissed,

and 92%-99% had touching with their partner. Men had a higher sexual behavior than women.

1 INTRODUCTION

Sexual behavior in youth is a lively talk of discussion

lately. Almost every day the media discuss premarital

sexual behavior, especially in youth. The World

Health Organization (WHO) defines youth as

between 15 and 24 years. Sex is one of the pleasures

of life are the most controversial, especially in youth

who had been unmarried. Premarital sexual behaviors

in youth itself can be a serious problem since that

younger adolescents are more involved in unplanned

sexual intercourses, which increases the risk of

unprotected intercourse and pregnancy (Deardorff,

Gonzales, Christopher, Roosa, & Millsap, 2005).

Sexual behavior itself is actually not limited to

sexual intercourse only, but also include holding

hands, kissing, etc. It supported by previous

researches about sexual behavior in youth.

Performance survey indicators of Rencana

Pembangunan Jangka Menengah Nasional (RPJMN)

2015 by BKKBN at 34 provinces in 41,885 youth

aged 15-24 years old and never been married showed

that boys and girls who had sexual intercourse were

9.2% and 2.9% respectively (Junaidi, 2016). It also

showed that sexual behavior which done with

girl/boyfriend were holding hands (86.4%), kissing

on lips (31.7%), and petting (12%). Similar results in

the 2017 Indonesian Health Demography Survey,

SDKI (BKKBN, 2018), which conducted at 12,612

youth aged 15-24 years old, showed that boys higher

(8%) in sexual intercourse than girls (2%). Boys aged

20-24 years old higher (14%) in sexual intercourse

than aged 15-19 years old (4%). This result increased

from 2012 SDKI (Kementerian kesehatan, 2013),

which showed 1.6% of 6,927 girls aged 15-19 years

said that they had conducted sexual intercourse at age

15, while 86.2% said that they never had a sexual

intercourse.

Some researches about youth’s sexual behaviors

in various regions in Indonesia showed similar

results. Study on 348-second grade high school

students from several high schools in Pontianak

showed that most of the students (56.9%) had to kiss

on lips, 30.7% necking, 13.8% petting, 7.2% oral

sex, 5.5% anal sex; and 14.7% intercourse (Suwarni,

2009). A similar study in Pontianak (Suwarni &

Selviana, 2015), showed that in general there is an

increase in youth sexual behaviors. This study on

300 middle school and high school students showed

that they had: holding hands (82.7%), hugging

(60.7%), kissing on lips (66%), petting (19.3%), oral

sex (7%), anal sex (4%), and 14.7% had an

intercourse (Suwarni & Selviana, 2015). In

addition, Lisnawati and Lestari (2015) found that

600 high school students (532 boys dan 68 girls) in

Cirebon had: holding hand (88.7%), kissing on

cheek (51.2%), kissing on lips (43.9%), touching on

chest (23.8%), touching on genital (14.2%), oral sex

Yulianto, A.

Premarital Sexual Behaviors: Youth and Romantic Relationship.

DOI: 10.5220/0009562400250028

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Health (ICOH 2019), pages 25-28

ISBN: 978-989-758-454-1

(7.1%), and sexual intercourse (4.1%). Similar result

found in Denpasar, where 880 teenagers who

involved in a romantic relationship, 88.1% had held

hands, 68% had hugging, 58.3% had to kiss on

cheek, 35.6% had kissing on lips, 20.9% had body

touching, 17.6% had touching on genital, 14.3% had

petting, 9.8% had oral sex, 6.5% had vaginal sex,

and 2.6% had anal sex (Putra, Pradnyani, Artini, &

Astiti, 2017).

In addition, Pratama and Notobroto (2017) found

that 89 high school students in Surabaya aged 16-18

years old 47.2% had a low-risk sexual behavior

(holding hand, hugging, kissing on cheek, kissing on

forehead), 25.8% had a moderate risk sexual behavior

(necking, kissing on lips), and 27% had a high-risk

sexual behavior (touching or stimulating sensitive

area, petting, and sexual intercourse). Research in

Bandung on 100 teenagers showed 63% had holding

hands, 40% kissing, 20% had to touch the sensitive

area, and 2% had sexual intercourse (Alfiyah,

Solehati, & Sutini, 2018). Moreover, Alfiyah, et al.,

(2018) found that on 20 middle school students in

Bandung found that 30% had hugging, 20% kissing

on lips, 20% necking, 15% rubbing sensitive area, and

10% had sexual intercourse. From these results, it

seems premarital sexual behaviors in youth had

increased.

Results from sexual behavior researches on youth

in line with sexual behavior definition. Sexual

behavior is a form of behavior as a result of passion

(sexual intention) which can occur with the opposite

sex or same-sex (Sarwono, 2016). According to this

definition, sexual behaviors are not limited to sexual

intercourse, but also holding hands, kissing, necking,

and petting.

Sexual behaviors itself can be broke down into

two categories (lisnawati & Lestari, 2016), namely:

mild sexual behavior (such as: holding hands,

kissing on the cheek, and kissing on lips) and severe

sexual behavior (such as: rubbing on chest, rubbing

on genital, and sexual intercourse). Walker (as

quotes in Alfiyah, Solehati, & Sutini, 2018) said that

there are five stages of premarital sexual behavior,

i.e. touching, kissing, necking, petting, and

intercourse.

Based on the explanations above, we can

conclude that the more intimate sexual behaviors

conducted with the opposite sex, the smaller the

frequency conducted by unmarried youth. Touching

(include holding hands until hugging) had the

highest frequency compare to other sexual behaviors

that are more intimate, while sexual intercourse is

the lowest. Then, it can be assumed that youth who

have had sexual intercourse must have kissed and

held hands, but youth who are only just holding

hands, most likely never kissed even less sexual

intercourse. It means sexual behavior has ordered in

level of intimacy. On the other hand, the Guttman

scale can be used to determine whether there is a

specific order in the statements given (Yulianto,

2019). Related to youth’s premarital sexual

behavior, Guttman scale can be used to determine

whether their sexual behaviors have an order in the

level of intimacy.

The objective of this present study is to describe

the order of premarital sexual behaviors in youth. It

assumed that the more intimate sexual behaviors

conducted with the opposite sex, the smaller the

frequency conducted by unmarried youth.

2 METHOD

2.1 Respondents

Respondents were 353 youth (167 men, 186 women)

age 15 – 24 years old (M = 20.91, SD = 3.012), live

in around Jakarta and Tangerang. They were had or

currently involved in a romantic relationship with the

opposite sex. They collected by an incidental

sampling technique.

2.2 Instrument

Premarital sexual behavior was measured by

Premarital Sexual Behavior Scale, consists of 11

items Guttman-tipe scale. Items were described four

types of sexual behaviors, i.e. touching (3 items,

example: “I hold my girl/boyfriend’s hand while

walking around”), kissing (3 items, “I kiss my

girl/boyfriend’s lips”), petting (4 items, “I touched

my girl/boyfriend’s chest when she/he fully

clothed”), and sexual intercourse (1 items, “I had a

sexual intercourse with my girl/boyfriend”).

Respondents indicated “Yes” if they had conducted

the behavior with their girlfriend/boyfriend. The

coefficient of Reproducibility (CR) and Coefficient of

Scalability (CS) of the scale were .971 and .865,

respectively. A good Guttman scale has CR ≥.900 and

CS ≥ .600 (Yulianto, 2019). It means that sexual

behavior measured by scale can be ordered by level

intimacy with their partner, from touching to sexual

intercourse.

ICOH 2019 - 1st International Conference on Health

3 RESULTS

Table 1: Frequency of sexual premarital behavior in youth

by gender (N=353).

Behavior Boy Girl Total

Touching:

I held hands with

my girl/ boy-

friend while

walking.

I hold my girl/

boyfriend's

hand while

walking around.

I hug my girl/ boy-

friend.

167

(100)

161

(96.41)

158

(94.61)

184

(98.92)

170

(91.39)

167

(89.79)

352

(99.43)

331

(93.77)

325

(92.07)

Kissing:

I kissed my girl/

boyfriend’s

cheek.

I kissed my girl/

boyfriend’s

forehead.

I kissed my girl/

boyfriend’s

lips.

150

(89.82)

154

(92.21)

136

(81.44)

162

(87.09)

156

(83.87)

137

(73.66)

312

(88.39)

310

(87.82)

273

(77.34)

Petting:

I touched my girl/

boyfriend's

chest when she/

he was fully

clothed.

I kissed my girl/

boyfriend's

chest when she/

he was fully

clothed.

I touched my girl/

boyfriend’s

chest when

she/he naked.

I kissed my girl/

boyfriend’s

chest when she/

he naked.

(57.48)

(43.71)

(41.92)

(41.32)

(40.32)

(26.88)

(28.49)

(25.27)

171

(48.44)

123

(34.84)

123

(34.84)

116

(32.86)

Sexual intercourse:

I had sexual

intercourse with

my girl/

boyfriend.

(28.74)

(17.02)

(22.66)

The number in parenthesis is percentage.

As expected, premarital sexual behavior on youth

start from touching, kissing, petting, and end with

sexual intercourse. As shown in table 1, touching as

sexual behavior had the highest frequencies than

other sexual behaviors. Held hands, hold their

boy/girlfriend hands, and hugging did by over 90%

youth, both boys and girls.

On the other hand, kissings behaviors had lower

frequency than touching, around 70% to 90%. There

were differences in petting behaviors between boys

and girls, where 40%-60% boys said they had petting

and only 25%-40% on girls. As expected, sexual

intercourse, as most intimate sexual behavior, had

lowest frequency, i.e. 22.66%. There were 28.74%

boys who had sexual intercourse compared to 17.02%

girls.

From table 1, we also can see that in general there

were no differences between boys and girls in order

of premarital sexual behaviors, although girls had

lower frequencies in every sexual behavior compare

to boys.

It also found that there was a significant positive

correlation between age and premarital sexual

behaviors in youth, r = .437, p < .001. Although boys

(r = 0,339, p < .001) had a lower correlation than girls,

r =.480, p < .001. It means the older a youth, the more

intimate her/his sexual behavior with their

boy/girlfriend.

4 CONCLUSIONS

This present study aims to describe premarital sexual

behaviors in youth. Using Guttman scale to measure

sexual behaviors, it showed that sexual behaviors in

youth had ordered in level of intimacy, from touching

to sexual intercourse. Touching, as the least intimate,

had the highest frequency than other sexual

behaviors. This result consistent with all previous

researches who studied sexual behavior in youth

(BKKBN, 2018, Suwarni & Selviana, 2015, Putra,

Pradnyani, Artini, & Astiti, 2017). Moreover, this

present study showed an increase in the number of

premarital sexual behaviors conducted by youth.

Boys had higher frequencies in premarital sexual

behaviors than girls, especially in sexual intercourse.

This could be happening because men seem to have a

higher sexual desire than women, and also because

men are always more impulsive than women, which

might mean that men simply go with the arousal and

do not intend to control their behavior (Häfner &

Epstude, 2017).

In terms of a positive relationship between age

and premarital sexual behaviors, it can be understood

that sexual desire increases along with age increment,

especially in youth (Hurlock, 2008).

There are some limitations in this present study

which should be considered in terms of

generalizability of the present findings and future

Premarital Sexual Behaviors: Youth and Romantic Relationship

researches. First, participants were only youth who

lived in Jakarta and Tangerang. Also, partisipants

were collected by incidental sampling technique, not

random sampling. Then, this result can not be

generalized to describes premarital sexual behaviors

in all youth in Indonesia.

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ICOH 2019 - 1st International Conference on Health