Anglican teenagers in the Western Cape are almost as sexually active as their peers outside the church, according to a survey reported in the latest issue of the South African Medical Journal.
The survey, in which 1 306 youngsters were questioned, was carried out by researchers from the Cape Town-based Fiklela Aids project and the University of Stellenbosch’s theology department.
They said their findings implied that church-based youth did not behave significantly differently from their larger peer group.
A total of 31% of the Anglicans — aged 12 to 19 — were sexually active, compared with a figure of 38% reported for Western Cape youth in general by the SA Youth Risk Behaviour Survey.
The sexually active church-based youngsters appeared to have a higher rate of multiple partners — 66% — than the 48% reported in the SAYB survey.
Sixty-five percent of the young Anglican had not used contraceptives during their first sexual encounter. Only 33% of them believed that oral sex was actually sex, while half believed that anal sex was indeed sex.
The researchers said one way of improving church interventions was to have peer educators who were closer in age to the youth than at present and who could act as role models for change.
The church should also emphasise the building of healthy relationships as a goal and not focus only on marriage.
Loss of virginity or even becoming pregnant should not lead to a permanent sense of failure or religious stigmatisation, but should be ”reframed” as a lapse in sexual behaviour from which the person could learn and regain a ”secondary virginity”. – Sapa