Effects of Social Media on Sexual Behaviors􀀃Among Thai Adolescents

Abstract

The aim of this cross-sectional descriptive study. This study was to examine effects of social media on sexual behaviors among Thai adolescents. A multistage random sampling was used to recruit 1,321 adolescents from five universities throughout Thailand. Data was collected using online questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation coefficient at 95% were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that 73.1 of university student are female, 99.5% had access to social media, 73.1% had access to sexual media, 85.5% had sexual media literacy were moderate level, and 69.4% had sexual behaviors were good level. The factors related to sexual behaviors were male (r=-.133, p<.001), age (r=.063, p=.023), the access to sexual media (r=-.074, p=.007), the access to social media per week (r=􀀃-.096, p=.004), media analyzed (r=.122, p<.001), media evaluated (r=.122, p<.001), media shared (r=270, p<.001), and sexual media literacy (r=312, p<.0 0 1 ). The results proved that effects of social media were significantly associated with sexual behaviors in adolescents. The findings suggested that stakeholders should promote learning, and appropriate sexual media literacy to enhance adolescents’ skills in the access to social media.