Home-Leaving and Sexual Initiation among Filipino Youth

Elma Laguna, Demographic Research and Development Foundation

Living away from the parental home is a significant transition event in adolescence as it marks an adolescent’s initial foray into independence. For a traditional society such as the Philippines, it used to be that the sequence of life-defining events occurring during adolescence is well-defined: completion of education, entry to the labor market, marriage and parenthood. Living away from home is associated only with marriage and the formation of one’s independent household. Recent developments however have spawned different pathways for adolescents’ home leaving experience. Pursuit of higher education and better employment opportunities necessitate departure from natal households earlier than usual. This also leads to various forms of living arrangements that have repercussions on the adolescents’ development into well-adjusted and responsible adults. Studies on adolescents have consistently highlighted the importance of family setting, school environment, neighborhood and peers in shaping adolescent beliefs and attitudes. The lack of parental control and supervision has been credited to increase the likelihood of involvement in risky behaviors such as substance use and abuse, premarital and unsafe sexual practices. Previous studies on Filipino youth found living away from home and loosening of maternal control as important predictors of adolescents’ sexual initiation. But the extent with which the timing of this so-called “separation” affect early initiation to sexual intercourse remains unexplored. This paper describes the prevalence and timing of home-leaving and sexual initiation among Filipino youth. It identifies factors that affect premarital sex and determines if early departure from home precipitates early sexual initiation. The 1994 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFS 2), a nationally representative sample survey of about 11,000 youth in the age range 15-24 living in households is the major data source for this analysis. It is a rich database of information on adolescents’ attitude, perception and practices on sexuality and reproductive health issues. Event history analysis is employed by creating person-age record that will reflect time-varying variables such as age first lived-away from home and age at sexual initiation. A multivariate analysis using logistic regression is used to predict factors affecting occurrence of premarital sex at certain ages. The paper also takes into consideration the varying effect of age and gender, thus separate analysis was done for males and females as well as for different age groups: 15-19 and 20-24. Findings reveal a preponderance of home-leaving among young people, particularly so among females. On the other hand, more males have engaged in premarital sex during adolescence. In terms of timing, their experience of the two events does not display significant difference. Leaving home for both sexes generally occurs around age 16 or right after completion of secondary education while premarital sex happens, on the average, by age 18. The study shows that living away from home increases likelihood of premarital sex among young people. Similarly, having friends who had sexual experience and exposure to mass media particularly those featuring adult materials (x-rated films, videos, pornography magazines) are predisposing factors for adolescents’ sexual initiation. Controlling for other factors, adolescents who experienced separation from home at an early age are more predisposed to have sex at much younger ages than those who left home at older ages.