Sexual Risk Behaviors of Adolescents in the Era of HIV/AIDS in Botswana

Gobopamang Letamo, University of Botswana

Although sexual behavior of individuals determines the rate at which HIV infection is likely to spread in a population, there are very limited studies in Botswana focusing on adolescent sexuality and sexual behavior. Therefore, in order to effectively prevent further HIV infections, the understanding of sexual behavior, especially that of adolescents, is particularly important. The purpose of this article is to examine the risky sexual behaviors among adolescents and the influence of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics on risky sexual behavior among adolescents in Botswana. The focus on adolescents is predicated on the understanding that the key to controlling HIV/AIDS lies in promoting safer sex behavior among adolescents. The data analyzed in this paper are taken from the Botswana AIDS Impact Survey (BAIS) conducted in the year 2001. Both descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis are used to investigate sexual risk behaviors of adolescents in Botswana. In this paper, we show how sexual risk behaviors of adolescents fuel the spread of HIV in Botswana, the country with the highest HIV prevalence in the entire world.