Influences on Youth Sexual Behaviour in Central Java: Implication of Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy and Services

Indonesian youth nowadays have been experiencing an increasing vulnerability to various kind of healthhazards specially related to reproductive and sexual health, including the growing threat of HIV/AIDS. This paperreports on findings from a study undertaken during the year 2003-2004 among urban youth in Central Java. The studyseeks to identify factors influencing youth sexual behavior and their need for services, in order to derive practical policyfor enhancing youth sexual and reproductive health services. The study involved a total of 2000 samples derived from ayouth population, aged 18-24 years old. A group of 1000 samples was randomly selected from a working youthpopulation through factory employers, whereas the other 1000 samples were from middle class youth among universitystudents. Social learning theory was applied as a base of the conceptual framework of the study with quantitativesurveys and qualitative methods The findings showed that the overall pattern of sexual and reproductive youth healthrisk were relatively low in comparison to that in many other countries, which was partly related to distinctive andpositive characteristics of the culture of the community in Central Java. The findings also showed that self efficacy wasthe strongest influencing factor on youth sexual behavior. Future policies and program development should be addressedto the ways in maintaining young peoples positive norms and values in line with the existing culture and religion byenhancing their self efficacy through school-based sexual and reproductive health education and services. Advocacyshould also be used continuously to address environmental constraints that impede the adoption of healthy reproductivehealth behavior