COITAL EXPERIENCE AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN THREE SOCIAL-EDUCATIONAL GROUPS IN URBAN CHIANG MAI,THAILAND

This article compares coital experience of Chiang Mai 17–20-year-olds who were: (1) out-of-school; (2) studying at vocational schools; and (3) studying at general schools or university. Four-fifths, two-thirds and one-third, respectively, of males in these groups had had intercourse, compared to 53, 62 and 15 per cent of females. The gender difference for general school/university students, but not vocational school students, probably reflects HIV/AIDS refocusing male sexual initiation away from commercial sex workers. Vocational school females may have been disproportionately affected. Loss of virginity was associated, for both sexes, with social-educational background and lifestyle, and was less likely in certain minority ethnic groups. Among males, it was also associated with age and parental marital dissolution, and among females, with independent living and parental disharmony. Within social-educational groups, lifestyle variables dominated, but among general school/university students, parental marital dissolution (for males) and disharmony (for females) were also important, and Chinese ethnicity deterred male sexual experimentation.     

MARITAL UNIONS AND UNMARRIED COHABITATION IN BANGKOK,THAILAND

Cohabitation has been understudied in the Thai context where national data on the complex forms of contemporary unions remain extremely rare. This paper uses data of the National Survey on HIV/AIDS Risk Behaviours and ART Knowledge in Thailand (NSBS), 2006 to understand the issue of cohabitation in contemporary Thailand. The data were collected from 6048 individuals aged 18–59, among whom about half were aged 18–24. In general, cohabitation is still uncommon in Thailand, accounting for only 2.4 per cent of 18–59-year-old individuals. The multivariate analysis of the study sample in Bangkok, where cohabitation is most common, suggests that married individuals and cohabiters are significantly different in terms of geographical area, age, education, religion, religiosity and work. Results reveal both consistent and different effects across genders. Further research on family formation in Thailand should acknowledge the complex forms of sexual unions and explore how differentials in background characteristics between married persons and cohabiters affect other aspects of family processes such as the well-being of couples and children.