Autore: Michela Bersia, Dipartimento di Scienze della Sanità Pubblica e Pediatriche, Università degli Studi di Torino
michela.bersia@unito.it
Silvia Ciardullo, Istituto Superiore di Sanità; Paola Nardone, Istituto Superiore di Sanità;
Categoria Primaria: Salute mentale
Categoria Secondaria: Epidemiologia di genere
Background: Sexual activity and mental problems are known to be correlated outcomes in adolescence, however timing of sexual initiation can be an important moderator of this association.
Objective: The present work aimed to investigate the association between sexual activity and mental health during adolescence.
Methods: A nationally representative sample of 17-year-olds was recruited from the 2022 Italian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey (N=22,568; 48.9% girls). Mental health was evaluated through several domains: loneliness (emotional well-being), life satisfaction (cognitive well-being), and psychosomatic symptomatology. Adolescents were classified on the basis of their sexual activity as non-active, early active (initiation at <16 years), and active (later initiation). Quasibinomial regression models adjusted for contextual variables (social relationships, family structure, socioeconomic status, social media use, school pressure, migrant status) and stratified by gender were performed. Preliminary analyses are shown.
Results: In our Italian sample, the prevalence of non-sexually active adolescents (57.2%) was higher than early active (18.6%) and active (24.2%) those, without meaningful gender differences. Statistically significant differences in all the mental outcomes were found across sexual activity groups among girls, while it is true only for loneliness and psychosomatic symptomatology among boys. Differences were found comparing results of the association between sexual activity and the several mental measures. For instance, being active (vs. non-active) was significantly associated with lower levels of loneliness among both boys (OR 0.67; 95% CI:0.51-0.87) and girls (OR 0.78; 95% CI: 0.64-0.94).
Conclusions: Sexual activity in adolescence seems to impact the different aspects of well-being, with important discrepancies on the basis of the dimension explored. Furthermore, time at sexual initiation seemed to be determinant in discriminating levels of well-being, pointing out that preventive interventions in terms of both sexual and emotional education might be implemented in middle schools as a priority.