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NEARLY ONE IN three young men and one in five young women who are sexually active aren’t using contraception, a study has found.
Most young adults use contraception when they first have sex but a significant number discontinue its use, according to research published by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
Additionally, while knowledge of the best method for preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is high among young people, knowledge of women’s fertility is much lower.
The research published today draws on data from the 1998 cohort of the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study which was collected in 2018 when the young people were 20 years of age.
Among the findings was that peer networks play a significant role in determining the age at which young people first have sex.
Young men and women who rely on friends as a source of information about sex, who have larger and more age-diverse friendship networks, and who perceive that most of their friends are having sex, are all more likely to have sex earlier, the ESRI concluded.
Relying on a teacher as a source of information was associated with a later age of first having sex.
Knowledge of the best method for STI prevention is high among 20-year-olds, with over 80% of young men and women correctly identifying condoms – but knowledge of fertility (specifically the period during the female menstrual cycle when pregnancy is most likely to occur) is much lower. Only 21% of men and 37% of women answered correctly.
Around one-third of the participants indicated that they use condoms when having sex but a “significant minority” of 40% of men and 32% of women do not always use either condoms or other forms of contraception.
Around 90% initially use contraception but a “significant proportion” of those who are sexually active discontinue its use and were not using it at the time of the study (nearly 30% of men and just over 20% of women).
Just over one-third of young people first had sex by the age of 17, while a further 50% first had sex before the age of 20.
The remaining 15% had not had sex by the age of 20.
More young women expressed regret over the timing of the first time they had sex than young men; a quarter of young women felt that it had happened ‘too soon’, compared to only 10% of of young men, the ESRI said.
Report author Professor Anne Nolan said that the findings in relation to condom use “highlight the need for renewed public health messaging about the benefits of condoms in preventing both pregnancy and STI”.
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The reason this is happening is because young women are now using abortion as a form of contraception. For years, the argument was that abortion was only for emergencies – rape, incest, medical complications. However, when people are shielded from responsibility, the justifications always expand. It went from “safe, legal and rare” to “shout your abortion.” It went from a last resort to the first option. It went from an unfortunate necessity to a casual lifestyle choice. When personal responsibility is abandoned in one area, it never stops there. If young people can treat abortion like contraception, why not treat government handouts like a paycheck? Why not treat crime like a lifestyle? Once society stops enforcing responsibility, the rot spreads. The abnormal has been normalised.
@William Jennings: provide actual data to prove that assertion there willy?
@William Jennings: “The reason this is happening is because young women are now using abortion as a form of contraception. ” – That is a LIE.
@Setanta The Tool: I already informed you after you last attempt at trolling that you had been muted and reported so don’t waste your time. I can’t see what you are saying because I have no interest in continually responding to your incoherent drivel.
@Tricia G28: Well it’s true so cry more. In five years in Ireland, the number of women getting abortions has nearly doubled from 6,400 to 11,200. One in six pregnancies now end in the baby getting aborted. Women are using abortion as a form of contraception whether you want to believe it or not.
@William Jennings: “I can’t see what you are saying because I have no interest in continually responding to your incoherent drivel.” – Eh…… and yet you knew to respond to them…..?
I don’t think you thought that one through, did you…….
@William Jennings: So, what you’re saying is that since abortion became legal in Ireland, more people have accessed it…….?
And you can’t see how that point makes perfect sense, no?
Do you think people weren’t accessing abortion when it was illegal? Or were they just doing it without being counted as a statistic?
So no, I refute your point. The numbers were always going to increase post legalisation. Pretending that’s because women are using abortion as contraception does not automatically follow.
Though your joined up thinking might need some work.
@William Jennings: fannies!
@Tricia G28: That’s my point. Legal abortion incentivises people to use it as a contraception. When you make something easier, cheaper, and more accessible, people use it more. This is true of everything, from shopping online to drug use to government handouts. Abortion is no different. If abortion doubles in Ireland within five years of legalisation, that is not a coincidence. It is the result of the government making it easier and more accepted. To claim abortion is being used more often but that it is not being used as a form of contraception is like saying, “Fast food sales doubled, but that doesn’t mean people are eating more fast food.” If abortion were truly a rare and reluctant decision, why would legal access cause the numbers to explode? It’s a get out of jail card.
@William Jennings: OMG!! Have you any idea what involved in accessing abortion in Ireland?
Do you think it’s the “easy” option? Ugh, think about what you’re saying. Can you even imagine the reality of it? Have you even tried? Do you think it’s easier than using contraception? I think you know the truth of that. So, no, people don’t use abortion so that don’t have to use contraception.
Also “It’s a get out of jail card.” – Would you not get out of jail if you were in there and wanted out? Or would you stay in just because “it’s the right thing to do” as per someone else’s morality?
People access abortion because they do not want to be pregnant. For an extremely wide range of reasons, but at core it’s because they want to, or need to, end that pregnancy.
You would force those people to remain pregnant. Be honest, that’s what you would support. But you won’t ever say what you’d support to force those people to remain pregnant, because you know what it would have to entail.
Given that contraception is pretty much free now for the younger generation, that’s pretty bad form. I was no angel myself back in the day far from it, but can’t help thinking that this might be due to the lax laws after Repeal the 8th. Please note that the HSE actually offers free confidential STI screening delivered straight to your door (if you’re lucky enough to have one) so no excuses.
@Donna Fallon: If you’re lucky enough to have one? A door or an STI?
@Donna Fallon: what lax laws?
@Donna Fallon: I’d say you rode every thing with a heart beat
@Peter: A door obviously…
@Setanta O’Toole: The ones that were immediately loosened after assuring people who voted ‘Yes’ wouldn’t be.
@Joe Willis: Meh… unusual comment to make to a complete stranger though Joe.
We’re in an age where infomation and PSAs are literally at your fingertip, but teen boys and young MEN just don’t care about STDs and pregnancies because “it doesn’t feel good” to have their pecker in a wrapper…
No wonder there’s so many young t@rts walking around these days pushing prams ,costing taxpayers a fortune fortune in welfare payments
@Brian Molloy: no judgement for those who provide the filling then?
@Brian Molloy: Except that’s not actually true, Brian. There has been a massive fall in teens and young people having children. But don’t let the facts get in the way of your desperate need to insult young women by throwing out derogatory slurs.
Some facts for you:
In 1999, 6.2% of all births were to mothers under 20
In 2000, 5.7% of all births were to mothers under 20
In 2021, 1.2% of all births were to mothers under 20
“Ya wouldn’t be encouraging the use of artificial contraception now father would ya?!”
“No I…Well I…Of course if you’re going to be… Just feck off!!!!!”
Sure why bother, abortion whenever they like. A topic I’m split on tbh, I agree with abortion for rape, incest, danger to life etc but I don’t agree with people using it because they were too lazy to wrap up or take a pill.
@Maire Hicks: ah here….
@Maire Hicks: Do you REALLY think a woman would use abortion as a means of contraception?
Can I suggest you think of the logistics involved in that or do you much prefer to assume women in general are 1d10ts?
Do you really think anyone would consider an abortion an easier option than using contraception?
Sheesh! Are you even a woman if you can’t think through what would even in involved?
@Tricia G28: all abortion is a means of ending pregnancy. No abortions can be ‘contraceptive’ as conception has already taken place. That said abortion due to rape, or medical complications are in the minority. What are rest?
@DAN TEDSON: People that don’t want to be pregnant.
Surely that’s obvious.
Do you think the world would be improved by forcing people to carry a pregnancy against their wishes? How would you force them? Jail them? Hospitalise them? What specific method would be best for forcing people to remain pregnant against their wishes?
Oh and btw, statistics have repeatedly shown that many people accessing abortion were using contraception when they became pregnant.
Also that most people are already parents.
So, again, how would you force them into compliance?
@DAN TEDSON: a significant portion of the rest are the 4% failure rate of properly used contraception. That failure rate means out of a 100 couples using that contraception in ONE year 4 couples will have an unwanted pregnancy. Now scale that up thousands.
@Tricia G28: I’m in favour of abortion. In fact I think it should be mandatory.
Sure it’s like eating sweets with the wrappers on
@Mr. Cullen: taking a shower with your clothes on.
This doesn’t explain the rapidly falling birth rates.
@Gavin Smartr: Access to the morning after pill has made a huge impact on reducing accidental pregnancies. It’s also a fact that young people are having far less sex than their predecessors.
@Gavin Smartr: people cant afford to have a family, hence forced immigration. Taxed to death.
You need a licence to have a dog. Any dole & welfare scrounger, drug wasted scrounger, low iq individual can become a parent.
Another article completely irrelevant to some “contributers” on here. Journal playing a blinder today!
Bare back is better than a covered sack
@John Kenny: if you are putting it around your sack, you are doing it wrong.
Apart from condoms what exactly are the ‘other forms of contraception’ available to men?
The journal have another article closed see if this gets published ‘The owner asked after five days if I wanted sex’: International students on sex-for-rent ads. Click bate obvs no help lines to call and the rtb should insist every landlord has help lines and a number people can anonymously report landlord who are taking advantage of people in the accommodation. The journal should have a section where people who are in trouble with anything have a permanent list of numbers to call. Don’t let these horrible people get away with exploiting people. No one wants trouble just to get on with their lives.
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