Introduction:

College students who engage in sexual intercourse at an early age have more sexual partners, and are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors. These make them more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies.

Method:

A cross-sectional study was performed on 1854 university students between the ages of 18 and 24 from the health care areas (medicine, nursing, dentistry, and psychology) at two public universities in the State of Mexico. Correlations were established through X² among the early onset of sexual intercourse, the number of sexual partners, group sex, transactional sex, and casual sex.

Results:

Men initiate sexual intercourse at younger ages than women. In men, there are statistically significant (p=.001) correlations between the early onset of sexual intercourse and casual, transactional and group sex. In women, there are statistically significant correlations between the early onset of sexual intercourse and casual sex, and having more than five sexual partners.

Conclusion:

Students who engage in sexual intercourse at an early age have more sexual partners, and are more likely to engage in casual, transactional and group sex. These risky sexual behaviors make them more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies.

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