Young people too cocky about condom prowess, study shows

By Samantha Turnbull and Bruce MacKenzie

A new study shows many young people feel over-confident about their condom skills, despite often using them incorrectly and inconsistently.

The study called Errors and Predictors of Confidence in Condom Use Amongst Young Australians Attending a Music Festival, included data from interviews with 290 people between 18 and 29 who attended a northern New South Wales music festival that cannot be named for privacy reasons.

The results found only 18 per cent of those surveyed has always used condoms during sexual encounters in the past year.

It also found that almost half of respondents had seen a condom slip off during intercourse, and a little more than half had seen it come off when withdrawing the penis.

Franklin John-Leader from the North Coast Positive Adolescent Sexual Health (PASH) consortium said many respondents also experienced difficulties in correctly using condoms.

“They think they’re pretty good at using condoms but that wasn’t matched in the real skill observation,” Mr John-Leader said.

“One of the common mistakes people make is not squeezing the tip of the condom, and that is actually clearly linked with condom failure.”

Drugs and alcohol contributing to problems

Mr John-Leader also said 94 per cent of those surveyed had been under the influence of drugs or alcohol during intercourse in the past year, and 19 per cent reported being under the influence “most of the time” or “always” when they had sex.

“Even if you have the skills, when it comes to your ability or judgment to use them correctly, alcohol can be an issue,” he said.

“When you have partying, alcohol involved and there’s no access to condoms, that could be a mix for sexual transmitted diseases being quite common.

“When it comes to schoolies celebrations, or anywhere you mix young people and partying, this is something we want to take seriously.”

Improved sex education needed

Mr John-Leader said the results showed a need for better sex education programs for young people.

Only 55 per cent of people reported having learned about condom use through high school sex education, while about a fifth had learned from reading the instructions in the condom packet.

More respondents learned about condom use from the internet than from a healthcare worker.

“One of the major things we’re concerned about is a lot of young people are not learning the correct way to put the condoms on properly,” Mr John-Leader said.

“That’s partly because some of the education programs we have currently in place may not look into that skillset.”

He said researchers were now investigating ways to use the study as a platform to seek support to create improved sexual health education programs.

The study was conducted by researchers from the University Centre for Rural Health North Coast, Western Sydney University and the New South Wales North Coast Public Health Unit.

This post originally appeared on ABC News.