Perceptions of peer sexual activities in Korean adolescents.

Traditionally, until the 1960s, Korean people married during their teens or early twenties, unless men were serving required military duty. Also, men typically postponed marriage until they were in their mid 20s. Until the early 1960s, very few Korean brides and bridegrooms had ever met each other before their wedding day because their parents wholly controlled the mate selection process (Kim, 1999; Youn, 1998).

Since the 1960s, most Korean adolescents have been in conflict with the standards of behavior that have been established by the adults. According to those standards, adolescents' smoking or drinking behaviors, having coitus, or even meeting members of the opposite sex have been socially undesirable (Han, 1998). Among those behaviors, the adults have thought premarital sex the most undesirable. Thus, most parents who have adolescent children have been disappointed with and/or worried about them when they knew their children were meeting members of the opposite sex (Kim, 1999).

The disappointment and worry of Korean adults might be based on the belief that most adolescents who have been involved in smoking, drinking, meeting the opposite sex members, or having coitus would become failures in their lives. In addition, the belief has been much stronger when their children were daughters rather than sons (Kim, 1999; Lee & Chang, 1999). In general, there was significant overlap involving the problem behaviors of adolescents such as smoking, alcohol use, drug use, and sexual behavior (Corwyn, Benda, Clowers, & Liu, 1999).

In this article, I explore how many heterosexual Korean adolescents in the 1990s have been involved in such problem behaviors and how they perceive their peer sexual activities such as having coitus, visiting prostitutes, and getting pregnant, according to their experience with the problem behaviors. (1) I also explore how they perceive the coital wishes about single males and females in familiar and unfamiliar dating relationships. In doing so, I gain new insights that are relevant to the development of the sex education program.

Modernization of Korean Society

When Korean society began to modernize during the late 1960s, the matrimonial age for most men and women increased. At the same time, some people whose education levels were higher than those of ordinary Koreans in the early and mid-20th century began to defy the tradition of the mate selection process (Lee & Chang, 1999). That is, they sought a marriage based on love and personal selection rather than a marriage arranged by their parents. Korean society has changed significantly over the past three decades. As a consequence of these changes, more than half of the mate selections of women in their mid 20s and men in their late 20s that took place in the 1990s were largely free from parental control (Kim, 1999; Lee, 2000; Youn, 1996).

As the modernization process began in the 1960s, higher education emerged as one of the most effective ways of attaining a higher socioeconomic status (SES) (i.e., getting better jobs and meeting better spouses). The tendency to strive to enter elite universities became prominent as a means of guaranteeing a successful future. Therefore, most Korean parents want their children to be superior students from the first grade to high school graduation. Also, adolescents who devote themselves totally to preparing for university entrance examinations have been considered the most desirable and loyal students, according to parental and societal expectations (Lee & Chang, 1999; Youn, 1998).

Restrictions on Adolescent Sexual Activities

In accordance with the Confucian doctrines, adolescent sexual behavior was severely restricted in Korean society. Traditionally, young boys were separated from young girls at the age of 7 to thwart their developing sexual interests. More restrictions were placed on the sexual activities of girls than of boys (Kim, 1999; Lee & Chang, 1999; Youn, 1996). Thus, Korean parents, who have followed the doctrines, still worry about the future of their children when they know that their children are meeting members of the opposite sex or even going steady before taking the university entrance examination. Parents fear that any meeting of their children with members of the opposite sex could hamper preparations for their examination and might lead to premarital sexual activities. In Korea, at least for the last 3 decades, an adolescent who did not explore their sexuality until they went to college was viewed as being a person of sound mind and body (Lee & Chang, 1999; Youn, 2000).

Greater individual freedom and responsibility are granted now to contemporary adolescents in their relationships with people of the opposite sex than they were in the past. However, any sex education for Korean high school adolescents, especially female students, mainly emphasizes keeping their virginity and protecting their bodies from sexual aggressors. Currently, the majority of Koreans believe in the importance of premarital virginity for females. Korean parents have shown more intolerance of the premarital sexual activities of their daughters than of their sons (Han, 1998; Lee & Chang, 1999; Youn, 1998).

Most societies act as if the sexual drive of adolescents can be controlled easily. They expect the family to control the sexual expressions of youth until they are perceived to be adults and to be able to control their own activities in compliance with cultural mores (Anastasiow, 1983). In Korea, and similarly in Japan, one type of societal control is expressed in the form of the university entrance examination (Hatano, 1991; Lee & Larson, 2000).

Breaking Social Mores

When adolescents enter college, societal and parental pressures are reduced. At this time, societal restraints against smoking, drinking alcohol, and meeting the opposite sex are somewhat relaxed, but more so for males than for females. For females, smoking is a stronger taboo than drinking; females have opportunities to drink alcohol in public, but they must smoke in secret (Youn, 1996).

Most adolescent males in Korea have to serve over two years in the military. They serve it either before or after graduating from college. While in the military, they are free from parental control. In addition, they have many chances to visit prostitutes during the service period. Many report doing so, often due to peer pressure (Chung, 1994). When they return to college, parents accept them as adults and minimize their attempts to control.

Sexual activity for females, however, is as severely restricted as is their smoking; moreover, sexual activities for female adolescents are rated by a much stricter code than the one used for males (Youn, 1996). Nevertheless, contemporary Korean adolescents try not to fall under the control of their parents, teachers, and other authority figures. For example, some male adolescents visit prostitutes, and many high school students, especially males, smoke and/or drink alcohol. They also try to experiment in sexual activities when they are dating (Youn, 1998).

Sometimes their sexual experimentation extends to petting or coitus, but the risk of getting pregnant is very high due to lack of using any contraceptive methods. As social mores do not accept adolescent sexual activity, there are few adolescents who use contraceptive methods because of the negative ideas associated with using them (Lee, 1996; Youn, 2000). Although 29.7% of the male adolescents reported that they had at some time purchased condoms through vending machines located in some public restrooms or motels, most of the adolescents purchased them out of curiosity and not for their health or birth control. Namely, they did not use it for coitus, but either for masturbation or for playing with it to make a balloon. Only 6.4% of the coitally experienced male adolescents reported that they had ever used a condom for coitus. In addition, there have been very few female adolescents who used any contraceptive methods either through a physician's prescription or purchase, even though legally there are no age limits for prescribing or purchasing them (Youn, 2000).

There are very few official records concerning rates of adolescent pregnancy. Even when these records do exist, the authorities concerned hesitate to inform the public because such data is contrary to Korean traditional moral codes. Although abortions have been illegal since the 1960s, there have been many Korean women who have had abortions. It has been estimated that about a third of all abortions in Korea are performed for teenagers (Hwang, 1990; Youn, 1996).

The female's responsibility for an unplanned pregnancy tends to be culturally reinforced in Korea. Many female adolescents do not pay attention to contraception because they think they can easily choose abortion (Youn, 2000). Adolescent sexual problems that are considered to be social issues almost always have been related to adolescent childbearing and/or sexual aggression. Typically, some teenage girls who do not choose abortion but choose to give birth, surrender their babies to adoption agencies. As a result, very few Korean adolescent mothers raise their babies (Youn, 1996).

Research Questions and Hypotheses

Sex is considered a private issue in Korean culture; thus, sexual topics are not usually discussed. However, many parts of Korean society have changed since the modernization began in the early 1960s. I doubt if the Korean adolescents in the 1990s, who have lived 3 decades since the advent of modernization, adhered to traditional standards. Even though many professionals also pointed out that a lot of adolescents have been breaking social mores such as smoking, drinking, having coitus, pregnancy, or abortion (Han, 1998; Kim, 1999; Lee, 2000; Lee & Chang, 1999), there have been very few solutions to sexual matters related to adolescents.

In hopes of detecting some viable explanations and solutions, this study had three focuses. To begin, an indirect peer-based question format was used because adolescents might show less resistance to responding to questions based on perceptions of their peers' sexual activities, rather than answering questions about their own activities. I focused on exploring how many Korean adolescents in the 1990s have experienced smoking, drinking, going steady, or coitus according to gender, and also to explore the characteristics of the coitally-experienced sample. It was hypothesized that males would break the social mores more than females because Korean society has traditionally been male oriented (Kim, 1999; Youn, 1996).

I also focused on exploring how adolescents perceive the rates of their peers in sexual activities such as coitus, visiting prostitutes, and pregnancy. It was hypothesized that the rates would be different according to the respondents' gender, age, coital experience, smoking or drinking experience, or going steady, because there was significant overlap involving the problem behaviors of adolescents (Corwyn et al., 1999).

The final focus of this study was to assess how the adolescents perceive the coital wishes of date-initiators. The questionnaire was designed in two dimensions. One part asked about the gender of the date-initiator, and the other part asked about the familiarity of the date-initiator with the date partner. It was hypothesized that the perceptions of the wishes would be different according to respondents' gender, age, coital experience, smoking experience, drinking experience, or steady dating experience, as well as according to the gender of the date-initiator and the familiarity of the date-initiator with the partner. For instance, male respondents would perceive higher wishes of the date-initiators than female respondents. The respondents would perceive higher wishes for male date-initiators than female (Kim, 1999; Lee & Chang, 1999).

METHOD

Participants

The participants consisted of 395 male and 392 female adolescents between the ages of 15 and 22, who had never been married. They were recruited in early 1995 from seven high schools and five universities located in the southwestern area of Korea, resulting in a range of students from 9th grade through to college seniors. Half the sample was from the metropolitan Kwangju area (population, about 1.3 million), and the other half was from suburban and rural areas. Male respondents who served their military duty were excluded because of their adult status in society.

The male participants' mean age was 18.4 years (SD = 1.8) and female participants' mean age was 18.6 (SD = 1.5), resulting in no significant difference between genders, F(1,785) = 3.00, p > .05. Of those sampled, about 92.9% of the males and 93.6% of the females were students in the range from 11th grade to college sophomores. The majority of participants (67.3%) identified their SES as middle class, while 15.9% of them described themselves as upper class (very high 1.1%; high 14.8%) and 16.8% of them as lower class (low 15.4%; low 1.4%). The other characteristics for the sample are mentioned in the results section of this paper.

Measures

A questionnaire was designed to elicit information about how Korean adolescents perceive their peers' sexual behavior. It included the following measures:

Demographic variables. Participants' demographic information included age, gender, year in school, marital status, and SES. Their SES was measured by one item: "How would you rate your SES?" and was rated on a 5-point scale from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high).

Religious status. Strength of religious affiliation was measured by asking respondents "How would you rate your religious conviction or behavior?" on a 4-point Likert scale with the following choices: 1 (none or nonreligious), 2 (low), 3 (moderate), and 4 (strong).

Smoking experience and drinking habits. Smoking behavior was measured by a single item: "Have you ever smoked?" and was rated on a yes/no basis: 1 = yes, 2 = no. Drinking habits were measured by a question asking about frequency: "How often do you have drinks containing alcohol?" Responses ranged from 1 to 8: 1 (never), 2 (less than twice a year), 3 (less than once a month), 4 (once a month), 5 (2 or 3 times a month), 6 (once a week), 7 (2 or 3 times a week), and 8 (almost everyday).

Dating partners and coital experience. This item asking about a steady date was included to assess whether sexual activity for adolescents was strongly related to going steady. The dating partner was measured by one item: "Do you have a steady boy-/girlfriend?" Response for the item was scored on a yes/no basis: 1 = yes, 2 = no. Coital experience was also assessed to know what proportions of the adolescents have had coitus and with how many partners. The question of coital experience was "How many coital partners have you had so far?" The respondents who said "more than one partner" were coded as 1 (yes), while those who said "none" were coded as 2 (no).

Perceptions of peer sexual activities. The adolescents' perception of peer sexual activities was assessed with the following three items (Sack, Keller, & Hinkle, 1984). The items were "Of the five specific friends of your own sex and age you know best, (1) how many do you think have had sexual intercourse? (2) how many do you think have visited a prostitute? and (3) how many do you think have been pregnant?" The first item was asked of all students, the second only of males, and the last only of females. Response categories for the items ranged from 0 (none) to 5 (5 friends).

Perceptions of coital wishes. Four items (2 genders of date-initiator x 2 familiarities) were used to judge a person's wish of having coitus when the person initiates dating with an opposite-sex partner who is very familiar (or unfamiliar) with that person. The items were "Do you believe a man has some wishes of having coitus when he initiates dating with a female partner who is very familiar (or unfamiliar) with him?" and "Do you believe a woman has some wishes of having coitus when she initiates dating with a male partner who is very familiar (or unfamiliar) with her?" Responses for the four items were rated on a 4-point scale with the following choices: 1 (disagree), 2 (slightly agree), 3 (moderately agree), and 4 (strongly agree).

Procedure

All participants voluntarily participated in the study. They responded to the measures anonymously in small, same-sex groups of 3 to 15. Each student received an unsealed envelope containing the measures. About 20 minutes before students were given the envelope, the investigator gave them a brief talk on changing attitudes toward sexuality in the 1990s (because some students hesitated to answer any questions on sexual matters) and instructions for sincerely responding to the questionnaire.

Instructions also emphasized that items had no right or wrong answers. Data collection, which lasted an average of 30 minutes including instructions, took place outside school hours in the classroom. However, care was taken to ensure privacy by leaving a space of at least one seat between students. They were asked to place the completed measures into the envelopes and seal them upon completion. Participants were informed that the investigator was not interested in the individual student's response, but in the general responses of Korean adolescents. They were also told to skip any questions that made them uncomfortable.

RESULTS

Sample Characteristics

General sample characteristics are shown in Table 1. There were significant gender differences with respect to religious conviction and SES. That is, females showed slightly higher levels of SES and stronger religious affiliation than did males. There was a gender difference in the proportions of participants attending college, with over two thirds of the females and less than half of the males in college, [chi square](1, N = 787) = 29.09, p < .001.

There was a significant gender difference in proportions of students who had smoked, 69.1% for males and 18.6% for females, [chi square](1, N = 787) = 203.60, p < .001. The proportions of the males who currently have a steady dating partner (34.2%) were not different from those of the females (29.1%), [chi square](1, N = 787) = 2.36, ns. There was a significant gender difference in proportions of people reporting that they have had coitus, 24.3% (n = 96) for the males and 10.5% (n = 41) for the females, [chi square](1, N = 787) = 26.23, p < .001.

The last two response categories (i.e., 2 or 3 times a week and almost everyday) for the drinking habits were combined in an independent test because there was an empty cell for females who reported to drink almost everyday. Males, in general, showed higher tendencies to drink than did females, [chi square](6, N = 787) = 72.52, p < .001. The percentage of students who have never experienced alcohol use was higher in females (20.2%) than in males (9.6%), whereas the percentage of those experiencing alcohol use at least once a week was higher in males (34.5%) than in females (11.4%). In the following analyses, the sample was divided into two groups according to their drinking experiences: yes (ever had drinks at least once) versus no (never had drinks).

The characteristics for the coitally experienced samples are shown in Table 2. Of the respondents who said that they had had coitus, the percentages for males who had smoked, who had a steady date, who drink alcohol, and who were college students were 94.8%, 62.5%, 97.9%, and 48.0% respectively, while those for the females were 36.6%, 75.6%, 90.2%, and 70.7% respectively.

The percentages of the coitally experienced participants who reported having only one partner were 38.5% for the males and 68.3% for the females. In addition, the percentages of the coitally experienced participants who reported more than five coital partners were 21.9% among males and 4.9% among females. The mean number of coital partners for coitally experienced males (4.97, SD = 10.33, n = 96) was significantly higher than that for females (1.68, SD = 1.25, n = 41), F(1,135) = 4.11, p < .05. That is, the coitally experienced males reported more partners than the coitally experienced females.

Respondents' Perceptions of Peer Sexual Behavior

For the item asking how many of the five close friends respondents thought had had coitus, the perceived mean number of friends was 1.00 (see Table 3). The perceived numbers of peers who might have had coitus were entered into five separate two-way ANCOVAs with the respondents' gender and one of the five remaining independent variables (IVs) (i.e., coital experience, smoking experience, drinking experience, having a steady date, and school age) using SES as a covariate. (2)

All of the two-way ANCOVAs showed the significant main effects at the p < .01 or .001 level: gender, F(1,782) = 48.14, [[eta].sup.2] = .058, and coital experience, F(1,782) = 118.73, [[eta].sup.2] = .132; gender, F(1,782) = 7.93, [[eta].sup.2] = .010, and smoking experience, F(1,782) = 66.39, [[eta].sup.2] = .078; gender, F(1,782) = 17.71, [[eta].sup.2] = .022, and drinking experience, F(1,782) = 11.55, [[eta].sup.2] = .015; gender, F(1,782) = 53.51, [[eta].sup.2]= .064, and having a steady date, F(1,782) = 23.46, [[eta].sup.2]= .029; and gender, F(1,782) = 42.99, [[eta].sup.2] = .052, and school age, F(1,782) = 21.87, [[eta].sup.2] = .027. The respondents who were male and who had coitus, had smoked, experienced alcohol use, had a steady date, and attended high school perceived greater numbers of their friends who might have had coitus than those who were or had not. However, only a gender by coital experience interaction effect among the five 2-way ANCOVAs was found, F(1,782) = 12.24, p < .01, [[eta].sup.2] = .015. Also, the interaction effect was ordinal, indicating that both main effects of gender and coital experience were qualified.

For the item asking how many close friends the male students perceive have visited a prostitute, almost half of them (48.6%) said that none of their five close friends had visited a prostitute. But about 21.3% reported that one of their friends might have visited a prostitute. The mean number of friends who the male students perceived to have visited prostitutes was 1.11 (see Table 4).

The perceived number of friends who might have visited a prostitute was analyzed with five 1-way ANOVAs for the IV coital experience, smoking experience, drinking experience, having a steady partner, and school age, respectively. One-way ANOVAs revealed four main effects: coital experience, F(1,393) = 93.22, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2]= .192; smoking experience, F(1,393) = 40.11, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .093; drinking experience, F(1,393) = 14.26, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .035; and having a steady date, F(1,393) = 7.18, p < .01, [[eta].sup.2] = .018. The male students who had coitus, who had smoked, who had used alcohol, and who had a steady date reported greater numbers of their friends who might have visited prostitutes than the others. However, no main effect for school age was found, F(1,393) = 2.33, ns.

For the item asking how many close friends the female students thought had ever been pregnant, 79.3% of them said that none of their friends had possibly been pregnant. But 11.5% of them thought that one out of their five close friends might have been pregnant. The mean number of friends who the female students perceived to have been pregnant was 0.32 (see Table 4).

The perceived number of friends who might have been pregnant was analyzed with five 1-way ANOVAs for the IVs coital experience, smoking experience, drinking experience, having a steady partner, and school age. One-way ANOVAs revealed four main effects: coital experience, F(1,390) = 14.97, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .037; smoking experience, F(1,390) = 41.64, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .096; drinking experience, F(1,390) = 7.44, p < .01, [[eta].sup.2] = .019; and having a steady date, F(1,390) = 9.67, p < .01, [[eta].sup.2] = .024. The female students who had coitus, who had smoked, who had used alcohol, and who had a steady date reported greater numbers of their friends who might have been pregnant than those who had not. However, no significant effect for school age was found, F(1,390) = 2.00, ns.

Analyzing Coital Wishes of Date-Initiator

There were four items to assess respondents' perceptions of the date-initiator's coital wishes (i.e., 2 genders of date-initiator x 2 familiarities). The mean scores of the four items according to the study variables are shown in Table 5. The scores of the four items were entered simultaneously into five separate two-way repeated measures ANOVAs with the respondents' gender and one of the remaining between-subjects factors (such as a steady dating partner, coital experience, smoking experience, drinking experience, and school age). There were two within-subjects factors in all the ANOVAs. One of them was the familiarity of the date-initiator with the opposite sex partner. The other factor was the gender of the date-initiator. The dependent variable (DV) was the respondents' perceived ratings of the date-initiators' coital wishes.

All the two-way repeated measures ANOVAs showed the significant main effects except for the between-subjects factor of having a steady date: gender, F(1,783) = 59.95, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .069, and having a steady date, F(1,783) < 1; gender, F(1,783) = 33.59, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .041, and coital experience, F(1,783) = 8.29, p < .01, [[eta].sup.2] = .010; gender, F(1,783) = 23.66, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .029, and smoking experience, F(1,783) = 23.74, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .029; gender, F(1,783) = 31.57, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .039, and drinking experience, F(1,783) = 3.87, p < .05, [[eta].sup.2] = .005; and gender, F(1,783) = 58.33, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .069, and school age, F(1,783) = 27.54, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .034. That is, the respondents who were male, who had coitus, who smoked, who used alcohol, and who were high school students perceived a higher coital wish of the date-initiator than the others. However, only a gender by school age interaction effect among the five 2-way ANOVAs was found, F(1,783) = 4.48, p < .05, [[eta].sup.2] = .006. Also, the interaction effect was ordinal, indicating that both main effects of gender and school age were qualified.

Both of the within-subjects variables, familiarity with date partner and date-initiator's gender, were significant in all the repeated measures ANOVAs. That is, the students perceived a higher wish of coitus for the date-initiator when he/she initiated a date with an unfamiliar rather than a familiar partner. Also, they perceived a higher coital wish of the date-initiator when the initiator was male as opposed to female.

DISCUSSION

This study focused on exploring three things: (a) how many Korean adolescents in the 1990s have been exposed to problem behaviors such as smoking, drinking, going steady, or having coitus; (b) how Korean adolescents perceive their peer sexual activities such as having coitus, visiting prostitutes, or getting pregnant; and (c) how Korean adolescents perceive the coital wishes of date-initiators.

Premarital sex and meeting the opposite sex were strictly restricted in traditional Korean society, although many male adolescents could secretly meet and have sex with prostitutes. Because such social restrictions have been imposed upon contemporary adolescents, some of them tend to answer most questions related to sex with reluctance. Instead of asking them direct questions about their own sexual activities, it was deemed better to ask indirect questions about the sexual activities of their peers. Thus, the research questions were designed to ask them to rate their perceptions of peers' sexual activities and date-initiators' coital wishes.

Questions were asked to determine how many of their five close friends the respondents perceived to have had coitus, visited prostitutes, or been pregnant. Other questions about the coital wish of the date-initiator were also given. Adolescents' drinking and smoking behaviors, like premarital sex, have been regarded as socially unacceptable. However, restraints on these social mores are not as strong after people enter college. So, all the responses were analyzed according to the IVs such as participants' gender, coital experience, smoking experience, drinking experience, going steady, and school age.

Breaking Social Taboo

As anticipated, the proportions of cigarette smoking and alcohol use were much higher in the males than in the females. The findings might indicate that Korean society is more tolerant of adolescent male drinking and smoking than of similar female behaviors (Han, 1998; Youn, 1996). Also, the proportions of adolescents drinking and smoking were high. This might result from the fact that Korean adults have not actively prevented adolescents from drinking or smoking, even though both are considered bad habits (Han, 1998).

There were no gender differences in the proportions of the students who have had a steady date, but significant gender differences in the proportions of the students who had coitus. The relative proportions of having coitus and going steady among Korean adolescents are lower than those in Western society (Youn, 1998), although the proportions have been increasing since the early 1990s. The lower proportions for Korean adolescents might be attributed to the fact that they have lived in a less sexually liberated society.

The proportions of smoking and drinking experience, and of having a steady date, were much higher in the coitally experienced sample than in the total sample. The findings pointed to the fact that there was significant overlap between smoking, alcohol use, and sexual behavior in adolescents (Corwyn et al., 1999). In addition, the males in the coitally experienced sample reported having more coital partners than the coitally experienced females. The findings were not contrary to the general view that men are more involved in sexual activities with multiple partners than were women (Wiederman, 1997).

Due to societal pressures, Korean high school students have to focus on preparing for the college entrance examination. Thus, it was expected that high school students would show significantly lower proportions of coital experience than college students. On the contrary, there were no gender differences among high school and college students in the proportions of the participants who have had sex. Three major reasons may explain the lack of differences. The first reason is that college students might not have wished to act on their sexual desire until they marry.

The second reason is related to sample characteristics. Male students who finished their military service were excluded from the sample because they were considered to be adults, under the assumption that they might have had opportunities for coital experiences during their service period. If they were included in the sample, the proportion of male college students who had coitus might have been higher. Also, men and women who did not go to college after finishing high school were not included in the sample. They might be different, possibly more liberal, in expressing their sexuality from those who were attending college.

The most cogent reason for the lack of differences in the proportions of high school and college students who have had sex might be explained by the cohort effect. Sexual liberalization in the 20th century began in the late 1960s in most Western societies; in Korea it began in the late 1980s. Thus, the lack of differences might be related to the fact that high school students are exposed to a more liberal sexual environment at an earlier age than were college students.

Peer Sexual Activities

When adolescents were asked how many persons among their five specific same-sex friends might have had sex, the proportions based on the perceived numbers were very close to the observed proportions of the participants who had coitus. As expected, the students who were male, had a steady date, experienced coitus, experienced smoking, or experienced alcohol use perceived greater numbers of their peers who had had coitus than the other students.

Moreover, even though there were no differences in the proportions of those who had coitus between the high school students and the college students, high school students perceived greater numbers of their friends might have had coitus than did the college students. This finding might result from the fact that high school students are growing up in a more sexually revolutionary period than college students.

For males, visiting a prostitute has been socially and legally restricted, although very few Korean men who visited a prostitute have been punished legally. When males were asked to report the perceived number of their specific friends who might have visited prostitutes, the perceived rate was greater in those who experienced coitus, smoking, or alcohol use, and had a steady date than in the others. But there were no differences in the perceived numbers between high school and college students. Also, the perceived rate of peers visiting a prostitute was almost the same as the proportion of the males who had coitus. As mentioned earlier, there were higher proportions of the males who had coitus than the females, and the males reported more coital partners than the females. These findings suggest that many Korean male adolescents might have begun to visit a prostitute when they are young. This would be a possible area for future research.

For females, pregnancy itself is a manifestation of having committed inappropriate behavior--that is, coitus. As expected, the female students who experienced coitus, smoking, or alcohol use, and who had a steady date, perceived a greater number of their peers who might have been pregnant than the others. However, there were no differences in the perceived numbers between high school and college students.

The percentage of the females who had coitus was 10.5%, while the perceived percentage of the females who might have been pregnant was 6.4%. Even though the latter would be an inflated statistic, it is high considering the former. Indeed, the incidence of adolescent pregnancy in Korea is not lower than most other industrialized nations (Youn, 1995). If this inference might be correct, it would relate with the low rates of contraceptive skills (Lee, 1996; Youn, 2000).

Perception of Date-initiator's Coital Wishes

According to analyses of the coital expectations of date-initiators, there were significant differences between genders. Males perceived greater wishes of date-initiators toward coitus than did females. These gender differences were partially related to the cultural belief that young women should not be encouraged, and should probably even be discouraged, from talking about their arousal (Brooks-Gunn & Furstenberg, 1990). In perceiving date-initiators' coital wishes, there were also significant differences between high school students and college students for both genders. As they perceived greater numbers of their friends who might have had sex, the high school students perceived greater coital wishes of date-initiators than did the college students. The finding could also result from the fact that they have grown up in a sexually more liberal period than the college students. Also, as expected, the students who experienced coitus, smoking, or alcohol use perceived greater coital wishes of date-initiators. However, the variable of having a steady date partner was not related to their perceived ratings of date-initiator's coital wishes. This finding is inconsistent with the findings that the adolescents who had a steady date perceived greater numbers of peers who might have had coitus, have visited a prostitute, or have been pregnant than the others.

Analysis of one of the within-subjects factors, familiarity with the dating partner, showed gender differences. Males perceived the coital wish of the date-initiator greater when they initiate a date with someone who they do not know, than when they know the person. However, females showed no such difference, irrespective of the initiator's familiarity with the dating partner.

The other within-subjects variable, gender of the date-initiator, revealed significant differences in perceiving the initiator's coital wish. In general, adolescents perceived the coital wishes of the date-initiator greater when the initiator was male than female. The finding might be related to the cultural belief that men are usually the initiators of sexual behavior, while women are the receivers (Lee, 2000; Wiederman, 1997; Youn, 1998).

Study Limitations

The study has some potential limitations. First, it might be argued that a Hawthorne effect was created while the investigator gave a brief talk on changing attitudes toward sexuality before collecting data. A second limitation is that SES was measured by the respondents' subjective rating and not based on family's monthly or annual income, because many Korean adolescents did not know the exact amount of family income. The last one is the lack of information on the respondents' sexual orientation, even though this study focused on the heterosexual adolescents. Despite these limitations, the results of the present study provide some perspectives on sexual matters for Korean adolescents in the 1990s.

Summary and Conclusion

Although most modern societies attempt to control the sexual behavior of youth, many adolescents tend to express their sexual desires in a variety of ways. Korean society began to modernize in the late 1960s, and began to liberalize sexually in the late 1980s. Even though some Koreans have begun to discuss sexual topics with more freedom than before, sex is still considered a private issue.

The findings reported here have implications for at least three areas. The first is that male adolescents are more liberal in the perception of their peers' sexual activity than are female adolescents. It indicates that Korean society is still male oriented on sexual matters. The second finding is that high school students show more liberal opinions on sexual matters than college level students. Because contemporary Korean adolescents, especially younger individuals, are growing up in an environment characterized by greater openness and honesty in sexual matters, it may be unwise to expect them not to express their sexual desires. The third finding is that many Korean adolescents have been involved in misbehaviors such as smoking or alcohol use. Especially, the adolescents who had coitus were more involved in them than those who had not.

Table 1. Sample Characteristics

                                Males                  Females

                          M(SD)       %(n)        M(SD)       %(n)

Age(years)              18.4(1.8)               18.6(1.5)
SES(1-5)                 2.9(0.6)                3.0(0.6)
Religiosity(1-4)         2.1(1.2)                2.3(1.2)
College students                    48.4(191)               67.3(264)
Have smoked                         69.1(273)               18.6(73)
Have a steady date                  34.2(135)               29.1(114)
Have had coitus                     24.3(96)                10.5(41)
Drinking frequency
  Never                              9.6(38)                20.2(79)
  [less than or
    equal to] 2/year                15.2(60)                26.8(105)
  [less than or
    equal to] 1/month               13.2(52)                13.5(53)
  Once/month                        10.4(41)                11.0(43)
  2-3 times/month                   17.2(68)                17.1(67)
  Once/week                         20.5(81)                 7.1(28)
  2 [greater than or
    equal to]/week                  14.0(55)                4.3(17)

                        F(1,785)   [chi square]

Age(years)               3.00
SES(1-5)                 5.85 *
Religiosity(1-4)         6.56 *
College students                     29.09 ***
Have smoked                         203.60 ***
Have a steady date                    2.36
Have had coitus                      26.23 ***
Drinking frequency
  Never
  [less than or
    equal to] 2/year
  [less than or
    equal to] 1/month
  Once/month                         72.52 ***
  2-3 times/month
  Once/week
  2 [greater than or
    equal to]/week

Note. Males: n = 395. Females: n = 392. The first 4 dfs for
[chi square] analyses were 1, while the remainders were 6.

* p < .05.

*** p < .001.
Table 2. Characteristics of Coitally Experienced Sample

                          Males     Females
                           %(n)       %(n)

Smoking
  Yes                    94.8(91)   36.6(15)
  No                      5.2 (5)   63.4(26)
Steady date
  Yes                    62.5(60)   75.6(31)
  No                     37.5(36)   24.4(10)
Drinking
  Yes                    37.9(94)   90.2(37)
  No                      2.1 (2)    9.8 (4)
School age
  College                48.0(46)   70.7(29)
  High school            52.0(50)   29.3(12)
Number of sex partners
  1                      38.5(37)   68.3(28)
  2                      22.9(22)   14.6 (6)
  3-4                    16.7(16)   12.2 (5)
  5-6                     6.3 (6)    4.9 (2)
  7-10                    9.4 (9)    0.0 (0)
  20-40                   5.2 (5)    0.0 (0)
  80                      1.0 (1)    0.0 (0)
  M                       4.97       1.68
  SD                     10.33       1.25

Note. Males: n = 395. Females: n = 392.
Table 3. Perceived Number of Peers Who Have had Coitus

              COI EXP           SMO EXP           DRK EXP

           Yes       No      Yes       No      Yes       No

Males
  M         2.71     0.93     1.65     0.72     1.43     0.76
  SD        1.67     1.25     1.65     1.08     1.58     1.24
  n        96      299      273      122      357       38
Females
  M         1.41     0.54     1.33     0.47     0.69     0.38
  SD        1.24     1.04     1.44     0.93     1.14     0.87
  n        41      351       73      319      313       79
Total
  M         2.32     0.72     1.58     0.54     1.09     0.50
  SD        1.66     1.16     1.62     0.98     1.44     1.01
  n       137      650      346      441      670      117

              TRE DAT               SCH AGE

           Yes       No      High     Col     Total
Males
  M         1.72     1.18     1.54     1.18     1.36
  SD        1.67     1.47     1.66     1.43     1.56
  n       135      260      204      191      395
Females
  M         0.96     0.50     1.05     0.43     0.63
  SD        1.26     0.99     1.40     0.84     1.09
  n       114      278      128      264      392
Total
  M         1.37     0.83     1.35     0.74     1.00
  SD        1.54     1.29     1.58     1.18     1.40
  n       249      538      332      455      787

Note. COI EXP = coital experience; SMO EXP = smoking experience; DRK
EXP = drinking experience; STE DAT = having a steady dating partner;
SCH AGE = school age (High = high school students; Col = college
students).
Table 4. Reported Number of Friends Who Visit Prostitutes
or Who Have Been Pregnant

          COI EXP           SMO EXP          DRK EXP

        Yes      No      Yes       No      Yes      No

Visit prostitutes (Males)
  M     2.22     0.76     1.40     0.46     1.20    0.29
  SD    1.84     1.06     1.56     0.77     1.47    0.61
  n    96      299      273      122      357      38

Have been pregnant (Females)
  M     0.73     0.28     0.79     0.22     0.37    0.13
  SD    0.87     0.69     1.11     0.56     0.77    0.46
  n    41      351       73      319      313      79

           TRE DAT               SCH AGE

        Yes       No      High     Col      Total

Visit prostitutes (Males)
  M      1.38     0.97     1.00     1.23     1.11
  SD     1.56     1.35     1.40     1.46     1.43
  n    135      260      204      191      395

Have been pregnant (Females)
  M      0.50     0.25     0.40     0.29     0.32
  SD     0.81     0.68     0.77     0.70     0.73
  n    114      278      128      264      392

Note. COI EXP = coital experience; SMO EXP = smoking
experience; DRK EXP = drinking experience; STE DAT =
having a steady dating partner; SCH AGE = school age
(High = high school students; Col = college students).
Table 5. Rating of Date-Initiator's Sexual Intention

           GEND        COI EXP       SMO EXP

        Ma     Fe    Yes     No    Yes     No

n      395    392    137    650    346    441

Male-initiator: Familiar with dating partner
  M    2.12   1.92   2.19   1.98   2.17   1.90
  SD   0.81   0.76   0.90   0.76   0.83   0.74
Male-initiator: Unfamiliar with dating partner
  M    2.29   2.23   2.36   2.12   2.36   2.01
  SD   0.89   0.88   0.92   0.88   0.91   0.85
Female-initiator: Familiar with dating partner
  M    1.96   1.55   2.03   1.70   1.97   1.59
  SD   0.78   0.68   0.81   0.74   0.79   0.70
Female-initiator: Unfamiliar with dating partner
  M    2.06   1.50   1.99   1.73   2.04   1.57
  SD   0.83   0.67   0.83   0.79   0.82   0.73

          DRK EXP       STE DAT       SCH AGE

        Yes     No    Yes     No    High   Col

n      670    117    249    538    332    455

Male-initiator: Familiar with dating partner
  M    2.06   1.81   2.08   1.99   2.14   1.93
  SD   0.79   0.76   0.79   0.79   0.85   0.73
Male-initiator: Unfamiliar with dating partner
  M    2.18   2.05   2.15   2.16   2.38   2.00
  SD   0.88   0.94   0.83   0.92   0.96   0.81
Female-initiator: Familiar with dating partner
  M    1.79   1.56   1.85   1.71   1.92   1.63
  SD   0.77   0.71   0.75   0.77   0.82   0.70
Female-initiator: Unfamiliar with dating partner
  M    1.81   1.62   1.80   1.77   1.95   1.65
  SD   0.81   0.78   0.78   0.81   0.87   0.73

Note. GEND = gender (Ma = male; Fe = female);
COI EXP = coital experience; SMO EXP = smoking
experience; DRK EXP = drinking experience;
STE DAT = having a steady dating partner;
SCH AGE = school age (High = high school
students; Col = college students).

(1) Homosexuality was not accepted yet in Korea. Even a man who came out in 2000 encountered severe ostracism. This study focused on heterosexual adolescents, although it lacked of information on the participants' sexual orientation.

(2) There were two covariates, SES and religious conviction, in the initial 1-way and 2-way ANCOVAs. But religious conviction was not a significant covariate in the initial ANCOVAs at all.

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Manuscript accepted July 21, 2001

This study was supported by the Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction, World Health Organization, PROJECT No. 91207 BSDA. The author thanks the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Address correspondence to Gahyun Youn, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Chonnam National University, 300 Yongbong, Kwangju 500-757, Korea; e-mail: [e-mail].