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Sexual and Reproductive Health of Adolescents and Youths in Malaysia
The FFPAM Youth Sexuality Survey
covered 1303 respondents aged
15-24 years of age from four states.
Students (in-school adolescents) began
dating at age 15, and the highest
frequency was at age18, for both girls and
boys. For out-of-school young people,
the first age for dating was between
18 to 20 years. The majority of in-school
females (62.4%) had dated one to three
males. A third had only dated one person.
A maximum record of 10 partners was
reported by 4.7% of the respondents.
Some reported having 4-10 partners. Of
the out-of-school young people, 40.4%
of the females and 23.7% of the males
had dated only one partner. The majority
of those who had dated claimed “liking
a person and wanting to know him/her
better.” It was reported that “couples
tended to be circumspect on their dates,”
with the major physical contact being
“holding hands”. Few had engaged in
sexual intercourse.
The findings regarding dating behaviour
cannot be assumed to be very accurate,
considering the sensitivity of the
questions. Dating is an anathema to the
old tradition of arranged marriages,
which used to be common among all
ethnic groups in Malaysia. The sensitivity
becomes more apparent when the
differentials between boys and girls are
noted. Boys tend to claim they have been
involved in such dating behaviour as
necking and petting, while girls tend to
deny such behaviour. The differences
reported are not likely to be the pattern
in reality, since they involve reciprocal
behaviour involving both sexes. The
urban-rural difference and the
age-specific pattern are as expected, with
more urban and older youngsters
involved in each type of dating
behaviour. The challenge to policymakers
is obvious; if such types of
behaviour are to be sanctioned based on
cultural/religious grounds, and yet there
is evidence that young people are
engaged in them, what is the most
appropriate response To disallow such
behaviour would require the very
arduous task of putting in place
sanctions to be enforced and monitored,
let alone assessing their consequences.
However, freely allowing such behaviour
and taking a liberal approach is also not
appropriate or acceptable.
(2) Age at sexual initiation (sexual
debut) and sexual activity
Data on age at first intercourse and
incidence of sexual activity among
adolescents are summarized in Table 5.
The age at first intercourse (sexual debut)
ranged from 9 to 24 years, with the
highest frequency at 17-18 years. The
percentage of young people who were
sexually active ranged from 1% of
adolescents aged 13 to 19 years
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