Young people in care at risk of sex at earlier age

A new study has indicated that young people in care are more likely to engage in sexual activity at a younger age, and that the risk is greater again among those in residential care.

The research also indicates that many care providers, including foster carers, have been wary of helping young people to access contraception for fear of being seen to encourage underage sex.

The study is entitled Sexual Health and Sexuality Education Needs Assessment of Young People in Care in Ireland (SENYPIC) and was put together by a research team led by Prof Abbey Hyde, associate professor at the school of nursing, midwifery and health systems at University College Dublin.

The findings are based on different sources: 182 service-providers, including foster care, residential care, after-care, teen-parent support projects and clinical sexual health services who responded to a questionnaire; in-depth interviews with 22 of these service-providers; a separate qualitative study of 19 foster carers and five birth parents; and interviews with 19 young care-leavers.

Of those 19 care-leavers, now young adults aged 18 to 22, 16 were women and nine of them had become pregnant by the time they left care at the age of 18.

According to the report: “Almost all participants reported having had first sex before the age of 17 years, and among these, there were virtually no participants who described sexual experiences that were characterised by a high level of sexual competence.”

The study outlined how the two male participants who had experienced first sex at an early age said there had been an “apathy about condom use” while the young women implied that they relied on their sex partners to use condoms. Among those who had used hormonal contraception at some stage, some believed it exacerbated underlying mental health and mood disorders.

The study also raises question as to the level of consent in some of the sexual activity engaged in by participants at a young age. It said: “The dimension of sexual competence relating to autonomy in decision-making was reportedly affected either by alcohol consumption or social coercion, that is, peer influence to have sex.

“Sexual competence was also reportedly undermined by exploitation and the fact that consent to sex was not always clear cut between sex partners. A strong theme was that young women, sometimes in their early teens, reported having had first sex with male sex partners several years older than themselves. It was clear from their accounts that these young women’s capacity to consent without reservation was compromised and that they were not ready for sex with that partner. There were also reports of regret at the timing or circumstances of first sex.”

The report also suggests adolescent girls who were fostered were believed to be more sexualised than those not in care, and that foster carers in the study “readily acknowledged that their foster teen was or might well be sexually active, even by mid-adolescence”. Those questioned said they had greater levels of concern about teenage girls, as risky behaviours such as alcohol and illicit drug use were found to be dominant concerns with fostered boys.

Participants also said the earlier in childhood that a foster child had been placed with them, the more the RSE [relationships and sexuality education] approach of the foster carers resembled that employed with their birth children. However, “foster daughters were deemed to be in greater need of RSE than their own daughters because they were often believed to be more sexually precocious”.

Another finding was that foster fathers tended to be more standoffish with foster daughters over concerns of allegations of sexual misconduct. “A dominant finding was for foster fathers to report fear and anxiety about false allegations of sexual abuse of a foster child, in particular of a foster daughter,” it said.

• Read the full report online by following this link: tinyurl.com/senypic.