SPICE ISLANDS!                                              Richard J B Willis

The produce of the Caribbean is justly famed.  However, there is one area of life there which needs no spicing up - the sexual health of young people.  A recent collaborative study conducted by the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO); the World Health Organisation (WHO); and the Centre in Adolescent Health at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis has thrown up some very disturbing facts.

Nine of the nineteen Caribbean Community and Common Market countries (CARICOM) took part in the study: Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, and St Lucia, which involved 15,695 students aged from 10-18 years.  The good news is that 65 per cent of these young people had not had intercourse.

They gave the following five reasons for their abstinence, the first two of which were the main ones: waiting until marriage; waiting until they were older; not wanting to risk pregnancy; fear of disease; and, not being ready emotionally.  The survey did not ask what role, if any, religious views had in shaping their responses and attitudes.

The abstaining 65% should be praised, the news from here on does not make for pleasant reading.  Of those who had ever had intercourse: 22% were below the age of 12; 34.6% between ages 13-15 years; and 51.6% aged 16-18 years.  What is particularly shocking is that in 42.8% below aged 12; 37.9 % from 13-15 years; and 36.5% of the 16-18 year olds the first intercourse had been forced!

Twenty-three point five per cent of girls had their first intercourse before aged 10, 54.8% of boys likewise; of girls 16.4% of 11-12s, 44.7% of 13-15 year olds, and 15.3% of over 16s had their first intercourse during the age periods indicated.  First intercourse in boys was experienced by 54.8% of the under 10s, 23.2% of 11-12 year olds, 19.3% 13-15 years, and 2.7% of the over 16s.

The children were also questioned about the number of sexual partners they had.  In boys and girls: aged below 12, 35.2% had one, 20.2% had two, 15.2% had three, 5.4% had four, 5.9% had five, 18.1% had six or more partners; in ages 13-15 years, 31.1% had one, 14.9% had two, 14.5% had three, 7.6% had four, 5.7% had five, and 26.2% had six or more; of 16-18 year olds, 35.3% had one, 16% had two, 11.6% had three, 7.7% had four, 5.5% had five; and 23.9% had six or more.

Seven per cent of the girls across the age ranges became pregnant, and 11.6% of the boys thought, or knew, that they had made a girl pregnant.  Around 30% of the girls said that they always used birth control, and 20% of the boys stated that they did.

There is a mistaken belief in faith communities that condom use is an encouragement to sexual promiscuity, it is rather a recognition that for some people certain behaviours are inevitable.  Whilst the Church strongly advocates sexual abstinence outside of marriage and faithfulness to one partner within it, sadly the world does not view sexuality in the same way.

In the CARICOM study, in the most recent sexual intercourse reported of the boys and girls below aged 12 only 26.4% used a condom, 51.8% of the 13-15 year olds did, and the 16-18 year olds were more cautious in that 70.8% of them did.  When asked if they worried about AIDS, 26-29% of the children below aged 12 showed concern, 31-41% of 13-15s did, and 41-53% of 16-18s showed varying degrees of concern.