Australian study finds improper condom use in young generation despite overconfidence in their skills

A recent study has shown that the young generation is overconfident about their condom-using skills, even when they often do so inconsistently and incorrectly. The study included data from interviews with 290 people aged between 18 and 29. The respondents attended a northern New South Wales music festival.

The study, published in Hindawi, found that only 18 percent of the participants used condoms during sexual encounters in the past year. Moreover, a little more than half the people surveyed had seen their condoms fall off during withdrawal of their penises and almost half of the interviewed experienced condom slips during sexual intercourse.

The study also found numerous respondents experiencing difficulty in using condoms correctly. A number of them did not know that they had to squeeze the tip of a condom before engaging in sexual activity. This clearly is a sign of condom failure.

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

Franklin John-Leader from the North Coast Positive Adolescent Sexual Health (PASH) consortium pointed out that despite these difficulties in condom usage, the young people interviewed exhibited overconfidence even though in real life they simply couldn’t do the job properly, reports the ABC.

The study results indicated the need for improved sex education programs for the young generation. Only 55 percent of the people learned about condom use during their high school sex education class while a fifth learned about it from the instructions on the packet. Moreover, most of them learned about condom use from the Internet than a health worker.

John-Leader showed concerns about the fact that youngsters were not learning about condom usage from the right sources. This could be because sex education programs often do not focus on this skill set.

The study also revealed that 94 percent of the people surveyed were under the influence of alcohol and drugs during intercourse and 19 percent were either under the influence most of the time or always. Improper condom use may lead to sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV and Chlamydia.