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Oct 13th, 2001 Bangkok Post

Teens mostly have sex early evening

Usually home alone during that time

Anjira Assavanonda

Teenagers are most likely to get up to mischief in the afternoon and early evening, a study has found.

They were most at risk of having sex between 3pm-7pm.

The study was raised yesterday at a seminar on teenagers and sex education organised by Siriraj Hospital.

Vachanin Lohitsuk, a psychiatrist, said that at that hour of the day teenagers often had the house to themselves.

``The period is the best opportunity for teenage girls and boys to be alone with each other,'' he said.

Teenagers most likely to engage in premature sex were from broken homes or were addicted to drugs and alcohol.

Girls and boys had different perceptions of sex. For boys, satisfying sexual desire was uppermost, while girls were more concerned with love, warmth and relationships.

Girls were easily coerced into having sex with their boyfriends, resulting in premature sex, unwanted pregnancy, abortion and HIV/Aids infection.

Phanom Ketumarn, head of child psychiatry at Siriraj, said sex education would help keep young people from harm's way. Young people wanted to know more about sex but didn't have many places to look for help.

Talking to parents and teachers about sex was viewed as taboo. Teenagers turned to less desirable sources such as pornographic websites and computer games.

Sex education emphasised not only sexual relationships, but life skills, self-understanding, and family skills.

Dr Phanom cited another study which found 90% of men and 30% of women had tried masturbation, while 25% of men and 5% of women had tried sex.

Some 60% of men and 10% of women said they tried sex before marriage.

Masturbation is not abnormal, but a person should not be too obsessed with it.

Dr Phanom cited a case of a Mattayom-2 patient who came to see him with a chronic headache, which was setting back his studies. The boy admitted to masturbating often, and worrying that it would damage his brain.

``The boy was threatened by his father, who told him a million cells in his brain would be destroyed each time he masturbated. That scared him but he still could not control his desire,'' said Dr Phanom.

Sex should be discussed openly, as it was a common thing in life, he said.