Casual, Commercial, and Committed: A Typology of Premarital Sex in the Philippines by Peter Xenos, Corazon M. Raymundo, and Clarinda R. Lusterio, East-West Center Working Papers, Population Series, No. 95, October 1997

Abstract

This paper assesses the prevalence of sexual experience among unmarried young people ages 15 through 24 in a Philippines national sample, the Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Survey of 1994 (YAFS-II). A comparison is made of responses to several kinds of direct question about sexual experience, heterosexual relationships and forms of marriage. Discussion then centers on the premarital experiences of married youth, and on relationships among the single. The result is a preliminary typology of premarital sexual experience and prevalence estimates for the different kinds of premarital sexual experience. Then, additional information is introduced on pregnancy and childbearing, as a basis for identifying premarital conceptions. This information sheds some further light on the categories and points to higher levels of premarital sexual experience than were obtained from responses to the direct questions. Levels of the different types of premarital sexual experience within selected subgroups of the population are then examined as a prelude to a section focusing on the first sexual experience and the circumstances surrounding that first experience.