Personality traits and risky sexual behavior in adolescents

Abstract

The aim of this research is to determine if there is a significant relationship between the
variables of personality traits and sexual risk behavior in students from 3rd to 5th grade
of the secondary level of two educational institutions of San Juan de Lurigancho. The
study is a non-experimental design, quantitative approach, correlational scope and crosssectional.
The scales used to measure the variables were: the Big Five personality
questionnaire, prepared by Caprara, Barbaranelli and Borgogni (1993), which contains
five dimensions: energy, determination, affability, emotional stability and mental openness; The risk sexual behavior questionnaire of Apaza, Estelo and Quiroz (2017) was
also used. The sample consisted of 300 students of both sexes between the ages of 14 and
18, belonging to two educational institutions in the district of San Juan de Lurigancho. It
was found that there is a significant relationship between the "tenacious" dimension with
two risky sexual behaviors: sexual relations with unknown persons (X2 = 4,774; p = .029)
and sexual relations at parties with friends (X2 = 6,563; p = .038 ); on the other hand, the
“emotional stability” dimension is related to the use of condoms in the last sexual
relationship (X2 = 7.491; p = .024). This paper concludes by stating that not all
personality traits are related to risky sexual behaviors, since different factors are involved
so that various behaviors are present in the adolescent.