YUGOSLAVIA

Index→ Europe → Yugoslavia

Also: Serbs

 

 

 

Erlich (1966:p144-73)[1] provides an analysis of growing up in Yugoslav villages. By imitation, love songs are sung “long before they have any personal interest in the other sex”. On the whole the adolescent is “conditioned” for avoidance.

 

Stankovicet al. (1993)[2] found that by the 16th year of life, 8.6% of secondary school girls and 36.8% of boys experienced coitus, while 48% of the girls and 72% of the boys experienced intimate caressing with the opposite sex. In 1990 Vojvodina[3], mean of the age of women at sexarche (intercourse) was 19.088 +/- 2.495 years, the median being 18.964. The interval between mean menarche and sexarche ages was 5.6 years, smaller in the urban (5.0) than in the rural environment (6.4).

 

In Novi Sad[4], most of the knowledge on sex topics “children” aged 13 and 14 (N=134) got watching TV and reading magazines (44.15% girls and 70.17% boys) and from their friends (42.1%). Communication about sex and contraception exists mostly among friends (51.95% girls and 82.46% boys). One third of girls talk with parents and one quarter got knowledge from them. Only four boys (2.98%) had sexual intercourse without complications: artificial abortion or STD. Almost every child (96.95%) knows about AIDS and 89.25% children know about at least one method of contraception (mostly condom). 50% of children want more education about sex and contraception. Most information male teenage students (N=520 aged 15-19)

got from different forms of mass-media (63.65%) and through communication with friends (50.58%)[5]. The communication with parents (5%) and experts (1%) is poor. According to their opinion, 69% have enough knowledge about sexuality and 62% about contraception, but 75.77% want further education from experts. 90% participated in some kind of sexual activity by the age of 18, and 84.3% had sexual intercourse for the first time at the age of 15.55 years, on average.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Additional refs.:

 

-- Puhar, A. (1994) Childhood nightmares and dreams of revenge, J Psychohist 22,2:131-70

 

 

 

Janssen, D. F., Growing Up Sexually. VolumeI. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology

Last revised: Sept 2004

 


[1] Erlich, V. St. (1966) Family in Transition: A Study of 300 Yugoslav Villages. Princeton, NJ: PrincetonUniversity Press

[2] Stankovic, M., Panic, V., Jerkovic, I. & Vecerinovic, S. (1993) [Sexual information and practice in 16-year-old adolescents], Med Pregl 46,5-6:205-8

[3] Burany, B., Gaal, M., Szabo, E. & Babcsanyi, S. (1990) [Time factors and trends in the onset of the menarche, sex maturation and experience of orgasm in a questionnaire administered to 971 women in Vojvodina], Jugosl Ginekol Perinatol 30,1-2:51-4

[4] Kapamadzija, A., Bjelica, A. & Segedi, D. (2001) [Children’s knowledge of sex behavior and contraception], Med Pregl 54,1-2:53-7

[5] Kapamadzija, A., Bjelica, A. & Segedi, D. (2000) [Sex knowledge and behavior in male high school students], Med Pregl 53,11-12:595-9