Que se constituyan en base al porcentaje promedio de créditos incobrables

According to Mutinta and Govender (2012) the university environment offers massive opportunity for risky sexual behaviours. Participants were asked about the impact of the university environment on university students’ sexual behaviours. The majority of the participants revealed that the campus environment as well as the environment where university residences are located especially off-campus residences does influences students to engage in risky sexual behaviours.

Yes, because at the university, basically at residence [referring to off-campus residence] there are places surrounding where I live that are basically for clubbing. You go there and people ask you out and some have that perception that they want to have sex with you. I feel like it does have an influence of actually making me want to engage in sexual activities. (IDI#3, Alex) I think our background has also an influence in the way we behave especially when we come to the universities. Because sometimes at home you used to behave in a good manner under the influence of your family and the minute they send you to varsity, that it where you will have freedom and start to behave in a bad manner. (FGD#3, Xola)

Other participant mentioned that the environment as well as people they look up to portrays risky behaviours as a good thing which led them to engage in risky sexual behaviours including having multiple sexual partners and consuming alcohol.

Another thing is role models and the environment to which we are. You would see that here the guys are having girls left and right and you will want that as well. Role models, there are places where we go to just to have fun, you would see someone who you look up to changes girls and you would also want that because you could see that person is having a good life. Also media and entertainment, multiple partners are portrayed as a good thing even in the hip hop, house music videos you will see these things, booze [alcohol] and girls portrayed as a beautiful thing. (FGD#3, Muzi)

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The findings show that the university environment has indeed influenced students to engage in risky sexual behaviours. One participant stated that the environment where he usually spent most of his time, both at home (in a rural area) and the university influenced his decision to engage in sexual activities. This was reflected in the following quote, which also revealed how this participant behaved during vacations when he was not in the university environment;

Yes both home and university, when I’m at the university after a long time of study then I would need something to make me relax because I’m not a movie person then I would call a woman to relax with. When I’m at home I will get bored then I will call a woman and get myself entertained by engaging in sexual activities. (IDI#1, Richard)

Surprisingly, a participant mentioned that even the university venues which are usually used for tutorials on campus also exposed them to engage in sexual intercourse. These venues increased students’ level of sexual activity since they are located in secluded places. He stated that having a sexual partners living far away from the university residences was difficult and if he wanted to have sex with his sexual partners he would go to those private venues in the campus and engage in sexual intercourse.

Another thing, one of the factors that lead us to engage in unprotected sex for university students, you see having a girlfriend who doesn’t have a residence to stay, it is very hard but on campus there are good venues like D2 and D1 and lifts which are not working. You see D2 is in the Psychology department and that venue is too dim and you can even lock it. At the MTB building, there is a lift which is not working, you just press 2 and it won’t move, so what I am trying to say is that if you have a girlfriend who doesn’t stay in a residence, after school hours you can’t get her because maybe she might staying at her home. So during school hours maybe you didn’t even plan to have sex with her on campus, so you will kiss and end up wanting to have sex with her, so I would go to one of those venues and have sex with her. In order to have sex you don’t only need a bed, so there are other styles we’ve leant from the internet. (FGD#2, Joseph)

From the quotes above, it appears that the campus environment influenced students’ sexual behaviours. There is greater freedom at the university. However, one participant revealed that his sexual behaviours have not been affected by the university environment because of his personal values and learning from his father’s mistakes and as a result he decided that he will not make the same mistakes as his father. One of the values he had when he was still in primary school was that he would

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abstain from sex until he matriculated and he did not want a baby outside marriage. This can be witnessed from the following quote;

I have decided myself because of things I have witnessed in the life from both sides of my parents. My father; there were things that he used to do. My friends were there and most of my friends were already sexually active in grade 4 and grade 5, they knew these things. So because of that, because of my background, because of the things I was passionate about, I decided that I will wait until I finish my matric. So I’m not going to say it was the environment that I was in because I don’t even remember my grandmother telling me about sex. I don’t remember my father telling me anything about sex. It was a decision that I took and you know what because my father misbehaved when he was young I won’t do the same. It the same decision that I took that I will never have a baby without marriage. So you cannot say you are influenced by the university or the community but it is a decision that you take because you’ve came across things. (IDI#11, Senzo)

This participant explained that his own sexual behaviours had never been affected by being at the university and how his personal values impacted his decision making. This is parallel to Eaton, Flisher and Aaro (2002) argument which emphasizes the importance of understanding the three contexts of human behaviour, which are personal, proximal and distal contexts in the process of behaviour change. In addition to the above arguments, other participants highlighted that home background also impacted on their sexual decision making. This is presented in the following section.