STUDENTS ACQUISITION AND USE OF SCHOOL CONDOMS IN A HIGH-SCHOOL CONDOM AVAILABILITY PROGRAM

Objectives. To determine what students know about a condom availabilit y program in their high school, how they react to the program, whether they obtain condoms from it, and what they do with these condoms. Des ign. Self-administered anonymous survey conducted 1 year after the pro gram began. Setting. An urban California school district. Participants . A total of 1112 students, 9th through 12th grade, 59% of eligible st udents present on the survey day. Main Outcome Measures. History of ob taining condoms from the program, use of these condoms, knowledge abou t the program, and attitudes toward the program. Results. Forty-eight percent of students had personally taken school condoms, and another 5 % had gotten them from someone else, for a total of 53% who had obtain ed school condoms. Seventy percent of nonvirgins and 38% of virgins ob tained condoms. Males were more likely than females to have obtained c ondoms (60% vs 45%). Fifty-four percent of students who had obtained s chool condoms had used them for sexual activity: 52% had used them for vaginal intercourse, 7% for anal intercourse, and 4% for fellatio. St udents also explored school condoms without having sex, eg, removing t hem from the packet, putting them on fingers, or putting them on their penis or a partner's penis. Thirty-four percent of students who had u sed a condom for vaginal intercourse during the previous year had obta ined the condom they last used from school, with more males than femal es reporting the school as their source (41% vs 26%). Eighty-eight per cent of students knew that all students were allowed to obtain condoms , and 74% knew that parental permission was not required. Students gen erally supported the condom program: 88% thought the school should giv e out condoms, and 79% thought that if the school were to require pare ntal permission for students to get condoms, students would get them l ess often than with the present system (which does not require permiss ion). Thirteen percent agreed and 71% disagreed that ''having condoms available at school makes it harder for someone who doesn't want to ha ve sex to say no.'' Conclusions. Providing high school students with d irect access to condoms leads to widespread use of school condoms, bot h for sexual activity and for exploratory activities that familiarize students with condoms. Condoms are of interest to both students who ha ve and students who have not engaged in sexual activities for which co ndoms are recommended.