The majority of members of a convenience sample of 1,355 urban university students in metropolitan Manila, the Philippines, were sexually abstinent (83%). Most were knowledgeable about AIDS, about pregnancy risk and about contraception in general (60-88%), but only 20% had adequate knowledge about condoms. Approximately 90% of all students held nonaccepting attitudes toward premarital and recreational sex. Males were more likely than females to have ever had sexual intercourse (30% vs. 7%), and they were better informed about condoms and about contraception in general. Sexually abstinent students were more likely than sexually active students to attend church regularly (76% vs. 64%) and to feel that premarital sex was unacceptable (92% vs. 67%). Males who disapproved of premarital sex were nearly three times as likely, and females who did so were nearly seven times as likely, to abstain from sex as were their peers who held more accepting views. Young women who did not have a sister who had experienced an adolescent pregnancy were nearly six times more likely than those with such a sibling to abstain from intercourse.
