Young men, sexual health and responsibility for contraception: a qualitative pilot study

Background and methodology: despite increasing interest over the last decade or more in men’s views of sexual health services and use of contraception, most published literature focuses on women. It is important that the views of boys and young men are better understood, particularly with regard to responsibility for use of contraception. This pilot study aimed to gain insights into young men’s views of sexual health services and contraception; five non fathers aged between 14 and 18 took part in two focus groups. The groups were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using the constant comparative method to build up categories of data.Results: engaging young men in research is very difficult, particularly young men who are not in education or employment. Young fathers proved impossible to recruit. The young men who took part in the study thought responsibility for contraception was shared, although this was partly dependent on relationship status, i.e. whether sex was with a regular partner or a one night stand.Discussion and conclusions: these findings are based on a small sample and all participants were in full-time education. It is likely that attitudes may differ from those who are not in education, training or employment. In a future study it would be important to ensure that young men from different class and educational backgrounds are included in the research, as the tentative conclusions from this pilot study suggest that educational status is a factor in beliefs about responsibility.