Sexual behavioural differences and risk-taking differences among born-abroad and native university students in Italy

There is a substantial lack of information in the literature on affective and sexual behaviours in youths with migratory backgrounds, despite immigrants’ immediate descendants growing in recent years in many destination countries. In order to fill this gap, we use original information, collected by the “Sexual and Emotional Life of Youths (SELFY)” survey carried out in Italy in 2017. We aim to provide a deeper understanding of sexual behaviours by comparing, for the very first time, university students with a migratory background and their native counterparts, stratifying them by gender. Our results show that born-abroad male students have a greater exposure to more liberal attitudes than their native counterparts, while there are no notable differences between born-abroad and native women. Moreover, we analyse, among a number of factors, the association between three sexual behaviours (extra-couple sexual intercourse, occasional sexual intercourse, and numerous sexual partners) and multiple “risk” behaviours. Behaviours defined as “risky” include voluntary attitudes which can be responsible for negative outcomes. Our results show that reckless driving and drug use are directly associated with sexual behaviours, with no differences by gender or migratory status. The association of binge drinking and early sexual debut with the three considered sexual behaviours is largely present only among natives, while having problems with family and school rules have a gender-related role on sex.