2013 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study

The Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality (YAFS) Study is a series of national surveys on the Filipino youth, conducted since 1982 by the University of the Philippines Population Institute (UPPI) and the Demographic Research and Development Foundation. Gathering data from Filipino youth aged 15 to 24, YAFS is one of the primary sources of information on sexual and non-sexual risk behaviors and its determinants in the Philippines, at the national and regional levels. YAFS covers a wide range of topics that are relevant to this age group such as education trajectories, labor force participation, relationships and roles in society, values and attitudes, in addition to the risk behaviors. Findings from the YAFS series have been widely used in education and health and had provided the evidence base for health programs for young people by government and non-government organizations nationwide.

Rapid technological change especially in communications technology, the changing landscape of Philippine labor, emergent issues in reproductive health such as the rising prevalence in HIV infection, premarital sex, teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among today’s youth – all provided the impetus to collect new data on young people through a fourth YAFS round now called YAFS 4.

YAFS 4 contains the same basic data gathered in previous rounds, the last of which was conducted in 2002. In addition, YAFS 4 has also expanded its range of topics as well as added new questions to previously existing topics. It has a new topic on Health and Lifestyle (including a short depression scale). The topic on Media has been expanded to include the new forms of communication technologies that were not yet well-developed in 2002 such as social media, cellphone use and cyberbullying.

YAFS 4 is co-funded by the Australian Government, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Department of Health (DOH), and the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD).