Abstract

• The purpose of the study was to explore the determinants of risky behaviours among high school students in Myanmar, to investigate the relationship between risky sexual behaviours and intrapersonal factors such as religiosity, self-esteem, social media usage, emotional intelligence and personality, to identify the factors facilitating the risky sexual behaviours among high school students, to examine which factors has the most significant effect on risky sexual behaviours among high school students in Myanmar. A total of 800 high school students from Mandalay Region, Ayeyarwaddy Region, Bago Region, Rakhine State and Shan State participated in the study. A cross sectional design was taken in this study. The Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance System (YRBSS), Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSORF), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE), Internet Addiction Test (IAT), Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) and Big Five Inventory (BFI-10) were used as the research instruments. As a result, bivariate analysis showed that the likelihood of engaging in risky sexual behaviour was significantly associated with the level of religiosity and social media usage. But, there was no significant relationship between risky sexual behaviour and self-esteem, emotional intelligence and personality. According to the result of multivariate analysis, only religiosity was the most significant determinant on risky sexual behaviour.