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RESEARCH ARTICLE

The relative importance of socio-ecological factors in regard to psychosexual health among adolescent students: based on dominance analysis

Xiuqing Fang https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9453-6393 A , Mengfan Zhang A , Mengjie Yang A , Wenjing Liu A , Linpei Dong A , Yawen Ren A , Wenguang Wang A , Ting Liu A B # * and Li Yang A B # *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Nursing, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, Shandong Province, China.

B Qingdao Municipal Key Laboratory for Smart Healthcare and Chronic Disease Management, Qingdao, China.


# These authors contributed equally to this paper

Handling Editor: Heather Armstrong

Sexual Health 22, SH25001 https://doi.org/10.1071/SH25001
Submitted: 1 January 2025  Accepted: 4 June 2025  Published: 26 June 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

Background

Psychosexual health refers to an individual’s capacity to acquire sexual knowledge through appropriate means, develop healthy values, accept bodily changes, align with socio-cultural norms and regulate sexual behaviors. The study aimed to explore the relative importance of general self-efficacy, sexual refusal self-efficacy, peer relationship, parental monitoring and parent–teen communication about sex in influencing psychosexual health among secondary vocational school students.

Methods

A total of 2895 secondary vocational school students from of Shandong province in China were selected to complete the General Self-Efficacy Scale, Sexual Refusal Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, Peer Relationship Scale, Parental Monitoring Questionnaire, Parent–Teen Communication about Sex Questionnaire, School Connectedness Scale, School Sex Education Questionnaire and High School Student Psychosexual Health Scale. Dominance analysis was used for statistical analysis.

Results

Dominance analysis revealed that importance rankings of the socio-ecological factors on psychosexual health in descending order were: peer relationship (the degree of contribution was 36.1%), parent–adolescent communication about sex (the degree of contribution was 34.2%), general self-efficacy (the degree of contribution was 14.5%), sexual refusal self-efficacy (the degree of contribution was 9.6%) and parental monitoring (the degree of contribution was 5.9%).

Conclusions

Peer relationship, parent–adolescent communication about sex, general self-efficacy, sexual refusal self-efficacy and parental monitoring are the main socio-ecological factors on psychosexual health among secondary vocational school students. Accordingly, helping students build good peer relationships, facilitating appropriate parent–adolescent communication about sex and proper parental monitoring, and increasing students’ general self-efficacy and sexual refusal self-efficacy are crucial measures to improve psychosexual health for secondary vocational school students.

Keywords: adolescent, dominance analysis, parent–adolescent communication, parental monitoring, peer relationship, psychosexual health, sexual health, social ecology system theory.

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