STUDENTS of exclusively boys' or girls' schools are more sexually active than those from co-educational schools, according to a recent survey conducted by the University of Hongkong.
Some psychologists and educationalists attribute the phenomenon to the lack of interaction with the opposite sex when students are put in boys' or girls' schools.
A counselling expert also warned that sex abuse or abnormal sexual behaviour like homosexuality are more likely to occur in such schools than in co-ed schools.
The survey, conducted by the university's health service unit, interviewed nearly 1,000 final year students aged between 18 and 22, and found that students from boys' or girls' schools had had sex six times more than co-ed students.
Among the interviewees, 480 had studied in co-ed schools, while 448 were in boys' or girls' schools either for their whole secondary education or some years.
The proportion of students having sex in boys' or girls' schools was six times more than those studied in co-educational schools. The former was 13.6 per cent while the latter was 8.4 per cent.
Dr Alexander Lo Chi-wah, clinical psychologist and head of Baptist College's careers and counselling services, advised students to enrol in co-ed schools so as to have a normal exposure to both sexes.