The China Youth University of Political Sciences recently conducted a questionnaire survey on how adolescents feel about making friends with people of their opposite sex.

The survey showa that for most Chinese adolescents, the ratio of people making friends with people of their same sex to that with the opposite sex is 10:1. The survey also shows that only 20 percent of students in middle schools think that having sex at a young age is "inappropriate."

The survey covered 3,000 students from primary schools, middle schools and colleges across the country. Regarding the issue of making friends with people of one’s opposite sex, students who are older are more willing to make friends with their opposite sex.

The investigation shows that 75.4 percent of students in primary schools are willing to make friend with people of their opposite sex. Most of them choose campus as the ideal place for making friends. Only 2.2 percent choose to make friends through the Internet. While 90 percent of students from middle schools are willing to make friends with people of their opposite sex, and college students are more inclined to make friends at public places outside the campus.

The investigation also shows that young people make a lot more friends with people of their same sex. The ratio of these people making friends with people of their same sex to that with the opposite sex is 10:1.

Among different age groups, students’ inclination to play with the opposite sex becomes more evident as they grow older. However, as they grow older, it becomes more and more difficult for them to satisfy their friends of the opposite sex.

Hu Rui, a person involved in the investigation from the China Youth University of Political Sciences, said this indicates that if they are not provided with a good environment at early age, young people may not feel confident with people of their opposite sex when they grow older.

When asked what will their classmates respond when they learn that someone in the class has sex with other people, only 21.7 percent answer it is inappropriate. For some, they think that if the two love each other, it will be ok. Others think that it is just a very normal thing. And there are still some other people who think that it is their private business. Regarding this issue, Hu said that society should pay more attention to imparting some sex knowledge to adolescents, especially those who develop more quickly than others.
 
(China News Service August 4, 2006)