Adolescents’ sexual activity is associated with maternal and child health problems, including
sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. The purpose of this paper is to show that living
conditions of families influence sexual behaviours among young people in urban areas in
Cameroon. The study hypothesis is that poverty motivates both young males and females to
engage in risky sex. The study use data from the survey on the Sexual Behavior of the Young
People of Bamenda, which was conducted in August 1995. Multivariate logistic regression
analyses were used to highlight the importance of the influence of socio-economic variables on
the youths’ ability of being sexually active, of having more than one sex partner, of having
had casual sexual relations and of not using condoms. Our findings support the above
hypothesis. Indeed, young people whose fathers were unemployed and those who lived in poor
households were more likely to have multiple sexual partners or to have had casual sexual
relations than others in the year preceding the survey. Multivariate logistic regression
analyses highlighted also that young people who had not lived with both parents and had
insufficient means to satisfy their needs were more likely than others to have multiple sexual
partners or to have had casual sexual relations. Qualitative data validated the above results.