This indicator does not distinguish between marital and non-marital partners. It tracks all multiple partnerships, regardless of their relative levels of risk. In the very similar adult sexual behavior indicator (Percent of Population Who Had Higher Risk Sex in the Last Year), a distinction is made between marital and co­habiting partners, and all other partner types. This dis­tinction is partly to cope with the measurement chal­lenge posed by men in polygynous societies, who may have multiple partners within marriage. However, be­cause polygyny among men under 25 is extremely rare, the distinction is unnecessary in an indicator for young people.

The indicator also suffers from the expected respon­dent and social desirability bias. Young people saturated with prevention messages will be highly motivated to underreport partners. Likewise, social pressure for women to give untruthful answers may be strong.