SEXUAL KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS ON THE VERGE OF MARRIAGE AND ITS RELATIONSHIPS WITH DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES

Considering the importance of sexual knowledge and attitude in marital life, a study was conducted to measure sex knowledge and attitude of adolescent girls on the verge of marriage and its relationship with demographic variables.

In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 130 adolescent girls were randomly selected among those who referred to the family health center of Hamedan city from November 2019 to March 2020 and filled out the Sex Knowledge and Attitude Scale (SKAS) and demographic questionnaires. One-way analysis of variance, independent t-test, and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to analyze the relationships between variables. All the tests were done using SPSS 23 software and the confidence level of 0.95 was considered in all the analyses.

Internet was the main source of sexual information in 53.2% of the girls. The average score of knowledge and sexual attitude of girls was 34.62 and 23.56, respectively. The score of sexual knowledge in 21.5% and sexual attitude in 81% of girls was lower than average (30). There was no correlation between knowledge and sexual attitude of the girls, but there was a direct and significant linear relationship of age with knowledge score (P=0.022) and with sexual attitude (P˂0.001). There was a statistically significant relationship of internet access with the mean score of sexual knowledge (P˂0.001) and with sexual attitude (P=0.003). There was a statistically significant relationship between the mean score of sexual attitude and the education level of girls (P=0.004) and the education level of their husbands (P=0.028). There was no relationship between the knowledge and sexual attitude of girls with the place of residence in the city and village and the number of their siblings and their husbands.

More than two-thirds of girls had sexual knowledge scores more than medium, but sexual attitude scores less than medium. There were relationships between sexual knowledge and attitude and age, as well as between the sexual attitude and their education and education level of their husbands.