%0 Journal Article
%T Sexual Knowledge among High School Students in Northwestern Iran
%A Ayyoub Malek
%A Ali Reza Shafiee-Kandjani
%A Abdolrasool Safaiyan
%A Hamid Abbasi-Shokoohi
%J ISRN Pediatrics
%D 2012
%R 10.5402/2012/645103
%X Objectives. Regarding the importance of sexual desire in adolescence period and public and parental concerns about it and considering the lack of studies on sexual knowledge especially in adolescents in Iran, this study was conducted to evaluate the sexual issues in high school girls and boys. Patients and Methods. The cross-sectional study was performed on 2700 high school students. Students were selected through a multi-staged randomized sampling method in Tabriz and by the convenience method in Ardabil and Urmia. Data collection tool was a questionnaire including knowledge questions and measured by a three-point scale. Data were statistically analyzed with SPSS version 11.5 software. Results. 11.8% of the students had a low sexual knowledge, 46.7% had average and 41.5% had a high one. There was no significant difference between male and female students' general sexual knowledge. The highest knowledge was about being aware of the religious rules concerning sex. Conclusion. Adolescents should be trained and acquire information about the different aspects of sexual issues. Female adolescents especially need to be educated about puberty physiology, fertility physiology and STDs. 1. Introduction Sexual drive is a part of natural development initiating with sexual curiosity in childhood followed by a sudden interest in exploring his/her sexual organs and peersĄŻ bodies in adolescence as well. During this period, there may be societal and parental concerns in which lack of sufficient education about adolescentsĄŻ sexual issues may be mentioned. In religious communities like Iran, there are specific sexual norms and morality. Therefore, it seems that Muslim parents or individuals and the media, which communicate with teenagers, cannot pose sexual issues among them conveniently or they may feel uncomfortable to give sexual training to their children and teenagers. Transcultural studies show that human sexual behavior, in addition to biological factors, is strongly affected by culture [1]. In a study among African-American adolescents with a mean age of 15.3 years, 70 percent were reported to be sexually active and the mean age of first sexual intercourse was 11.7 years. Also, it was demonstrated that girls compared with boys had more information about AIDS, less sexual partners, more positive attitude about careful sexual behavior, and assessed themselves with higher control in comparison with boys [2]. Ina study among adolescent males in Tehran, Iran, 28 percent of the sample reported having engaged in sexual activity. Sexual experience was associated with
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.pediatrics/2012/645103/