In Spain, sexual relations start at increasingly younger ages. Risky sexual behavior is very frequent, but in most cases, pregnancy is perceived as the only risk.
This type of practice may be influenced by the degree of information, prejudices or misconceptions, upbringing models, lack of family communication, social, cultural, religious, moral and legal restrictions, lack of concern for their own health and life styles.
An early and effective approach is a fundamental pillar in our society in order to achieve a healthy and wholesome experience of sexuality.
Principal researchers:
- María Fernández Martínez. University of Jaén
- Carmen Álvarez Nieto. University of Jaén
- Sebastián Sanz Martos. University of Jaén.
Objectives.
The overall objective of this project is to:
- Develop and validate a scale to measure university students’ attitudes towards the use of contraceptive methods for the prevention of risky sexual behavior.
The specific objectives are:
- Determine the psychometric properties of the attitude scale.
- Estimate the level of attitudes of the participants.
- Find out the attitudes towards risky sexual relations of the participants. o To find out the relationship between sex and risk.
- Find out the relationship between gender, age, religiosity, having a partner, sources of information used and having initiated risky sex, age of initiation and how they perceived their own knowledge about sexuality and contraceptive methods with the participants’ attitudes towards contraceptive methods.
- Assess the relationship between level of knowledge and attitudes towards the use of contraceptive methods.
The research hypotheses established are as follows:
– H1: The level of knowledge of young people will be higher when they have a favourable attitude towards the rejection of risky sexual behaviour.
– H2: Attitudes will differ according to the sex of the participants, age, whether or not they had a partner at the time of the study, source of information used, previous sexual relations, age of sexual debut and self-perceived knowledge.
Methodology.
In order to meet the objectives, a cross-sectional descriptive design was used. The participants were selected by non-probabilistic sampling among university students belonging to the Degree in Nursing at the University of Jaen aged between 18 and 25 years who agreed to participate by signing the informed consent form.
The study was carried out in three phases:
1) Elaboration of the questionnaire of attitudes towards the use of contraceptive methods.
2) Determination of the psychometric properties of the attitude scale.
3) Evaluation of attitudes towards the use of contraceptive methods in young university students.
The questionnaire was self-administered and was completed during one hour of class time of the Nursing Degree of the University of Jaén. All items were written on a Likert scale (1-5).
Results.
Elaboration of a scale to measure the attitudes of young university students of the Degree in Nursing for the prevention of risky sexual behaviour. The possession of favourable attitudes will allow young people to live their sexuality without associated risks such as sexually transmitted infections or unwanted pregnancies.
