Adolescents’ Contraceptive Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Premarital Sex: Educational and Counselling Implications

Abstract

The quest for abstinence has made the dissemination of information on contraceptives to be sporadic. This study investigated the relationship between knowledge of contraceptive and attitudes towards premarital sex among senior high school students in Asante Akim North district of Ghana. The study sample comprised 365 students selected from two senior high schools in the district, 11 teenage mothers and six pregnant teenagers. The questionnaire and a semi-structured interview guide were the main tools for data collection. After cleansing the data, 361 responses were used for the quantitative data analyses. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the quantitative analyses, and thematic analysis used for the qualitative analyses. The study findings revealed that respondents’ knowledge of modern, and natural contraceptives significantly and negatively predicted the variance of attitude toward pre-marital sex (β = -0.15, p < 0.05), and (β = -0.09, p < 0.05) respectively. However, respondents’ knowledge on emergency contraceptive significantly and positively predicted the variance of attitude toward pre-marital sex (β = 0.19, p < 0.05). The study concluded that although a good contraceptive knowledge is needed to promote chastity and also protect adolescents from unwanted pregnancies and other health-related issues, contraceptives must be made available for the youth. The study recommends to heads of the institutions, school counsellors as well as parents to provide adolescents with information on contraceptives to enable them make right decisions whenever they decide to engage in premarital sex.