Knowledge and attitude regarding reproductive and sexual health among school teachers: a descriptive survey.

Abstract

Adolescence is a time of evolving from the immaturity of childhood into the maturity of adulthood. This is a stage which requires extra care and protection. Physiologically and physically, adolescents go through a series of transformations as they grow and develop. A descriptive study design was adopted with 70 teachers selected using a convenience sampling technique from five different government schools of the Ambala District, Haryana. Knowledge and attitude were assessed using a structured knowledge questionnaire and a 5-point Likert scale, respectively. The reliability coefficient of the structured knowledge questionnaire was found to be 0.67 by the Kuder-Richardson method and for the attitude scale, it was found to be 0.7 by Cronbach's α. More than one third (37.1%) of the teachers were between 31 and 35 years of age. Out of 70 the majority (75.7%) of the teachers were female. More than half (62.9%) of the teachers had an average level of knowledge and the majority (71.4%) of the teachers had moderately favorable attitudes regarding reproduction and sexual health. Furthermore, teachers had more knowledge about the reproductive organs and the concept of puberty followed by the concept of reproductive and sexual health and had the least knowledge in the area of contraception. This study highlights the need for special training and awareness programs regarding reproduction and sexual health among school teachers.