The Level of Knowledge and Behavior of Adolescent Male and Female Students in Turkey on the Matter of Reproductive Health

Abstract

In this research, the objective is to determine the level of knowledge, the sources of information and the behavior of adolescent male and female students in Turkey on the matter of reproductive health. The sample is comprised of 600 students randomly chosen from four different elementary schools. The survey form was used for data collection. In analyzing the data, we calculated averages and performed Chi-square tests. We determined that 82.3% of the students are aware of the changes in their own bodies, and 69.2% of them have knowledge about the place and the functions of their reproductive organs. We found established that 55.2% of the students have knowledge about puberty prior to this phase, and girls attain this knowledge mostly (78.2%) through their mothers, whereas boys (25.4%) attain it from the media. We found significant differences between boys and girls, including the following: the level of disturbance caused by puberty symptoms, the individuals informed about the symptoms, the feelings and the style of dress in puberty, and situations such as being happy or unhappy about the symptoms differ according to the sex of the student. These findings are statistically significant (p < 0.00). It is observed that the perception of puberty symptoms is different for boys and girls, and the girls are more open to communicate with their mothers, while the boys are more open to communicate with their friends.