ABSTRACT
Background: Designing a valid and reliable questionnaire that allows a fair evaluation of sexual knowledge and attitudes and develop a proper sexual educational program is necessary
Objective: The present study was designed to develop and psychometric evaluation of the sexual knowledge and attitudes scale for premarital couples
Materials and Methods: An exploratory mixed method study was conducted in two phases; in the first, in order to develop a questionnaire an item pool was generated on sexual knowledge and attitudes through focus group discussions and individual interviews. In the second phase, the psychometric properties of the questionnaire were examined. For this purpose, face validity, content validity as well as construct validity were conducted. Reliability was assessed by the Cronbach's alpha coefficient to assess internal consistency and test-retest reliability
Results: In the first phase an item pool with 88 questions was generated [sexual knowledge 45 items and sexual attitudes 43 items]. In the second phase, the number of final items reduced to 33 and 34 items of sexual knowledge and sexual attitudes respectively, through exploratory factor analysis [EFA]. Five factors for sexual knowledge and six factors for sexual attitudes identified by EFA. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for two sections was 0.84 and 0.81 respectively. The test- retest correlations for sexual knowledge and sexual attitude was 0.74 and 0.82 respectively
Conclusion: The findings suggest that the Sexual Knowledge and Attitudes Scale for Premarital Couples is a valid and reliable instrument. Further studies are needed to establish stronger psychometric properties for the questionnaire
ABSTRACT
Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of husbands' participation in sexual education on sexual function during pregnancy
Methods: This quasi experimental study was conducted on 123 couples who were divided in two intervention [A: couples, B: pregnant women] and one control [C] groups. Group A couples received sex education, Group B women received sex education without their spouses, and Group C women received routine prenatal care without sex education. Sexual functions of couples were assessed by Female Sexual Function Index [FSFI] and International Index Erectile Function [IIEF] questionnaires, before sex education, four weeks after the intervention, at the end of the second trimester and at the end of the third trimester
Results: Mean total scores of FSFI and IIEF were not different at baseline in three groups. Repeated measure analysis showed significant differences between groups [A and B with C] in the mean total scores of FSFI and IIEF during the third trimester. The mean total scores of the two intervention groups of A and B were not significant
Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, promoting the sexual function of pregnant women needs to include the sex education on prenatal care. Whereas spouses' participation was suggested to have a great role in the effectiveness and strengthening of the education in various studies, this study showed that the lack of spouses' participation for whatever reasons may lead to the same results of previous studies which emphasized the necessity of spouses' participation
ABSTRACT
Background: Women's sexual well-being has been the center of attention in the field of sexology. Study of sexual behavior and investigating its predictors are important for women's health promotion. This study aimed to explore the components of women's sexual behaviors and their possible associations with demographic variables
Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study [descriptive and analytic] that was conducted in Kashan city, Iran. A National Sexual Behavior Assessment Questionnaire was completed by 500 women of 15 to 49 who referred to the public health centers. To analyze the data, R software was used, ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis [for parametric or nonparametric data, respectively] were used to compare outcomes among different groups. In order to evaluate the correlation between the subscales, the Pearson correlation coefficient was used
Results: From all participants, 31.8% obtained high scores in the sexual capacity, 21.2% had high scores in sexual motivation and 0.2% had high scores in sexual function. In sexual script component, 86.2% of women who held traditional beliefs toward sexual behaviors; the majority [91.5%] of women believed in mutual and relational sexuality, 83.4% believed in androcentricity [male-dominated sexuality]. Pearson correlation test showed a significant positive correlation between sexual capacity, motivation, function and sexual script. Linear Regression model showed that sexual capacity is associated with women's education and age of her spouse. Sexual function and sexual motivation were significantly associated with the age of subjects' spouses
Conclusion: In this study, subjects had low scores in sexual performance while higher scores were achieved in sexual capacity and motivation. This discrepancy can be attributed to the role of sexual scripts dominating the participants' sexual interactions in this study. We suggest gender-specific and culturally-sensitive education should become a part of women's health programs in Iran