Peer education prevents premarital sexuality in adolescents

ABSTRACT

Background: The problem often experienced by adolescents today is around sexuality, especially premarital sex. There is a need to increase knowledge of premarital sex among adolescents by providing health education through peer education. Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the effect of peer education on the knowledge and attitudes of premarital sexuality in adolescents. Materials and Methods: The present study is a quasi-experimental pre-post-test with a control group. The total sample of 90 adolescents aged 14–18 years was recruited from two senior high schools in Bantul, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. They were divided into treatment and control groups. The treatment group received peer education about premarital sexuality conducted by peer educators in eight sessions. Researchers conducted peer education training on 10 peer educators and 2 research assistants and then conducted a pre-test of premarital sexuality knowledge and attitudes in both groups before intervention. Researchers were conducted deep interviewed with six respondents. Post-test knowledge and attitudes in both groups were done 4 weeks after intervention. Quantitative statistical analysis used Wilcoxon test and stages according to Colaizi for qualitative. Results: There was an increase of 3.55 in the mean knowledge score and 2.37 in the mean attitude score from pre- to post-intervention using peer education. Peer education method was affected the knowledge of premarital sexuality indicated by P = 0.002 (P < 0.05) and attitudes of premarital sexuality indicated by P = 0.021 (P < 0.05). Qualitative analysis identified uncertainty as a significant them for both knowledge and attitude of premarital sexuality, then evaluate feelings after participating in peer education. Conclusions: The result revealed that peer education significantly improved adolescents’ knowledge and attitude of premarital sexuality.