Psycho-educational program for high school females

• Main Authors: Perla Caridad López Hernández (Author), Laura López Angulo (Author), Eneida Bravo Polanco (Author), Carmen Benítez Cabrera (Author), Lisbet Cepero Águila (Author), Rafael Luis Pino Pich (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Centro Provincial de Información de Ciencias Médicas. Cienfuegos, 2010-12-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 1727-897X
• Keywords: educación sexual; educación en salud; conocimientos, actitudes y práctica en salud; educación primaria y secundaria; adolescente; Medicine (General); R5-920; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: Medisur, Vol 8, Iss 6, Pp 419-425 (2010)

<strong>Introduction:</strong> sex education provides knowledge, values and attitudes that both, men and women need to live with dignity and develop fully and happily. <strong><br />Objective:</strong> to determine the usefulness of applying a psycho-educational program on female sexuality in high school. <br /><strong>Methods:</strong> a quasi-experimental study conducted between September 2007 and June 2008, based on a sample composed of 180 ninth grade females living in Cumanayagua's urban area. Variables analyzed: adolescents knowledge on sex-related risks, sexually transmitted infections and contraceptives. They were all analyzed before and after applying the psycho-educational program. <br /><strong>Results:</strong> after applying the psycho-educational program, knowledge standard on the right time to begin with sexual intercourses (18% to 71%), the risk of pregnancy at first sexual intercourse (37% to 75%) and the consequences of pregnancy and abortion in adolescence (from 57% to 71%) increased. Regarding STI's, there were also improvements (from 27% to 75%), and as to the ideal contraceptive the features raised from 0% to 92%. <br /><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The psycho-educational program proved to be effective in students and raised the knowledge standard on these fundamental aspects of sex education.