ÖZLEM KARATANA, AYŞE ERGÜN
Clinical and Experimental Health Sciences - 2021;11(4):787-793
Objective: This research was carried out to determine the relationship between college women’s transtheoretical model stages of change and their sexual health knowledge, decisional balance, and self-efficacy towards sexual abstinence behavior. Methods: The sample of this descriptive study consisted of 559 college women. Data were collected using the Socio-Demographic Form, Stages of Change for Sexual Abstinence, Sexual Health Knowledge Test, Decisional Balance Scale, and Self-Efficacy Scale. The data were analyzed using frequency (n), percentage distributions (%), chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U Test, Kruskal-Wallis Test, and Spearman’s correlation. Results: The mean age of the sample is 19.88±1.42 (Min-Max: 17-24). It was determined that the students who had no sexual experience had higher the internal and external pros perception and self-efficacy scores and lower cons perception scores (p<0.05). The internal and external pros perceptions and self-efficacy of the students in the precontemplation stage were found lower than those in the contemplation stage (p<0.05). At the same time, it was determined that the external pros perceptions of the students in the contemplation stage were lower than those in the action stage (p<0.05). Conclusion: It was found that the perception of internal and external pros and self-efficacy increased with the progress towards the action stage among the sexual abstinence stages of change. Decisional balance and self-efficacy were found to be important components for the effectiveness of planned sexual health education.
