Knowledge, Attitude and Perception of Sex Education Among Senior Secondary School Students In Idia Girls College, Benin City, Edo State.

Abstract

A lot of sex-related problems facing the adolescents today is undoubtedly linked with lack of sex education in schools which breeds a lot of social ills, death, unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and even infertility. This cross-section descriptive study assessed knowledge, attitude, perception of sex education among 220 senior secondary school students at Idia Girl’s College, Oredo Local Government, Benin City, Edo State. The instrument for data collection was structured questionnaire. The findings revealed that 130(59.1%) of the respondents were within 17-19years age while 90(40.9%) were within 13-16years bracket. The mean ± SD age was 17.16 ± 2.198. Respondents from SS1 class were more 81(36.8%) followed by SS2 73(33.2%) and SS3 66(30.0%). 194(88.2%) were Christian while 22(10.0%) and 4(1.8%) were Muslims and African Traditional practitioners.110(50.0%) of the respondents had good knowledge of sex education while 79(35.9%) and 31(14.1%) had moderate and poor knowledge respectively. 138(62.7%) respondents demonstrated positive attitude towards sex education while 82(37.3%) demonstrated negative attitude. 110(50.0%) demonstrated positive perception on sex education while 110(50.0%) demonstrated negative perception. There is average knowledge, perception and high positive perception towards sex education. However, misconceptions regarding sex education in school abound. Therefore, there is need to develop appropriate evidence-based sexual health education as part of a comprehensive school health education program and be accessible to all students.