Original Research Article
Year: 2019 | Month: April | Volume: 9 | Issue: 4 | Pages: 201-215
Study on the Reproductive Health Status of Adolescent Boys and Girls under Urban School Settings in Kolkata through the Application of Psychometrics
Kriti Sarkar1, Anjali Ray2
1Assistant Professor, Dept. of Basic Science and Humanities, University of Engineering and Management, Kolkata
2Professor, Dept. of Applied Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India
Corresponding Author: Kriti Sarkar
ABSTRACT
Background: In the faces of the new challenges and restricted resources in a developing country like India, newer researches are required to developing databases for improved maternal health, reduced infections, and better nutritional level of the child bearing aged adolescents. The study aimed to assess using the questionnaire to measure the knowledge, attitude and behavior/practice with respect to reproductive health status and nutrition among school students of Urban Kolkata.
Methods: The study first identified the major components of Reproductive Health (sexual and nutritional components) among the secondary school students and secondly assessed the nature of Reproductive Health Status of secondary school students with respect to sex (male and female), socioeconomic status (upper, upper middle, lower middle) on the basis of statistical tests of significance- one-way ANOVA, ‘t’ between percentages etc. using a Reproductive Health Inventory which was developed for this study.
Findings: The profile of Reproductive health of adolescents may be considered as a combination of six components namely ‘Sex Education’, ‘Openness about Sex’, ‘Sexual Activities’, ‘Sexual Health Knowledge’, ‘Reproductive Health Knowledge’ and ‘Nutrition’. It implied that reproductive health status as reported by secondary school students were generating from their personal and situational factors.
Results highlighted that while the overall reproductive health status including its components of sex education, openness about sex, sexual health knowledge and reproductive health knowledge of the female students was relatively better than that of the male students, at the same time, the level of sexual activities was more prominent in male students than female students.
Again, students belonging to different SES groups significantly differed in terms of their level of overall reproductive health status, sex education, openness about sex, sexual activities, sexual health knowledge and reproductive health knowledge. The trend of knowledge and attitude in all the aforesaid domains was noted to be higher in students belonging to upper SES, followed by Upper middle and then lower middle.
Key words: Reproductive Health, Sexual Health, Nutrition, Adolescents, Psychometrics.