What are mothers knowing about sexual education, how much are mothers giving sexual education to their daughters?

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this research was to determine the sexual education that Turkish mothers taken and the sexual education that given to their daughters.

Material and Methods: The population of this descriptive research was the women admitted to between 24 October 2005-24 March 2006 to Women Diseases-Birth and Child Diseases Hospital for treatment. Volunteer 192 mothers who have at least one daughter over aged 9 were taken the sample of this research.The data were collected via question form that prepared in the direction of the literature and using face to face technique.  Question form included 30 questions about socio-demographic characteristics of mothers, the sexual education that mothers taken and that given to their daughters and the time that sexual education given/thought to given to their daughters. The analysis of data were used via descriptive statistically methods and chi-square test.

Findings: It was determined that 65.6% of the mothers never talked to their own mothers about sexual subjects. The mothers who stated that they took sexual education 31,3% about the subject menstruation. 57,4% of the mothers thought that their sexual education that taken wasn’t useful. About half of the mothers (47,6%) stated that they were informed about menstruation after menarche. It was determined that the mothers felt negative feelings as afraid (39,6%) and shame (37%) at menarche. They got some information about sexual subjects from their friends mostly except their own mothers (48,4%). 40,1% of the mothers stated that they shared sexual issues with their husbands. 60,8% of the mothers give sexual information to their own daughters. The sexual education subjects that the mothers shared with their daughters; menstruation (70,3%),  the differences between the bodies of women and men (49,5%), sexual intercourse (20,8%), pregnancy (18,8%) and contraceptive methods (16,7%). Time of sexual education was before menarch; menstruation (68,2%), adolescence time; body differences between male and female (41,5%), after adolescence time; sexual intercourse (42,6%), before marriage; pregnancy (26,5%) and contraceptive methods (27,4%). The sexual education given by mothers and the mother age (p=0,000), mother education level (p=0,000), husband education level (p=0,000), living area (p=0,000),  number of daughters (p=0,000), taking sexual education from own mothers (p=0,016), the usefulness of the taken sexual education (p=0,000) were compared,  statistically significant difference was found.

Conclusion:  In this research, it was determined that according to the previous generation the ratio of the mothers who give sexual education to their daughters is higher but not enough.