Young adults, and in particular university students, due to their greater autonomy, are a priority intervention group, due to the incidence of risk behaviors that are relevant while experiencing their sexuality. The consequences of these behaviors are reflected in a substantial use of oral emergency contraception (OEC), of self-regulated consumption, which cannot be seen as innocuous to the health of young people and specially in its impact on the beginning of human life. As any intervention requires a prior knowledge of the situation, as detailed as possible, we established as the general objective of this study, the characterization of the experience of sexuality of higher education students, identifying any differences between users and non-users of the OEC. This is a descriptive correlational, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, which was based on university students from a university in the northern region of Portugal, with a total of 1164 students. As we wanted to assess the attitude and knowledge about the OEC in a more pragmatic and scientific way, we implemented a preliminary study as to translate and validate two scales for the Portuguese population – the “Knowledge-on-ECPs Scale” and the “ECPs-Attitude Scale”. The results indicate that there is a significant number of young people with an active sexual life (77,8%), in which risk behaviors are very present (34,8%), namely, the inconsistent use of contraceptive methods, leading to the existence of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy. Protective and/or prophylactic behaviors in the context of sexual and reproductive health are rarely mentioned by young people, and especially among young women. The use of the OEC is significantly related to young university students who: i) demonstrated a more favorable attitude towards the OEC; ii) had superior knowledge of the OEC; iii) had more positive and utilitarian sexual attitudes; iv) valued the reasons for having sex; v) adopted risky behaviors; vi) were older; vii) did not have sex education classes. There is also an apparent negative correlation, although without any statistical significance, between knowledge and attitude towards the OEC, which suggests that a greater knowledge about the OEC, means a less favorable attitude towards it. In this sense, we can infer that the existence of a more positive attitude among the users of the OEC is not based on effective knowledge, which is confirmed by the modest knowledge we registered
Date of Award | 20 Sept 2023 |
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Original language | Portuguese |
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Awarding Institution | - Universidade Católica Portuguesa
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Supervisor | Carlos Manuel Torres Almeida (Supervisor) & Walter Osswald (Co-Supervisor) |
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- Postcoital contraception
- Sexual and reproductive health
- Risk behaviors
- University students
Vivência da sexualidade em jovens universitários: estudo comparativo entre usuários e não usuários da contraceção de emergência
Castro, J. F. D. (Student). 20 Sept 2023
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis