Objective:

The present study has two objectives: 1) Identify the relationship between knowledge about sexual health and reproductive health, and two personal factors (i.e. sex and age) of enrolled adolescents in school.

2) Establish a prediction model to estimate knowledge about sexual and reproductive health of enrolled adolescents who have not initiated a sexual coital life; for this purpose, the sex and age of the participants in the study will be taken into account.

Materials and Methods:

This is a correlational descriptive study conducted with 385 students from 12 to 19 years old from Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. The applied instrument evaluated some personal data; The Scale of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices in Sexual and Reproductive Health was also used: here only the category “Knowledge”41 was considered, specifically its dimensions about Sexual Health and Reproductive Health. Descriptive statistics, Chi square tests (χ²), Pearson’s correlations and multiple linear regression were performed, with a 95% confidence interval.

Results:

A relation was found between sex and knowledge about sexual health (χ² = 74.57, p = .022), as well as between age and general knowledge (r = .382, p < .001). Regarding the prediction models of this study, age was shown to be a predictor for both sexual health (β = .571, p < .001) and reproductive health (β = .602, p < .001); however, the R squares obtained with the prediction models indicate that it is essential to take into account other multilevel predictors, as proposed by the Ecological Model, given that such models explain less than 70% of the variance in this study.

Conclusions:

It is possible to conclude that knowledge about sexual health and reproductive health cannot be predicted based on age and sex alone. The results also show that many participants seem to lack essential knowledge to differentiate between safe and risky sexual behavior. Therefore, it is critical to implement educative actions to guarantee comprehensive sexual education, in line with different national and international recommendations.

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