Adolescent reproductive health and gender role attitudes in Oman.
Author: Jaffer YA, Afifi MM.
Source:
Saudi medical journal, 26(2), 234.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate the attitudes of Omani
adolescents towards the different gender roles and women empowerment with regard
to taking household decisions, and to study how they influenced the adolescents'
knowledge and attitudes towards some reproductive health issues in a national
representative secondary schools-based sample of 1670 boys and 1675 girls.
METHODS: In 2001, through a self administrated questionnaire the adolescents
answered 2 indices; adolescents Attitudes Toward Gender Roles (ATGR) and
adolescents Attitudes Toward Women Empowerment (ATWE) in addition to answering
questions on demographic data, environmental factors, and questions assessing
their knowledge and attitudes towards reproductive health issues. RESULTS: High
scores of ATGR or ATWE were found to significantly predict sound adolescents'
reproductive health knowledge or positive attitudes in almost all the logistic
regression models. CONCLUSION: The study highlighted the scope of interventions
to be initiated for adolescents reproductive health. Changes in attitudes towards
gender role have to accompany our endeavors to set up the stage for our future
generation's reproductive health.