Perceived Self-Efficacy of Unwanted Pregnancy Prevention among Students in a University

Abstract

The objective of this cross sectional study was to explore the behavior and perceived self-efficacy of unwanted pregnancy prevention among first year students, University of Phayao. A questionnaire survey was collected from 360 participants by random selection from March to April, 2017; and the data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. The results showed that most of participants were female (85.8%). The GPA of the sample ranged from 2.01 to 3.00 and enough income with average 3,001- 5,000 bath. The respondents had a lover/boyfriend 61.10% and had sex experience 16.90%, more than half of participants used condoms of contraception, but 13.10% had never used contraceptive methods. Those who have had previously had sexually transmitted diseases, 3.30% had history of genital herpes. Friends had more influence on unwanted pregnancy than their relatives. Most of the samples received information about sex education from their teachers. The samples had high level of behavior and self-efficacy on unwanted pregnancy prevention (86.70% and 88.10%, respectively). Behavior issues included obedience to the instruction of their parents and teachers about sex, and thus in case they could not avoid having sex, they would use contraceptives such as condoms and oral contraceptive pills. The part of perceived self-efficacy issues included confidence about having a heterosexual partner without sex, and ensure that they could choose to honor and respect each other’s decisions. Therefore, a teacher should provide accurate information and education about sex education to students for promote correct perception as a way to solve problems and reduce the proportion of unwanted pregnancies.