Values and attitudes of midwifery and nursing students on gender inequality and adolescent sexuality

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate nursing and midwifery students’ values and attitudes towards adolescent sexuality, gender inequality, abortion and contraception.
Methods:  The cross-sectional, questionnaire survey was conducted in Edirne and Tekirdag Nursing and Midwifery Colleges, in May-2008. For questions on attitudes towards premarital sexual relations, abortion and contraception, students were presented with a number of statements to which they could respond by choosing: disagree, agree and ambivalent. The questionnaire was administered to the students in the classrooms under the supervision of the researchers.
Results:   Three hundred thirty eight midwifery and nursing students participated in the study. Findings displayed a general disapproval of adolescent pre-marital sexual relations and abortion but also an empathic attitude to young women, who bear the consequences of unwanted pregnancies and social condemnation.
Most of the students found pre-marital sex (67%), and abortion (53%), morally wrong. 91% of them thought a woman has not to bear the consequences of pre-marital sex alone. 84% of the students thought that the number of abortions among young unmarried women was rising in Turkey, but only 49 % of them agreed with the statement, “No pre-marital sex is the best solution to reduce the abortion among unmarried adolescents”.
Nearly all of the students (96%) disagreed to the statement that unmarried women asking for contraception are “bad girls” and 80 % viewed unmarried couples asking for contraception as showing responsibility.
Conclusion: Midwifery and nursing education should encourage value-reflective thinking gender inequality and ethical issues, and should prepare midwives and nurses to address adolescents’ reproductive health needs.