Indirect Sexuality Education to Adolescent Girls Through Empowering Their Mothers

Background: Sexuality education is one of the most important educational needs for adolescents. Parents play a significant role in shaping healthy sexuality in adolescents. There is little evidence in Iran about sexuality education for empowering adolescences. Objectives: This study aimed at developing, implementing, and evaluating a training program for mothers to educate sexuality matters to their adolescent girls in Mahshahr, Iran. Patients and Methods: This field trial was conducted among 140 mothers with 12- to 18-year-old adolescent girls in Mahshahr during the second half of 2014. The multi-stratified sampling method was performed for determining the study participants. Data was collected by using “Parent-Child Relationship: Mother” and “Knowledge and Attitude About Sexuality Education to Adolescents” questionnaires. Based on the baseline results, an educational intervention for mothers was designed and implemented. Data were collected, analyzed, and compared before and three months after the intervention implementation. Means and standard deviations were calculated, and statistical analysis was performed using a paired t-test. A confidence interval of 95% with significance at P < 0.05 was used. Results: Compared with the pre-intervention phase, mothers’ awareness of sexual issues significantly increased from 30.00 to 36.50 (P < 0.001). While the mean score of attitudes towards sexuality education significantly increased from 46.65 to 48.57 (P < 0.001), no significant difference was observed between mothers’ communication skills before and after the educational intervention (P = 0.98). Conclusions: The designed educational program was an effective tool to improve the knowledge and attitudes toward sexuality matters in mothers. Thus, continuous and regular programs are required to improve communication skills in mothers.