Sexual health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors amongst South-Asian international students at the University of Central Oklahoma

Abstract

The lack of sexual health knowledge among international students is multi-dimensional and is impacted by culture, society, parental guidance, environment, migration, and belongingness to the new culture. The topics of concern include lack of knowledge regarding reproductive anatomy, safer sex, the concept of consensual sex, pregnancy, abortion, and many others. Engaging in risky sexual behavior is linked with the lack of knowledge and attitudes towards sexual health. The current study aims to explore the sexual health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of South-Asian international students at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO). Students for this study were recruited from the UCO international student pool. Students from India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal were asked to participate. Participants were asked to fill out the survey online through the Qualtrics system. A Kendall’s Tau-b correlation was run to determine the relationship between attitude and knowledge/behavior amongst 34 participants. There was a moderate, positive correlation between sexual health attitude and sexual health knowledge/behavior, which was statistically significant at (τb = 0.531, p = 0.043). The results coincide with the literature that better sexual health knowledge is correlated with less risky behavior and a positive attitude towards sex and sexual health. The results of this study will give a better understanding of the needs related to the sexual health of international students at UCO.