Abstract:
Students at the lower secondary level are in the transition period from early childhood
to adolescence. Sexual health literacy is important for appropriate sexual behavior. This research
aimed to study the relationship between sexual health literacy and sexual behavior of middle
female students at the lower secondary level. Participants consisted of 145 female students aged
13-16 years and were studying at the lower secondary education in Phanat Nikhom District,
Chon Buri province. They were selected in the study by using a simple random sampling
technique. Data collection was conducted in June, 2018. The instruments used to collect data were
self-report questionnaires on sexual health literacy and sexual behavior. Cronbach s alphas of
questionnaires were .84 and .91 respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and
Spearman's rank correlation coefficients.
The results found that overall sexual health literacy was at a moderate level (M = 100.39,
SD = 13.39). Overall sexual behavior was at very good level (M = 97.41, SD =5.09). There was
not significant the relationship between overall sexual health literacy and sexual behavior.
However, when considering each dimension it was found that the decision-making aspect had
a moderate positive correlation with sexual behavior (rs= .324, p<.001).
The results of this research suggest that nurses and other stakeholders in the school
should develop a program to promote sexual health literacy with emphasis on the decisionmaking aspect for teenagers so that they can have appropriate sexual behaviors.