Gender differentials in reproductive Health Knowledge and Attitudes: Evidence from Secondary School Children, Sri Lanka

In many developing countries, adolescents’ reproductive health has given a significant attention and emphasized the lack of knowledge causes to experience higher risks of vulnerabilities. Gender is vital in determining quality of reproductive health especially accessing health education and services. We examine the gender differentials of knowledge and attitude towards reproductive health using data from 110 secondary school children in colombo district. The findings reveal that female students had better awareness on reproductive health education than their male counterparts. Furthermore, it revealed that friends and peers were more influential sources of obtaining reproductive health information than school teachers and parents irrespective of their gender and sector where they live. Attitudes on pre-marital sex show that urban students tend to favour premarital sexual relationships as a source of gaining experience irrespective of gender. Majority of students in all sectors had agreed that providing reproductive health knowledge is an essential and it need to be included as a subject in the school curriculum. These findings suggest that policies and programmes should be more focused on educating male students and also awareness programmes need to implement further for all students to address their issues.