Opinions on marriage and reproductive health knowledge and requirements of the couples to be married

This study was conducted as a descriptive study to determine the opinions on marriage and reproductive health knowledge and requirements of the couples to be married. The study was conducted on the couples which reside in service boundaries of Çankaya Municipality in the city of Ankara and applied to Çankaya Municipality Vedat Dalokay Marriage Registry Office for getting married between 15 June and 25 September 2014. A total of 257 couples constituted sample of the study. The couples participated in the study were chosen with simple random sampling method. A data collection form developed in line with the relevant literature was used as a data collection tool. The data collection form consists of three sections. Section one includes socio-demographic characteristics, section two includes questions regarding opinions on marriage and section three includes questions regarding reproductive health/sexual health. Percentage, mean, standard deviation were used for data analysis, Mann-Whitney U test for two-group comparisons, Kruskall-Wallis test for three-group and multiple group comparisons, and correlation analysis or chi-square test of independence for relationships between variables. Statistical significance value was accepted as p < 0.05. Mean marriage age of the newly-wed individuals was 27.1±3.6 (min: 18, max: 35) for women and 29.1±3.2 (min: 20, max: 36) for men in the study. Most of the individuals were determined to have a university degree (77.2%) and an income-generating job (90.3%). The individuals defined the marriage as "sharing life" (83.1%) the most. The couples stated that they desire "sense of responsibility" (74.3%) in the person they got married in the first place. The individuals mentioned that they want to receive counseling service on learning about parenting, problem solving skill, conflict management, communication skills and reproductive health/sexual health in premarital counseling. The mean knowledge score on reproductive health/sexual health of the individuals participated in the study was found to be 44.6±20.7 (min:0, max:100). The knowledge score on reproductive health was observed to increase in line with the higher age group, level of education, working rate and income level and the knowledge score on reproductive health was lower in the couples which have not received premarital counseling, with fragmented family, those which decided an arranged marriage and which are children of consanguineous marriage with a statistical significance (p < 0.05). The study results indicate that receiving premarital counseling would increase knowledge on reproductive health/sexual health. Required suggestions were made in this regard based on the results obtained.