Sexual development and training of pre-school children: Knowledge and attitudes of family physician and paediatric research assistants

ABSTRACT Sexual Development and Training of Pre-school Children: Knowledge and Attitudes of Family Physician and Paediatric Research Assistants Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge levels and attitudes of family physician and paediatric research assistants about pre-school children's sexual development and training and to present the needs for training. Material and Method: The population of this cross-sectional study consisted of research assistants who were receiving speciality training on family medicine (n=106) and paediatrics (n=104) in two different institutions in the province of Adana between December 2019 and January 2020. The questionnaire form of 52 questions which was developed by the researchers by reviewing the literature was used as the data collection tool. To determine the knowledge level, the responses given by the participants to the 30 expressions about the sexual development/training of the children as correct/wrong/no idea were evaluated. To determine the attitudes, the responses to 12 situations with five options which were questioning that should be followed for some sexual behaviour of the children were evaluated. Results: The average age of the participants was 29.7±4.8 (23-54) years and 63.8% of them were female. 69.8% of the participants stated that they did not receive any training about sexual education and 87.9% of them expressed that they needed training on this issue. 88.4% of the participants said that they encountered with questions about sexual development and 25.6% of them stated that they never started a topic about sexual development of the children in the patient interviews. The average of correct answers to the expressions evaluating the knowledge about sexual development of children was above medium level, and the average of correct answers given to the statements evaluating the attitude was found to be below the medium level. In this section which evaluates the knowledge, the average of correct answers was found to be high (p = 0.042), while there was no statistically significant difference between the participants who received and who did not receive training. No statistically significant difference was found between departments and institutions in terms of the average of correct answers. Conclusion: The students who were completing their speciality on family medicine and paediatrics have training needs on the sexual development / education of preschool children. It is recommended that commissions working on curriculum and administrators about programs to be aware of this situation and they should take steps in planned trainings about the management of normal / problematic sexual behaviours in children. Key words: Family physician, Sexual education, Pediatrics, Psycho-sexual development