J Korean Community Nurs.  2004 Jun;15(2):246-254.

College Students' Understanding of Elderly's Sexual Life

• Lee IS

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was to measure college students' understanding of elderly's sexual life. METHOD: For this study, questionnaires were distributed to 423 students in 'K' college of Chungcheongbuk-do during the period from November 17 to December 3 2003. RESULT: With regard to elderly 's sexual life, 38.5% of the respondents answered 'very important' or 'important'. With regard to disturbances of elderly's sexual life, 56.7% of the respondents answered 'because of aging', and 53.4% answered 'because of social and moral dignity'. Of the respondents, 95.0% agreed on elderly's acquaintance with the opposite sex, and 50.8% of respondents who agreed on it answered that the reason of elderly's acquaintance with the opposite sex was to get friends. The score of college students' understanding of elderly 's sexual life was 2.64 out of 4 points. Among the areas in the questionnaire on understanding of elderly 's sexual life, college students' attitude toward sexual life showed the highest score. The score of the necessity of education and counseling for elderly on sexuality and acquaintance with the opposite sex was 3.11 out of 4 points. Of the respondents, 84.4% agreed on education and counseling on sexuality for elderly, and 90.0% agreed on education and counseling on acquaintance with the opposite sex for elderly. There were statistically significant differences in the scores of college students' understanding of elderly's sexual life according to their grade(F=14.241, p=.000), major(t=4.751, p=.000) and sexual attitudes(F=5.395, 0=.005).
CONCLUSION
The survey result suggests that college students have open-hearted understanding of elderly's sexual life. But to make ordinary people accept elderly's sexual life more open-heartedly, it is necessary to develop various education and counseling programs for elderly's sexual health.

MeSH Terms

Aged
Chungcheongbuk-do
Counseling
Surveys and Questionnaires
Education
Friends
Humans
Reproductive Health
Sexuality