Reproductive Health Knowledge and Educational Needs among Vocational High School Students: Associated Factors and Implications for School-Based Education

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-807-8_9How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Adolescent Reproductive health knowledge; Educational needs; Vocational students; School-based reproductive health education

Abstract

Background

Reproductive health knowledge during adolescence is essential for informed health decisions; however, access to structured education and opportunities to discuss reproductive health topics may vary among vocational high school students. Understanding students’ knowledge and perceived educational needs is therefore important for developing responsive school-based education. Objective: This study aimed to describe reproductive health knowledge and educational needs among vocational high school students and to examine factors associated with the perceived importance of school-based reproductive health education. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 354 tenth-grade students from two vocational high schools in Malang, East Java, Indonesia. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire assessing sociodemographic characteristics, reproductive health communication and educational exposure, perceived educational needs, and reproductive health knowledge. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s chi-square tests were used for analysis. Results: Reproductive health knowledge was predominantly moderate (52.8%), while 31.1% of students had good knowledge and 16.1% had poor knowledge. Overall, 80.5% considered reproductive health education at school important or very important. High perceived importance was more frequent among female than male students (86.6% vs. 69.1%; p<0.001), students who had previously discussed reproductive health (84.6% vs. 67.8%; p=0.002), and those previously exposed to reproductive health education (85.5% vs. 72.4%; p=0.011). High perceived importance increased from 57.8% among students with low discussion comfort to 95.9% among those with high comfort (p<0.001). Conclusion: Vocational students demonstrated moderate reproductive health knowledge but substantial educational needs. School-based reproductive health education should combine structured information with supportive and non-judgmental communication environments that facilitate comfortable discussion of sensitive topics.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Alifia Candra Puriastuti
AU  - Rizqie Putri Novembriani
AU  - Khamdan Mukharam
AU  - Rendra Dwicahya
AU  - Nuri Rizki Setiawan
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/24
TI  - Reproductive Health Knowledge and Educational Needs among Vocational High School Students: Associated Factors and Implications for School-Based Education
BT  - Proceedings of the Malang International Conference on Medical and Health Sciences (MICROMEDHS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 97
EP  - 110
SN  - 2468-5739
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-807-8_9
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-807-8_9
ID  - Puriastuti2026
ER  -