The Effectiveness of Sexual Education Focused on Cognitive Schemas, on the Improvement of Sexual Functioning among Female Married Students

Document Type : Original Quantitative and Qualitative Research Paper

Authors

1 MA in Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, School of Educational Science and Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

2 Assistant professor of Psychology, School of Educational Science and Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Background: Sexual relationship plays a decisive role in human’s health and it seems that sexual education can enhance the quality of sexual relationship.
Aim: Investigating the effectiveness of sexual education focused on cognitive schemas, on the improvement of sexual functioning of female married students.
Methods: This research was carried out semi-experimentally and a pretest-posttest designed control group was used. A total of 28 persons were selected and put into two groups. Sexual education was offered to the experimental group for eight 90-minute sessions. In both groups, the degree of sexual functioning was measured and registered before and after intervention using women’s sexual functioning index questionnaire (FSFI), and was analyzed with SPSS version 16 and t-test.
Results: T-test results showed significant relationship between the two groups in the overall scores of sexual functioning, sexual desire components, psychological arousal, moisture, orgasm and sexual satisfaction, in a way that in all cases the scores of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group (p<0.001). However, t-test reported no significant difference between the two groups in terms of sexual pain component
Conclusion: The present research demonstrated that sex education with focuse on cognitive schemas was an effective method for improving sexual functioning, and therefore, it is proposed that this matter should be taken into consideration by clinical therapists for enhancing the quality of couples’ relationships.

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