knowledge, attitude and self-efficacy towards providing sexual counselling among students doing the master of counseling in midwifery program in iran

Background & aim: midwives play an essential role in sexual counseling. thepresent study aimed to measure knowledge, attitude and self-efficacy towardsproviding sexual counseling among students doing the master of counseling inmidwifery program in iran.methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted on 148 midwifery studentsdoing the master of counseling in midwifery, who selected via conveniencesampling from universities across the country. data collection was carried outusing a researcher-made questionnaire including demographic characteristics,knowledge of sexual counseling (ksh), attitude towards sexual counseling (ash),and self-efficacy to do sexual counseling (sesh) in 2021. data analysis was doneusing the student t-test, pearson correlation test, and anova using spss ver. 25.results: mean and standard deviation of the total score was 74.67 ±12 forknowledge, 80.8 ±76.98 for attitude, and 81 ± 16 for self-efficacy. management ofvictims of sexual assault and counseling models had the lowest score on theknowledge scale. students had poor self-efficacy when providing sexual counselingto the men and sexual minorities. there was a significant relationship betweenknowledge and attitude towards sexual counseling (p<0.001) a significantrelationship was also seen between knowledge and attitude with self-efficacy ofsexual counseling (p <0.001).conclusion: despite the optimal status of the overall sexual counseling knowledge,attitude, and self-efficacy scores, students still have low levels of competency insexual counseling. it is necessary to improve the proficiency of students tocommunicate effectively with male clients, victims of rape, and sexual minoritiesthrough curriculum revision in terms of both theoretical and clinical issues.