AUTHOR=Almegewly Wafa , Hussein Rasha Mohammed , Khedr Mahmoud Abdelwahab 

TITLE=Exploring the attitudes and beliefs of Saudi female nursing students towards sexual healthcare: mixed method study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1513090

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2025.1513090

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=ObjectivesThis study aims to explore the attitudes and beliefs of Saudi female nursing students towards sexual healthcare.MethodsA mixed-methods research design was employed on a sample of 247 Saudi female undergraduate nursing students using a non-probability sampling technique that incorporated a combination of purposive and snowball sampling. The participants completed an online questionnaire covering sociodemographic characteristics and the Sexual Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (SABS), two open-ended questions asking about the reasons for denying sexual healthcare and related issues.ResultsThe study found that nursing students had a poor attitude towards discussing sexuality as essential to patients’ health outcomes, with a mean score of 2.3 (SD = 1.4). Correlational analyses revealed a significantly high positive correlation between age and year of the program (r = 0.828, p < 0.001), a significant but very low positive association between age and Grade Point Average (GPA) (r = 0.198, p = 0.046), and a significant negative correlation between the belief that “discussing sexuality is essential to patients’ health outcomes” and nursing students’ GPA (r = −0.173, p = 0.006).ConclusionThe exploration of Saudi female nursing students’ attitudes and beliefs towards sexual healthcare reveals a nuanced landscape where attitudes vary across different aspects of sexual health discussions.