Sexuality Research in Iran: A Focus on Methodological and Ethical Considerations

BACKGROUND:

Research on sensitive topics, such as sexuality, could raise technical, methodological, ethical, political, and legal challenges. The aim of this paper was to draw the methodological challenges which the authors confronted during sexuality research with young population in the Iranian culture.

METHODS:

This study was an exploratory mixed method one conducted in 2013-14. We interviewed 63 young women aged 18-34 yr in qualitative phase and 265 young women in quantitative phase in (university and non-university) dormitories and in an Adolescent Friendly Center. Data were collected using focus group discussions and individual interviews in the qualitative phase. We employed conventional content analysis to analyze the data. To enhance the rigor of the data, multiple data collection methods, maximum variation sampling, and peer checks were applied.

RESULTS:

Five main themes emerged from the data: interaction with opposite sex, sexual risk, sexual protective, sex education, and sexual vulnerability. Challenges while conducting sex research have been discussed. These challenges included assumption of promiscuity, language of silence and privacy concerns, and sex segregation policy.

CONCLUSION:

We described the strategies applied in our study and the rationales for each strategy. Strategies applied in the present study can be employed in contexts with the similar methodological and moral concerns.

Table 1:

The process of extracting risky sexual behaviors theme

Theme	Sub-themes	Cods	Units of meanings
Risky sexual behaviors	Multi-partner-ship	Engaging in sexual behaviors with more than one person in order to: - Select the best one - Keep one of them for the future	“Sometimes, I had more than one boyfriend; I experienced sexual behaviors with both of them. My goal was to select and keep one of them in my life.”
	Casual relation-ship	- Unplanned sexual relationships - Inability to reject sexual behaviors	“In some of my relationships, I engaged in unplanned sexual relationships; for example, last year, I participated in a party and met a cool guy. Sexual relationships happened in the first meeting and I could not resist it.”
	Lack of contraception use	Lack of perceived risk of pregnancy because of: - Low frequency of sexual intercourse - Vaginal douche after each intercourse	“I did not use contraception because I thought I would not become pregnant because we had intercourse not frequently and I washed my vagina after each intercourse.”
	Lack of condom use	Lack of condom use because of fear of Lose of confidence	“I could not tell my boyfriend to use condom because I think he will miss his confidence to me or he think I have a sexual disease.”

Table 2:

Themes and sub-themes of premarital sexual behaviors

Themes	Sub-themes
Interaction with opposite sex
	Social friendship
	Intimate relationship
Sexual risk
	Risky sexual behaviors
	Risky sexual factors
Sexual protective
	Protective sexual behaviors
	Protective sexual factors
Sex education
	Sex education effects
	Sex education barriers
	Sex education principles
	Sex education content
	Organizations for sex education
Sexual vulnerability
	Reasons for sexual vulnerability
	Strategies for preventing sexual vulnerability

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/MZZgUg

By:  Rahmani A1, Merghati-Khoei E2, Moghaddam-Banaem L1, Zarei F3, Montazeri A4, Hajizadeh E5.

• 1Dept. of Midwifery & Reproductive Health, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
• 2Iranian National Center of Addiction Studies (INCAS); the Risk Behavior Institution. Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
• 3Dept. of Health Education, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
• 4Mental Health Research Group, Health Metrics Research Center, Iranian Institute for Health Sciences Research, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
• 5Dept. of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. 

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