A study on the influentials of knowledge gap
Suh, M.H.; Hong, M.S.
In'gu Pogon Nonjip 5(2): 19-30
1985
PMID: 12340810 Document Number: 421658
This study investigates the influence of structural and functional characteristics on the knowledge gap of family planning and sex information in unmarried female workers. In explaining the knoledge gap, structural variables, such as age, education, and economic status, as well as functional variables, such as salience, the are regarded as independent variables, while seeking exposure to related information is regarded as a mediating variable. Using 1983 data collected by the Korea Instituted for Population and Health for a study on knowledge and attitudes on population and sex among unmarried female workers, the topics of family planning and sex informaton are discussed. Results show that age, education, salience, and seeking exposure have significant effects on the difference of group means on family planning and sex knowledge; only economic variables show no relations at all. A multiple regression analysis, using a path model, shows that education and salience explain 32% of the variance in seeking exposure. In explaining reproductive physiological knowledge, exposure explains 29% of the variance, while education explains 4%. Salience and age do not explain anything. In contraceptive knowledge seeking exposure explains 26% of the variance, followed by salience at 5%. The knowledge gap on physiology forms structurally, while the knowledge gap on contraceptive use forms functionally. Overall, education and salience determine seeking exposure level, and this affects the knowledge level. Therefore, family planning and sex education through schools or institutional education must be strengthened; before the unmarried female worker becomes too involved in the opposite sex, enough information to have a healthy social life must be learned.