PERCEPTIONS OF STUDENTS AT PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS AND ISLAMIC HIGH SCHOOLS IN SERANG CITY ON THE USE OF CONTRACEPTIVES

Abstract

This study aims to determine the perceptions of public high school and Islamic high school students in Serang City regarding the use of contraceptives and to identify whether there are differences in perception between the two groups. The study employed a quantitative approach by distributing questionnaires to 99 respondents from public high schools and Islamic high schools in Serang City. The research instrument measured perceptions based on three aspects according to Walgito, namely cognitive, affective, and conative. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, validity tests, reliability tests, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test, and the Mann-Whitney U test using IBM SPSS. The results showed that respondents’ perceptions of contraceptive use were generally in the positive/fairly good category, with an overall mean score of 64.56 and a standard deviation of 11.82. The research instrument demonstrated high reliability, with a Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.950. The normality test yielded a significance value of 0.008 (<0.05), indicating that the data are not normally distributed. The Mann-Whitney test yielded a U value of 628.500 with an Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) of 0.735 (>0.05). Thus, there was no significant difference in perceptions between students at public high schools (SMA) and public Islamic high schools (MA) in Serang City. The findings indicate that basic knowledge and acceptance of reproductive health education are already quite good; however, understanding of government regulations and openness to discussions regarding contraceptives still need to be strengthened.