Effects of Sex Education on Sex-Related Knowledge and Attitudes of Middle School Girls

성교육이 여자 중학생의 성지식과 성태도에 미치는 효과

The goal of this study is to discover the effect of sex education on sex-related knowledge and attitudes of middle school girls. Non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used. The number of experimental group students was 134 and the number of control group students was 134. A total of 268 second grade middle school girls were selected for a convenience sampling method. This study was carried out in a middle school located in Taegu City, Korea, from February 5 to February 18, 1998. To des cover the needs of sex education, the researcher sent a predesigned questionnaire to 1464 girls in 19 different middle schools. The sex education curriculum was designed on the basis of this survey's results. 'The Sex Education Teaching Plan' (published by the Research Institution of Korean School Health Education) and 'Sex and Happiness' (published by the Seoul City Education Ministry) were used to redesign the sex education curriculum and content. Fifty minute long sex education classes were taught to the experimental group every other day and the total number of classes was five. The contents of the teaching -learning plan for sex education were: 'The Characteristics of Adolescence', 'Pregnancy and Contraception', 'Friendship with the Opposite Sex and Prevention of Sexual Violence', 'Prevention of Venereal Disease', and 'Sex and Society'. To measure the degree of sex knowledge of the subjects, the researcher used the modified sex knowledge tools of Kim(l995) and Han(1997). The reliability values of these sex knowledge tools range from 0.71 to 0.74, using Cronbach's alpha. To measure the degree of sex attitude in the subjects, the researcher used the modified sex attitudes tools of Han(l997). The reliability values of these sex attitude tools range from 0.73 to 0.78 using Cronbach's alpha. The PC-SAS package program was used to analyse the data along with Frequency, Percentage, XLtest, t -test, and a paired t -test The results of this study were as follows; 1. The first hypothesis was accepted. The experimental group showed more change in sex - related knowledge than the control group(t =22. 76, p=0.0001). 2. The second hypothesis was accepted. The experimental group showed more change in sex-related attitudes than the control group (t=11.91, p=0.0001). In conclusion, the level of sex-related knowledge and sex-related attitudes of middle school girls who received sex education was higher than that of the girls who did not receive sex education. According to this research, planned sex education was effective in forming accurate knowlege and appropriate attitudes related to sex. Clearly, we must carry out a well-designed step by step sex education program that is well-suited to the sex education needs and the developmental level of the students.