California parents' preferences and beliefs regarding school-based sex education policy.

CONTEXT: Policy debates over the merits of abstinence-only versus comprehensive approaches to sex education are ongoing, despite well-documented public support for comprehensive sex education. Although parents are key stakeholders in the outcomes of these debates, their views have been less thorough...

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Publicado en:Perspectives on Sexual & Reproductive Health Vol. 39; no. 3; pp. 167 - 176
Autores principales: Constantine NA, Jerman P, Huang AX
Formato: research Journal Article
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell Sep2007
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: California parents' preferences and beliefs regarding school-based sex education policy.
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        au:
          Constantine NA
          Jerman P
          Huang AX
        affil: Center for Research on Adolescent Health and Development, Public Health Institute, Oakland, CA
      sug:
        subj:
          Consumer Satisfaction
          Organizational Policies
          Parents Psychosocial Factors
          Schools
          Sex Education
          Adult
          California
          Female
          Interviews
          Male
          Middle Age
          Odds Ratio
          Human
          Adult: 19-44 years
          Middle Aged: 45-64 years
          Female
          Male
      ab: CONTEXT: Policy debates over the merits of abstinence-only versus comprehensive approaches to sex education are ongoing, despite well-documented public support for comprehensive sex education. Although parents are key stakeholders in the outcomes of these debates, their views have been less thoroughly considered. METHODS: A random digit dial survey of 1,284 California parents was conducted in 2006. Parents were asked about their sex education policy preferences, the importance of teaching selected topics at different grade levels and reasons for their preferences. Cross-tabulations and odds ratios were used to assess regional and other subgroup differences. RESULTS: Overall, 89% of parents reported a preference for comprehensive sex education, and 11% for abstinence-only education. Support for comprehensive sex education was high in all regions (87-93%) and across all subgroup characteristics: race or ethnicity (79-92%), age (86-94%), education (84-93%), household income (87-92%), religious affiliation (86-91%), religious service attendance (69-96%) and ideological leaning (71-96%). Four types of reasons for preferences emerged: those focused on the consequences of actions, on the importance of providing complete information, on the inevitability of adolescents' engaging in sex and on religious or purity-based morality concerns. While 64% of abstinence-only supporters cited the last type (absolutist reasons), 94% of comprehensive sex education supporters cited one of the first three (pragmatic reasons). CONCLUSIONS: The high levels of support for comprehensive sex education across California's diverse regions and demographic subgroups suggest that such support may be generalizable to communities and school districts both in California and around the country. Furthermore, ideological differences might be less important to the sex education debates than the distinction between pragmatic and absolutist perspectives.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
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        Journal Article
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    language: English
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