Scheduled for Health I Free Communications, Thursday, April 1, 2004, 7:30 AM - 8:30 AM, Convention Center: 208


Students' Sexual Knowledge and Attitudes

Jean Claude Martin1, Jennifer Y. Mak1 and Bart Cagle2, (1)Marshall University, Huntington, WV, (2)Augusta State University, Augusta, GA

The purpose of the study was to identify and examine: 1) students' sexual knowledge, sexual attitude, and their main source of sexual knowledge; 2) the differences between variables of gender, age, and self-perceived sexual knowledge in relation to sexual knowledge and sexual attitude; and 3) the relationship between sexual knowledge and sexual attitude. We noticed much disagreement in the current literature about these matters and we decided to conduct a survey to better clarify these important issues. The adapted Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex test (Reinisch & Beasley, 1990) was used to determine sexual knowledge and the Insel/Roth, Core Concepts in Health (2002) questionnaire was employed to assess students' sexual attitude. Survey method and stratified random sampling were adopted for data collection. Participants were 201 college students at a Mid-Atlantic university which consisted of 101 males and 100 females, were mainly undergraduates (94.5%), white (87.5%), between the ages of 20-22 (60%) with an age range of 17 to 46. The data were analyzed by using descriptive analyses, factorial analyses, chi-square, and Pearson correlation. The students achieved a mean score of 83% on the sexual knowledge test with all (100%) students having either an ambivalent or progressive/open-minded attitude toward sex as opposed to a traditional view of human sexuality. The top two sources of students' sexual knowledge came from friends (39.8%) and personal experience (36.3%). There were no significant differences in sexual knowledge between males and females, between younger and older students, and how students mainly obtained their sexual knowledge. Results indicated that a significant difference was found between students' self-perceived sexual knowledge and their actual sexual knowledge test scores [F (190) = 3.381, p<.05]. Students who rated themselves as having excellent sexual knowledge achieved the highest test score (M = 10.8). There was no significant difference, however, between students who rated themselves as good or average in sexual knowledge to their actual sexual knowledge test score. A significant difference was also found between male and female students in their sexual attitude [F(190) = 8.646, p<.05]. Female students (M = 43.57) were significantly more progressive/open-minded than male students (M = 40.19) in their sexual attitude. In addition, results showed a significant relationship between sexual knowledge and sexual attitude (r2=0.045, p<.05). We would like to further explore why females were more progressive/open-minded than males and why there was a significant relationship between sexual attitude and sexual knowledge.
Keyword(s): health promotion, student issues, wellness/disease prevention

Back to the 2004 AAHPERD National Convention and Exposition