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Expectations clash against reality, as a group of boys grow up in 21st Century suburbia.

This dissertation used qualitative methods to gain a richer understanding of the dynamics of swinging relationships. Swinging was defined at the onset of the study as sexual activities that married couples engage in with people other than their spouse. Fourteen people (seven couples) volunteered and were interviewed to gain information about what meaning they assign to their sexual practices, and how they experienced intimacy and power in their relationships. Also included was a distinction between the secrecy and privacy practiced by swingers. Symbolic interactionism and social constructionism provide the theoretical frameworks the study. Computer mediated communication was used to conduct the interviews. Analysis of the data revealed three themes: swinging is only for committed couples, the reinforcement of heteronormative ideals, and a reconstruction of the meaning of fidelity. / Ph. D.

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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of this study was to determine the level of parental support for school-based sexuality education in a Colombian international school and discover the most popular method, among parents, for teaching the subject, whether through a comprehensive, abstinence-only, or abstinence plus approach. Another objective was to determine parental support for the teaching of specific topics in the sexuality education curriculum and identify the age levels that parents felt were appropriate for the introduction of those topics. A third goal was to find out how parents viewed themselves as sexuality educators in the home and how they perceived their peers. In order to determine the attitudes of parents regarding school-based sexuality education, a parent survey was conducted. The first section of the survey presented parents with a variety of scenarios related to three different approaches to school-based sexuality education. The parents selected the approach that best reflected their views and attitudes toward the subject and most appropriately presented the material to students. The second section of the survey offered parents an array of sexuality education topics and asked them to choose the appropriate age level for the introduction of each topic into the sexuality education curriculum. The third section of the survey asked parents to evaluate themselves and their peers as sexuality educators in the home. Parents were also asked to list three activities in which they enjoyed participating with their children. The research indicated that of the 206 parents surveyed, 49% supported a comprehensive approach to sexuality education, 40% backed an abstinence-plus approach, and 3% supported an abstinence-only approach. Parental support was given for the inclusion of a wide variety of topics in the sexuality education curriculum, with most of the subjects being introduced at the middle school level. Most parents viewed themselves as effective sexuality educators in the home, while criticizing their peers for not having the same open communication with their own children. Chi-square tests of significance revealed correlations between parental gender, frequency of church attendance, and preference for a specific approach to sexuality education. / 2999-01-01

Master of Science / Department of Programs in General Human Ecology / Karen S. Myers-Bowman / The alarming incidence of sex-related health problems among American adolescents has health educators searching for effective curricula-based programs aiming at behavioral changes. Such desire and urgent need to find or create programs and curricula that work have generated different approaches, philosophies, and educational strategies. However, this also may have produced a number of programs that have not benefited from a careful and thorough evaluation: neither evaluation of content, message, and cognitive and/or behavioral effect. The focus of this paper is on the curricula utilized in sexuality health programs in middle and high schools. Questions arise about the impact of these programs. Currently, abstinence-based programs are the only ones funded by the government. Research data does not convincingly show that abstinence-only sexuality education significantly decreases the number of adolescents engaging in sexual intercourse prior to marriage. This paper attempts to review current research about abstinence and comprehensive curricula. I begin by discussing the different approaches and their supporters. The importance of adolescent development and theory will be incorporated into my review. Effectiveness of each approach, as well as evaluation studies will be examined. From this review, I composed my own assessment of one abstinence-based curriculum and one comprehensive based curriculum.

In this study, construction of sexuality has been studied among middle class, educated women who are living considered &#039 / normal&#039 / , in a social structure assumed where sexuality from one side is talked about a lot and from another full of unknowns about perceptions and experiences. Certain conclusions were derived on construction of women sexuality following the interviews performed with twenty nine women whose ages vary from twenties to fifties.

Sexuality protocol regulates rights and obligations of social services providers, their employees and users. The aim of the diploma thesis was to confirm or disprove an existence of sexuality protocols or documents with an identical meaning in chosen social service facilities in the South Bohemian Region, to analyze found documents and to realize interviews with selected social workers. The diploma thesis contains a theoretical and research parts. In the theoretical part the author deals with a definition of a human sexuality, sexual norms and functions, as well as a person with a disability in terms of his rights for the sexuality, characteristics of their development and ultimately social services in the context of a fulfilment of human rights of the person with a disability to experience his sexuality. The research of the diploma thesis consisted of a preliminary research and the research itself. The preliminary research was realized as a public inquiry investigation. The researched was designed with a regard to the infrequent and unexplored topic, a qualitative form with an application of methods of content analysis of documents and interviews, more precisely using a technique of depth semi-structured interviews. Based on the performed research 4 sexuality protocols or documents of the identical meaning were analyzed in the target group of the social services providers. The analysis showed a diverse representation of coherent themes in the found protocols in comparison with a model sexuality protocol, which has been described in the professional literature. Further the author shows considerable differences in an internal structure of the coherent themes in the documents themselves which leads to a distorted reporting, particularly in a field of the parenthood for people with mental and multiple disabilities. Based on the analysis of the model document, the author proposes a fixed structure of the various protocol topics for an objective and balanced form of the protocols. The experience of the social workers with the sexuality protocol can be summarized in three basic lines: an indispensable cooperation of the management and direct care workers in developing the sexuality protocol, a sense of the securing in the work with a sexuality of the users as a benefit of the protocol for the employees and a change of an approach to the users in terms the organization and employees.