Adolescence is a period of physical, emotional, and social development that represents the transition
from childhood toward adulthood. Adolescents therefore experience intense and vigorous physical
changes and an increased awareness of their own sexuality. They are also in a physical and mental
period of preparation to become a social being, and have a natural curiosity about sexual matters. To
satisfy their sexual curiosity, they obtain sexual information mostly from their friends and from
lascivious media, especially websites on the internet. Consequently, they obtain incorrect knowledge
and distorted sexual views. Moreover, adolescents in Korea, especially in the middle period of
adolescence, are much more tolerant and open about many aspects of sexual attitudes and behaviour.
They now engage in sexual relations at an earlier age as a result of the weakening of sexual morals and
materialism in Korean society. They are exposed to sexual risks such as unwanted pregnancy, abortion,
STDs, and HIV/Aids. It is therefore important for adolescents to be educated on sexual matters, and to
protect themselves against sexual risks. They should have accurate sexual knowledge to make critical
sexual decisions, and to form positive sexual attitudes to enhance sexual behaviour.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the sexual knowledge and attitudes towards sexuality of
adolescents in Korea, so as to compile a comprehensive programme in sexuality education and to
evaluate the influence of the comprehensive sexuality education programme on the knowledge and
attitudes of adolescents in Korea.
The Randomized Solomon four-group design was used as the method of this study. The selected sample
consisted of two groups for the experimental group and two groups for the control group, from two
randomly selected co-educated middle schools in Youngdo-gu in Busan, Korea. The experimental
group was exposed to the sexuality education programme, while the control group received reading
matter similar in content to the sexuality education programme, to reduce the Hawthorne effect.
A questionnaire was compiled by the researcher to evaluate adolescents' knowledge of and attitudes
towards sexuality. A comprehensive sexuality education programme was compiled based on the
literature.
The sexuality education programme consisted of fifteen sessions of 45 minutes each. A session was
presented each week for fifteen consecutive weeks. A questionnaire was used to collect data on two
occasions: one week before the programme was presented and again two weeks after the end of the
programme. The data was analysed by means of a frequency analysis, t-tests and correlations by using
the SPSS/PC Window 10.0 programme.
The results of the research indicated that the effect of the sexuality education programme obviously
increased the sexual knowledge adolescents and brought about a positive change in their sexual
attitudes.
It is therefore recommended that the sexuality education programme for adolescents with its
comprehensive content should be presented in an interactive style to learners by a skilful sexuality
education educator. The recommendations of this study focus on adolescents as the object of education,
the sexuality education programme, the educator and general recommendations. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/802 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Kang, Hye Sook |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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