Family Life Education Programs and Student Attitudes.

Overview & Synopsis

Family Life Education/Sex Education promotes learning about human sexuality, interpersonal relationships, and personal development. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a Family Life Education course on students' knowledge of and attitude toward sex. Sixty grade 8 students from a low socio-economic neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois were sampled. Thirty students were randomly selected from those who participated in the Family Life Education Program and given a pretest prior to attending the course and a posttest upon course completion. Using the t-test with rotation group designs, a test was done on the scores of the pretest and posttest to determine if there was statistical significance. Differences in student scores were statistically significant at the .05 level of confidence. Data leads to the rejection of the null hypotheses and the acceptance of the research hypotheses: Eighth grade students taught sex education in the Family Life Education Program will be more knowledgeable of and have better attitudes towards sex. Additional research in this area is essential for the future prediction of the effectiveness of Family Life Education Programs and the effect it has on teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Contains 15 references. (JBJ)