Pre-Service Teachers attitudes and knowledge concerning Sexual Health Education in the field of Special Education

Abstract

Keywords:Sexual Health Education, Special Needs, knowledge, attitudes, sexuality and disability.The objective of this study was to investigate the impact on knowledge and attitudes to sexuality, as well as the capability to teach sexual education topics, of a Sexual Health Education training program designed for pre-service teachers in the field of Special Education in Israel. The findings from the pre/ post investigation and the comparison with the control group (i.e. pre-service teachers that did not participate in the SHE training program) highlighted the impact of the background variables such as religiosity, age and marital status on the knowledge of SHE topics and attitudes towards sexuality and disability. Also, the findings indicate that there is a pervasive lack of knowledge of SHE in relation to persons with special needs among the pre-service teachers in Special Education in Israel. As knowledge and attitudes toward sexuality and disability vary between demographic groups, it is recommended that SHE training courses to be tailored to the participants needs, as well as to enable discussions and reflection on the challenges they may encounter. Zusammenfasung Schlüsselworte: Sexuelle Gesundheitserziehung, besondere Bedürfnisse, Wissen, Einstellungen, Sexualität und Behinderung. Ziel dieser Studie war es, die Auswirkungen auf das Wissen und die Einstellung zur Sexualität sowie die Fähigkeit, Themen der Sexualerziehung zu vermitteln, eines Trainingsprogramm zur sexuellen Gesundheitserziehung (SGE), das für werdende Lehrer im Bereich der Sonderpädagogik in Israel konzipiert wurde. Die Ergebnisse aus der Vor-/ Nachuntersuchung und dem Vergleich mit der Kontrollgruppe (d.h. werdende Lehrkräfte, die nicht am SGE-Schulungsprogramm teilgenommen haben) haben die Auswirkung der Hintergrundvariablen wie Religiosität, Alter und Familienstand auf das Wissen über SGE Themen und Einstellungen zu Sexualität und Behinderung, hervorgehoben. Die Ergebnisse deuten auch darauf hin, dass es unter den werdenden Lehrkräften für Sonderpädagogik in Israel einen allgegenwärtigen Mangel an Kenntnissen über SGE in Bezug auf Personen mit besonderen Bedürfnissen gibt. Da das Wissen und die Einstellungen zu Sexualität und Behinderung zwischen den Bevölkerungsgruppen unterschiedlich sind, wird empfohlen, SGU-Schulungen auf die Bedürfnisse der Teilnehmer abzustimmen und Diskussionen und Überlegungen zu den möglichen Herausforderungen zu ermöglichen.

Romanian And Hungarian Translations Of The Attitudes Toward Sexuality Scale - Psychometric Validation

“…The results of this study indicate that, at the psychometric level, the scales and subscales of the ATSS Questionnaire (Fisher & Hall, 1988), as amended by Gerchenovitch and Rusu (2019) of the Romanian and Hungarian versions had a good internal consistency, which shows that the versions can be used as psychometric tools to measure attitudes toward sexuality in two different populations. The results indicate that there are no significant differences between the two language versions, nor between their scales and subscales, which illustrates that the two language versions (Romanian and Hungarian) are linguistically equivalent.…”

“…The purpose of the study is to translate and adaptate the Attitudes Toward Sexuality Scale (ATSS, version for parents -16 items) in Romanian and Hungarian languages, to perfom a comparative analysis of the two scales, as well as the analysis of the validity of the scales on the Romanian and Hungarian speaking population. The decision to translate the ATSS scale (Fisher & Hall, 1988), as amended by Gerchenovitch and Rusu (2019), was based on the relevance of the content of the scale for further studies and on its good psychometric properties in another translated versions, e.g. Hebrew.…”

“…Nudist camps should be made completely illegal; Petting is immoral behavior, unless the couple is married; Prostitution should be legalized; Our government should try harder to prevent the distribution of pornography; Hugging and kissing someone of the opposite sex is a natural part of growing up). In this study we used the ATSS in the version completed with 8 items, as amended by Gerchenovitch and Rusu (2019). (Fisher & Hall, 1988) In order to adapt the Scale of Attitudes Toward Sexual Education (Fisher & Hall, 1988) in Romanian and Hungarian, we have carried out a translation procedure using the technique of retroversion (ITC Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests, 2018).…”

“…Sexual health education (SHE), although important for individuals and societies, is often difficult to be implemented in the context of disability, mostly due to the lack of knowledge regarding the approach in terms of providing sexual health education to this category of persons. In order to implement sexual education programs for people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), literature recommends that various individual and social factors should be taken into account, with particular attention given to parents regarding their attitudes and knowledge toward sexuality and sexual education, which are considered primary educators in terms of providing sexual health education to their children (Gerchenovitch & Rusu, 2019;Orji & Esimai, 2003).…”

“…https://doi.org/10. 15405/epes.23056.34 Corresponding Author: Roland H. Gergely Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference eISSN: 2672-815X 387 1988), as amended by Gerchenovitch and Rusu (2019) to measure attitudes toward sexuality prior and after the implementation of SHE programs. It can therefore be concluded that, on the basis of the results of this study, the two versions (Romanian and Hungarian) of the ATSS-M Questionnaire are linguistically and psychologically equivalent.…”