Development and Validation of an Instrument to Measure Parental Attitude and Health Beliefs Toward Sexuality Education

The quality of sexuality education is significant in encouraging and expanding the knowledge of sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Parents’ attitudes and beliefs toward sexuality education contribute to the effectiveness of sexuality education in schools. Consequently, there is a need to provide...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSAGE Open Vol. 13; no. 1
Main Authors Yeo, Kee-Jiar, Lee, Shih-Hui
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.01.2023
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
SAGE Publishing
Subjects
Attitudes
Barriers
Beliefs
Education
Educational Benefits
Elementary School Students
Elementary schools
Foreign Countries
Measures (Individuals)
Parent Attitudes
Parents
Parents & parenting
Psychometrics
Reliability
School Activities
Self Efficacy
Sex Education
Sexuality
Social Cognition
Validity
Malaysia
exploratory factor analysis
sexuality education
confirmatory factor analysis
health belief model
parents
attitude
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Summary:The quality of sexuality education is significant in encouraging and expanding the knowledge of sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Parents’ attitudes and beliefs toward sexuality education contribute to the effectiveness of sexuality education in schools. Consequently, there is a need to provide a validated instrument to investigate parental attitude and beliefs toward school-based sexuality education. The objective of this study is to describe the development and test the psychometric properties of an instrument that measures the attitudes and beliefs of parents toward the implementation of sexuality education in primary schools within Malaysia. Items for the instrument in this study were developed through literature review via the deduction method. Data collection was conducted in two phases. The first phase involved 174 parents with children who were attending primary schools through convenience sampling. Then, the multistage sampling method was employed to collect data from 350 parents. Results from the exploratory factor analysis have identified four latent dimensions, which are attitude toward sexuality education, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and self-efficacy, that support the SRH learning among primary school children. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrates a good overall fit with the application of post hoc modifications. The results also indicate that the instrument has high internal consistency, as well as convergent and discriminant validity. Findings from this study have indicated that the instrument can be used as a valid and reliable measure to examine the attitudes and beliefs of parents toward sexuality education in primary schools within Malaysia.
ISSN:2158-2440
2158-2440
DOI:10.1177/21582440221139470