Psychometric characteristics of a sexuality education survey for teachers of secondary school students with learning disabilities in Malaysia

Abstract

Delivery of sexuality education to secondary school students in Malaysia started since 1989. However, this area of education was neglected for secondary students with learning disabilities. Therefore, in order to explore their needs for sexuality education, society's perceptions especially teachers’ towards this matter should be considered. To achieve this objective, it is important to conduct a needs analysis on teachers’ perceptions towards this topic. An instrument with good psychometric properties is needed to obtain consistent and reliable information. This paper describes the development and psychometric testing of the Sexuality Education Survey for Teachers of Secondary School Students with Learning Disabilities (SES). SES showed acceptable content validity, construct validity, and achieved satisfactory reliability. The instrument also has good stability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.95) to be adopted as an instrument for analysing the health and sexuality education needs of secondary students with learning disabilities in Malaysia.