Sources of sex education as a function of sex, coital activity, and type of information

Abstract

Previous studies of the sources of sex education are reviewed and critically analyzed. Most previous studies have examined the limited issue of which source of sex education is most important, examined the sources of only a few sexual topics, or used inadequate methodology. In the present study, more adequate data regarding the relative contributions of parents, schools, reading, and peers to information about each of 35 different sexual topics were obtained from a sample of 232 male and female, coitally experienced or inexperienced, midwestern college students. Individual reading and peers were the highest rated sources overall and on most of the subcategories of items. Schools were highly rated sources for topics related to the anatomy and physiology of sex and venereal disease. Coitally experienced (CE) individuals reported receiving more information overall than coitally inexperienced (CIE) individuals. However, contrary to previous speculations, CE and CIE individuals did not differ in the amount of information received from parents. Instead, CE individuals received more information through reading and from peers than did CIE individuals. Consistent with previous findings, amount of information received from parents correlated negatively with performance on a sexual knowledge test. Comparison of the present results with previous research suggested a developmental hypothesis, namely that as individuals develop from early adolescence to young adulthood and become more sexually active, individual reading becomes a more important source of sexual information.