An Evaluation of the Effects of the American Dental Association's Dental Health Education Program on the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Health Locus of Control of High School Students

115 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1981.This study was initiated in response to the American Dental Association's interest in assessing and evaluating the revised (1980) Oral Health Teaching and Learning Program for secondary school students, grades 10-12. The purposes of the study were two-fold: (1) To devise valid and reliable assessment instruments to facilitate classroom measurement of cognitive achievement, affective change, and health locus of control. (2) To determine the effects of the ADA Level IV program on the knowledge, attitudes, and health locus of control of high school students.The subjects for this study included 81 students from two high schools in the pilot-test phase and an additional 460 students from seven high schools in the experimental phase. Both samples consisted of sophomore students enrolled in a one semester Health Education course. The ADA dental health program was taught by the regular classroom health teachers, in a two week time period, as part of a one semester health course.An 83 item Dental Knowledge and Attitude Survey was utilized to assess dental knowledge, dental attitudes, dental locus of control, and health locus of control. Construction of a Table of Specifications using Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives facilitated test construction. Readability tests were performed to assure adequacy of the survey for use with secondary school students.The research design for the study was an adaptation of the Solomon Four Group design. Analysis of the data consisted of a two-way analysis of variance (group vs. sex vs. test sequence vs. time) with repeated measures on the post-test and post post-test scores. Correlation analysis was also performed between dental knowledge, dental attitudes, dental locus of control, and health locus of control scores.The major findings of the study were: (1) The Dental Knowledge and Attitude Survey reflected the necessary psychometric properties and was judged to be valid by a panel of curriculum specialists employed by the American Dental Association. (2) Students exposed to the ADA Level IV curriculum demonstrated significantly higher dental knowledge scores than those students in the control group. (3) Students exposed to the ADA Level IV curriculum had slightly higher scores in dental attitudes, dental locus of control, and health locus of control than those students in the control group. The differences in scores were not, however, statistically significant. (4) There was a significant difference, by sex, in dental knowledge, dental attitudes, dental locus of control, and health locus of control, with females scoring higher than males. (5) "Pre-testing" had no significant effect on dental knowledge, dental attitudes, dental locus of control, and health locus of control. (6) Positive changes produced in dental knowledge and health locus of control were generally retained six weeks after the educational intervention. (7) There were low-to-moderate correlations between dental knowledge, dental attitudes, dental locus of control, and health locus of control.Based on the results of this study, it was concluded that the American Dental Association's 1980 Oral Health Teaching and Learning Program for secondary students is an innovative approach to curriculum design and has the potential for contributing to improved dental health teaching and learning.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD