Sexuality attitudes of Iowa secondary teachers

Two inventories to assess sexuality attitudes were developed. The first assessed attitudes toward teaching sexuality education; the second, attitudes toward sexuality. The inventories were used to determine sexuality attitudes of Iowa-high-school-home-economics teachers. Also examined were relationships among these attitudes, selected demographic variables, and the degree to which 25 sexuality topics were taught;A purposive sample of Iowa-vocational-high-school-home-economics teachers was used. The first inventory had 191 responses, and the second had 225. Most respondents (85%) completed both inventories;Analysis of data included: (1) factors extracted using the principal components method and rotated by the Varimax procedure, (2) factor reliability estimates using Cronbach\u27s alpha, (3) mean factor scores, (4) mean scores for the degree to which 25 sexuality topics were taught, and (5) correlation coefficients among factor scores, demographic variables, and the degree to which 25 sexuality topics were taught;Factors for the Attitudes Toward Teaching Human Sexuality inventory were Personal Preparedness, and School and Community Influences. Factors for the Human Sexuality Questionnaire were Personal Sexuality Feelings, Sexual Behavior Code, and Body Image. All factors except one had reliabilities of .64 or above;The sexuality topics most emphasized were values clarification, prenatal care, adolescent social development, and birth control. The topics least emphasized were masturbation, self-examination of breasts and testicles, homosexuality, and rape;Teachers felt very competent to teach sexuality education, but perceived only limited school-district support for the inclusion of sexuality education in curriculum. They felt positive about their own sexuality, tended to be more liberal than traditional in their sexual-behavior codes, and perceived themselves as being individualistic in their feelings for what is desirable body image. Teachers felt most competent to teach sexuality education if they assessed their own sexuality education as adequate, felt positive about their own sexuality, and perceived themselves as having more liberal than traditional-sexual-behavior codes