Asia-Pacific E-Journal of Health Social Science https://sites.google.com/site/asiapacificejournalofhss/.
June 2012. Volume 1, Number 1. All rights reserved. ISSN 2244-0240
Research Article
Sexuality Education in Grade School:
Are Parents Receptive and Are Teachers Ready?
Margareth A. Cabreros
Department of Behavioral Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines, Manila, megcabreros@gmail.com
This study assessed the level of receptiveness of parents and the level of readiness of teachers and the
associations of these levels with socio-demographic characteristics. Attitude towards sexuality education was
also examined. Using a self-administered questionnaire, a survey was undertaken among 104 parents and 104
teachers from 5 selected grade schools in Metro Manila, the Philippines. Descriptive and correlation analyses
were performed. The overwhelming majority of parents and teachers viewed sexuality education positively. For
example, most (72% of parents and 86% of teachers) agreed that sexuality education is an important subject for
school children; and 55% of parents and 70% of teachers agreed that it should be implemented in school. Both
parents and teachers were found to have a moderate to high level of receptiveness and readiness, respectively,
with no apparent differences based on gender. Income level was associated with the level of receptiveness of
parents, while age, civil status and type of school were associated or had significant trends with the level of
teacher readiness.
KEYWORDS: sexuality education, parents, teachers, readiness, receptiveness, Philippines
INTRODUCTION
The Philippine population has risen steadily. In 2010, the country’s
population was estimated at 97. 9 m il li on ( annual growth rate:
1.97%). In terms of fertility rate, 3 children are born to every woman
(Central Intelligence Agency, 2010). On average, six children are
born to women belonging to lower socio-economic groups (National
Statistics Office, 2006).
lack of accurate knowledge stemming from having limited access to
sexual and reproductive health services can be rectified. The
Filipino youth need sound and accurate information to protect
themselves from early sexual activity, early marriage, unwanted
pregnancies, STI gender-based violence, and risky social behaviors
(UNICEF, 2012).
The population of the Philippines is young—more than a fifth
are aged 15-24 years (UNICEF, 2012). Prevalence of premarital
sexual activity among this group increased from 18% in 1994 to
23% in 2002 (UNICEF, 2012). Recently, there is much concern
about the number of sexually transmitted infections (STI) among the
youth (Lentzner & Pamuk, 2002). Over three years, a 10-fold
increase in STI among the 15-24 age group was reported—41
cases in 2007 to 489 in 2010 (DOH, 2010). UNICEF (2012)
explained that their infections are due to their sexual activity,
coupled with their lack of awareness of these diseases and of
preventive measures, such as condom use. Along with STI,
unintended and unwanted pregnancies that often result in illegal
and unsafe abortions (Lentzner & Pamuk, 2002) are also common
among local adolescents. At least 6.3% of those aged 15-19 have
already begun childbearing (DOH, 2010).
Sexuality education is the process of acquiring information and
forming attitudes and beliefs about sex, sexual identity,
relationships and intimacy (Avert, 2009). It includes developing
young people's skills so that they make informed choices about
their behavior, and they feel confident and competent about acting
on these choices; that is, able to distinguish accurate from
inaccurate information, and to discuss a range of moral and social
issues on sex and sexuality, including sexuality, pregnancy,
contraception, abortion and STI (Avert, 2009).
In various parts of the world, sexuality education is seen as a
solution to addressing young people’s sexual activity and its lifelong consequences (Ortuoste, 2010). With sexuality education, the
Evidence shows that comprehensive sexuality education can
assist young people in their transition from adolescence to
adulthood (Boonstra, 2007). However, despite the clear and
pressing need for effective school-based sexuality education, the
intervention is seldom, or only weakly, implemented. Some sectors
oppose the move due to their limited knowledge about the nature,
purpose and effects of sexuality education, and to their reluctance
brought about by their lack of confidence and skills to carry it out
(UNESCO, 2009).
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Asia-Pacific E-Journal of Health Social Science: Sexuality Education in Grade School: Are Parents Receptive and Are Teachers Ready?
Finger (2000) and Haignere & Culhane (1996) agreed that a
successful sexuality education program rests on the expertise of the
teachers—their knowledge, skills and attitudes would help
determine adolescent responses and actions. However, despite the
availability of comprehensive sexuality education programs, such as
in the United States, teaching sexual health in schools has been
inadequate. For one, teachers are insufficiently informed of and
hesitant to handle sexuality education (Westwood & Mullan, 2007;
Klitsch, 1993).
education of grade school pupils, in and out of the school premises,
the government has to probe and understand basic issues. Are
parents receptive of sexuality education for their children? Are
teachers ready to carry out their responsibility? Except for anecdotal
evidence, there are no published local findings on these
dimensions. This report discusses the evidence derived from a
study that assessed the level of receptiveness of parents and the
level of readiness of teachers in relation to the teaching of sexuality
education in grade schools.
Finger (2000) also pointed out that issues concerning sexuality
education go beyond school-based challenges. Parental
involvement and support are critical to the success of sexuality
education programs (Daria & Campbell, 2004; Dwyer, et.al., 1998).
Overall, parental behaviors and parenting practices influence
adolescent health behaviors and decisions (Meschke, et. al., 1999).
Specifically, parenting style, family management skills, and quality
of parent-child relationships all contribute to the development of
risky behaviors.
METHODS
Using a self-administered questionnaire, a survey was conducted in
5 selected grade schools (3 private and 2 public) in Metro Manila.
The study population consisted of parents and teachers of
randomly-selected pupils in Grades 3, 4 and 5. A total of 104
teachers and 104 parents were asked to participate in the study ( =
0.05, s=1.0, e=.05, ß=.90). In the 5 schools, all grade school
teachers were asked to participate. One section each in Grades 3, 4
and 5 was randomly chosen and the parents of the pupils in those
sections were requested to answer the questionnaire. Whether it
was the father or mother who answered the instrument was
contingent upon parental availability.
In the Philippines, sexuality education has long been a part of
the educational system. In 1969, the United Nations, through the
World Health Organization in cooperation with the Philippine
government, instituted a family planning and birth control program
that taught basic biology, conception, pregnancy and the different
options for contraception (Leyson, 2001). An expanded public
health education that tackled information on STI was included in the
science curriculum in 1970. Sex education, as it was known then,
was left to the care of biology teachers. In 1972, the government
approved the provision of formal sex education to students at all
levels. Topics included basic level biological information and
discussion of family planning and legal separation.
A pre-tested, self-developed questionnaire consisting of multiple
choice questions; yes/no items; self-assessment items measured
on a 4-point Likert scale; a continuous rating scale and open-ended
questions, was administered. The first section of the survey
instrument consisted of questions on the socio-demographic profile
of respondents (i.e., sex, age, civil status, religion, number of
children, years of teaching, type of school, and monthly income).
The second section included items measuring the attitude of
respondents towards sexuality education. The section covered 25
items (the four response options—strongly agree, agree, disagree
and strongly disagree—were scored 1-4). The attitudinal domains
measured were belief, affect and behavior. Parents and teachers
were considered having a negative perception on sexuality
education if they had a score below 50; ambivalent if they had a
score of 50; and a positive perception if they scored above 50.
In 2005, the Department of Education Memorandum No. 261
was signed to operationalize the project on Institutionalizing
Adolescent Reproductive Health through Life Skills-Based
Education. The program, which was supported by the United
Nations Population Fund, sought to provide young people access to
sexual and reproductive health services (i.e., information and
education) in order to develop their life skills and responsible sexual
behavior and to minimize their risks and vulnerability to STI, early
sex, unwanted pregnancies and abortion. Local governments were
implementing partners.
In measuring parental receptiveness and teacher readiness, the
questions posed were: 1) Overall, how receptive are you with
regard to having your child learn sex and sexuality in school? 2)
Overall, how ready are you with regard to teaching sex and
sexuality in school? Respondents answered the question based on
a continuous rating scale of 0 to 100.
In 2010, sexuality education in the grade school curriculum,
which involved 150 public schools starting in Grade 5, was
developed and pilot tested by the government (Teves, 2010). The
effort was strongly opposed by some religious groups demanding
that sexuality education should be left to parents. The Catholic
Bishops Conference of the Philippines, along with the leadership of
the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, protested against it, claiming that
said education would only trigger and encourage curiosity and
sexual promiscuity among the youth (Ortuoste, 2010). When the
Reproductive Health Bill No. 4244, which is currently being debated
in Congress, proposed the mandatory age-appropriate reproductive
health and sexuality education in schools, among other provisions,
the opposition turned even more intense.
The receptiveness scale was validated (Cronbach’s
Alpha=0.701). The scores were categorized as: low receptiveness
(0–10), moderate (25–50) and high (75–100). The readiness scale
was validated (Cronbach’s Alpha =0.964). Scale scores were
classified as follows: low readiness (0–10), moderate (25–50) and
high (75–100). The survey instrument was pilot tested on 65
teachers and 17 parents to determine its validity and reliability.
The survey questionnaire was administered to teachers in
school during breaks. The researcher requested the randomlyselected children to hand-in the survey questionnaire to their
parents and to collect and return the completed version to their
class adviser. All research activities had the permission of school
principals.
The government is facing various challenges, therefore, to
carrying out its sexuality education in grade schools. On top of the
religious influence, it has to attend to far more pressing immediate
challenges, such as those involving parents and teachers. Given
the significant and pivotal roles of these authorities in the sexuality
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Asia-Pacific E-Journal of Health Social Science: Sexuality Education in Grade School: Are Parents Receptive and Are Teachers Ready?
their self-report. Most importantly, the participants were informed of
their right to accept or refuse the research invitation.
TABLE 1. Items used to measure attitudes towards sexuality
education
RESULTS
Belief
1. I think sex education is helpful towards preventing teenage
pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases among the youth.
2. Sex education will just lead to promiscuity among the youth.
3. Sex education should be taught in school because some
parents are not capable of teaching their children the topic.
4. The Philippine education system [government, schools,
educators] is not ready for sex education.
5. Sex education should be taught at home, left to the parents.
6. Sex education is an important subject matter.
7. Sex education is immoral.
8. Sex education will lead to early sexual debut.
Parents were 41.2 years old on average; 7 of every 10 of them were
female; and most were married and Roman Catholics (Table 2).
Moreover, two thirds and one third of the parents interviewed had
children enrolled in private and public schools, respectively. Most
parents earned more than 10,000 pesos in a month.
TABLE 2. Socio-demographic profile of participants (%)
Characteristics
Parents (n=104)
Teachers (n=104)
Mean age/SD*
Sex
Female
Male
Civil status
Married
Single
Others
Religion
Roman Catholic
Others
Mean number of
children
Years of teaching
0-3
4-6
7-10
>10
Type of school where
one teaches or one’s
child studies
Private
Public
Family monthly
income (pesos)
Below 10000
10000-50000
>50000
Affect
1. I am glad that the government has finally realized the need for
sex education.
2. I feel anxious that my students/children are learning about sex
and sexuality at such a young age.
3. My worries are gone when DepEd stopped the pilot testing of
sex education modules to chosen schools.
4. I feel relieved to know that the Church is opposing the efforts of
the government to implement sex education in the school.
5. I don’t feel comfortable discussing matters of sexuality and
reproduction to my students/children.
6. I feel like there is no need for sex education in the grade
school.
7. I feel happy that my students/children will be taught sex
education in school.
8. I am scared of the consequences of teaching sex education in
school.
Behavior
1. I will be an advocate of the implementation of sex education in
grade school.
2. Given an opportunity to vote with regards to implementation of
sex education, I will disagree on its implementation.
3. Given a chance to talk to the side of the Church, I would want to
explain to them the need for implementing sex education in
grade school.
4. I will be supportive of sex education whenever implemented.
5. I will remind my students/children every time that the goal of sex
education is to avoid teen age pregnancy and STI.
6. I am willing to join a special training that aims to improve
teaching sex education to children.
7. I will agree to have students learn sex education in grade
school.
8. I will fight against sex education in grade schools because they
lower the moral values of children.
9. I will support the Church’s movement against the
implementation of sex education in grade school.
41.2/7.01
33.5/10.8
70.4
29.6
79.8
20.2
88.9
2.0
9.1
60.0
36.7
3.3
83.7
16.3
94.3
5.7
2.6
-
-
34.5
14.9
23.0
27.6
67.0
33.0
52.7
47.3
17.0
71.3
11.7
19.0
78.8
2.2
*SD=standard deviation.
Teachers were aged 33.5 on average. Most were female. Of
every 10 teachers, 6 were married and about 4 were single (Table
2). 94.3% were Roman Catholics. Two thirds had been teaching for
4 years or longer. The teachers interviewed were employed in either
public or private school; most were earning more than 10,000 pesos
a month.
While about 13% of both parents and teachers viewed sexuality
education negatively, the overwhelming majority of both groups had
a positive attitude towards sexuality education. For example, 72% of
parents and 86% of teachers agreed that sexuality education is an
important subject for school children. Moreover, 55% of parents and
70% of teachers agreed that sexuality education should be taught in
school (not shown in the table).
Data gathered were encoded in MS Excel and analyzed using
SPSS 17. Descriptive statistics were first calculated for all variables.
Thereafter, correlation analyses were performed to determine the
associations between parental receptiveness and teacher readiness
and socio-demographic characteristics.
This study posed minimal risks to respondents. Nevertheless,
prospective participants were asked for their informed consent. The
process involved informing them about the study—its objectives,
methods, and possible outcomes and consequences of participating
in the study—and requesting them to agree for an interview.
Respondents were also informed of their right to withdraw and to
forego answering questions that were threatening. The researcher
assured participants of their anonymity and the confidentiality of
Among the parents, majority has a moderate to high level of
receptiveness. Male and female parents are similar with respect to
their receptiveness level (Table 3).
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Asia-Pacific E-Journal of Health Social Science: Sexuality Education in Grade School: Are Parents Receptive and Are Teachers Ready?
TABLE 3. Level of receptiveness of parents (n=104) (%)
Level
Sex
Low (0-10)
Moderate (25- High (75-100)
50)
Male
Female
Both
32.0
22.9
26.5
40.0
37.5
38.5
DISCUSSION
This study sought to examine parental receptiveness and teacher
readiness regarding sexuality education for grade school children
among a sample of respondents in Metro Manila, Philippines. Given
its limitations (e.g., non-random selection of schools and 208
sample size), the study is not definitive.
28.0
39.6
35.9
There were significant differences in the receptiveness level of
parents classified by income level, with upper-income groups being
more receptive of sexuality education in grade school than lowerincome groups. This finding runs counter to the evidence presented
by SIECUS (2008) in the United States, which suggests that lowincome parents are more supportive than their rich counterparts.
However, the current finding is aligned with the results offered by
Liu et al. (2011). Liu and colleagues reported that, in Asian cultures
particularly among Chinese parents, positive attitudes toward
sexuality education are more pronounced among higher-income
groups. Way and Rossmann (1996) pointed out that families with a
higher socio-economic standing tend to have a greater level of
parental participation in school. As a consequence, they have more
opportunities to learn about changing sexual norms (Liu et. al.,
2011) that, in turn, helps enhance their positive attitudes towards
interventions, especially those that seek to stem the adverse effects
of these emerging sexual norms.
Most of the teacher-respondents had a moderate to high level
of readiness. The data show that male and female teachers are not
different in their readiness level (Table 4).
TABLE 4. Level of readiness of teachers (n=104) (%)
Level
Sex
Low (0-10)
Moderate (25- High (75-100)
50)
Male
Female
Both
11.8
19.0
18.2
52.9
56.9
55.8
35.3
24.1
26.0
Table 5 shows a significant association between the level of
receptiveness of parents in relation to their income level (p=0.03).
Parents with a monthly income of 10,000-30,000 pesos were found
to have a low to moderate level of receptiveness; those earning
more than 30,000 pesos had a moderate to high level of
receptiveness.
Readiness levels among teacher-respondents significantly
differed in terms of the type of school, with teachers in public
schools exhibiting a higher level of readiness relative to those in
private schools. According to Greeley (1982 as cited in Donohue,
1988: 5), private schools, especially the Catholic ones, tend to
emphasize the physical and emotional discipline of their students.
Their discussion of student problems, as reported either by students
themselves or by the principals, is thus generally limited due to their
authoritarian style of administration (Donohue, 1988). In contrast,
teachers in public schools are generally free to discuss broader
issues (e.g., pregnancies and STI among the youth) and their
engagement in discussions can lead to their increased knowledge
of sexuality issues, and then to their perceived readiness to teach
sexuality education.
TABLE 5. Correlation coefficients of the level of receptiveness
by socio-demographic characteristics (n=104) (%)
Receptiveness
Characteristics
Coefficient (r)
Age group
Sex
Civil status
Type of school
Income level
-0.126
-0.027
-0.110
-0.044
0.260*
*significant at p=0.03
The type of school was found to be significantly associated with
teacher readiness (p=0.008). Those in private schools had a
moderate level of readiness, while those in public schools had a
high level of readiness. Age and civil status were observed to have
significant trends with readiness levels, such that older and single
teachers showed a higher level of readiness than their younger and
non-single counterparts (Table 6).
The results also showed the relationship between age group
and civil status and the level of the readiness of teachers, such that
older teachers and unmarried teachers were found to be more
ready than single ones. Compared to their new and inexperienced
counterparts, older teachers have more experience not only in
teaching, but in life in general; thus they would feel more ready and
competent to teach sexuality education to children. Non-married
teachers were observed to be highly ready as well and this may be
because of their simple and naïve understanding, or their lack of
experiential knowledge, of the complexities of parenting and child
education.
TABLE 6. Correlation coefficients of the level of readiness by
socio-demographic characteristics (n=104) (%)
Readiness
Characteristics
Coefficient (r)
Age group
Sex
Civil status
Type of school
Income level
This study has shown that, in general, respondents viewed
sexuality education in grade school in a highly positive sense.
Parents and teachers were both found to have a moderate to high
level of readiness and receptiveness, respectively. Among parents,
income level relates with receptiveness level. Among teachers, age
group, civil status and type of school are important considerations
for assessing readiness. Some parent-respondents were not
receptive, probably because they thought that teachers are not
competent enough to discuss sexuality education with children.
Similarly, some teacher-respondents were not ready, most likely as
-0.194+
0.117
-0.204+
0.300*
0.102
+significant trends *significant at p=0.008
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Asia-Pacific E-Journal of Health Social Science: Sexuality Education in Grade School: Are Parents Receptive and Are Teachers Ready?
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a result of their perception that they lack appropriate skills and
training.
Programs for parents and teachers are critical for a successful
implementation of sexuality education in grade school. An
awareness program for parents, especially for those in low-income
groups, is needed. As well, a series of training programs for
teachers must be designed, and greater programmatic attention
must be directed at younger and single teachers, and those
employed in private schools. Teachers must be adequately trained
and given up-to-date resources (Milton, 2003)
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I am grateful to my thesis adviser, Dr. Laurie S. Ramiro, for her
effective guidance and support.
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COMMUNITY NEWS
The Foundation for Adolescent Development (FAD), Inc., a
leading non-government organization for adolescent sexual and
reproductive health, received an Award of Merit for its novel
social franchising model of Teens Healthquarters, a response to
the need for more sustainable approach to general medical and
reproductive health information and services to Filipino
adolescents. The award commends FAD’s partnerships with local
government units and its demonstration that social franchising is a
cost-effective and a viable way of delivering and financing youth
services at a local level.
Ms. Rina Silayan Go, FAD Chairperson and Mr. Joaquin Quintos
IV, FAD Trustee, together with Cecilia C. Villa and Arceli
Romulo- Obmerga, FAD Staff, are shown receiving the award.
5