The effectiveness of sex education intervention in Primary school teachers and health visitors in Cyprus

Abstract

Introduction: The effectiveness of sex education programs depends,to a great extent, on the effectiveness of the instructor. The instructor’s education in the area is crucial to the success of the program. Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a sexeducationintervention to sex educators (school teachers and health visitors) in Primary Education in Cyprus and the investigation of the effectiveness of their cooperation in teaching the subject. Methodology: The sample of the educational intervention consisted of 18 people (12 health visitors and 6 primary school teachers).The research tools used were the semi-structured questionnaire, the Greek self-esteem measurement scale, the observation and the interview protocols.For the statistical analysis of the data, the statistical package of data analysis SPSS version 22 was used, namely the frequency distribution methods (cumulative frequency), t-test analysis for dependent samples and qualitative analysis of the interviews. Results: The results revealed that there were differences in the averages (means) before and after the educational intervention in the perceptions of the sample about the characteristics of the sex education instructor (20.27 / 23.00) and the level that the sample ranks itself in these characteristics (18.88 / 21.33), which were statistically significant (p = 0.40, p = 0.03 respectively). In addition, it was found that the majority of the sample wants to cooperate in the teaching of sex education. Conclusions: The findings suggest that the educational intervention applied was effective as it improved the perceptions, knowledge, skills, abilities and comfort of the sample in teaching sex education. In addition, for more effective teaching of sex education,the need for cooperation of teachers and health visitors was identified.Therefore, it can be assumed that both pre and in-service trainingin the area of sex education as well as encouragement of cooperation between professionals will improve the effectiveness of sex education programs in schools.