Mothers and Educators' Perspectives on Sex Education of Children Between 3 and 5 Years Old: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: Preschool sex education plays an important role in endorsing sexual health. Objective: This qualitative study aims to determine the mothers’ and trainers’ perspectives regarding the sex education of 3-5 years old children living in Karaj City, Iran. Materials and Methods: The study participations were 20 mothers and 10 kindergarten trainers. To collect data, semi-structured and deep interviews were held with them within 2 months. Interviews went on until data saturation. Simple random sampling was used to choose the kindergartens and purposeful sampling to select the study samples according to the inclusion criteria with maximum diversity. The interviews were recorded after permission was obtained from mothers and trainers. The interviews were typed instantly. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: In this study, 20 mothers aged 27 to 51 and trainers aged 25 to 40 participated. After analyzing 92 codes, three main categories and one to three subcategories were extracted. The extracted themes were “sex education requirements” and “sex education situations.” Based on the results, mothers did not have a specific definition of sex education. Most participants believed that education must start from the family. Furthermore, the interviewed mothers thought, “You must not lie to children.” Some believed the mother is responsible for the child’s sex education, while some believed in sex analogy. Conclusion: Based on the study results, mothers do not have an appropriate definition of sex education. The proper start age for sex education is over 3, and the closest person in one’s family must implement sex education.