The Impact of a Human Sexuality Course on Anti-Gay Prejudice

Abstract

The impact of a human sexuality course on students' attitudes about homosexuality was investigated by comparing undergraduate human sexuality students' homonegativity pretest and posttest measures with a comparison group of undergraduate child psychology students. Beyond the main effects for gender and course content on attitudes, there were significant interactions between (a) course and time, (b) course and gender, and (c) gender and time: only female students in the human sexuality course showed decreased anti-gay prejudice at the end of the semester. Furthermore, analyses revealed that women's decrease in homonegativity did not occur immediately after exposure to course material, but rather was delayed until the end of the semester. Suggestions for decreasing anti-gay prejudice within the classroom are provided.

Key Words:

• Homophobia
• homonegativity
• human sexuality course
• sexual education
• pedagogy
• gender differences
• attitudes
• prejudice