Effects of a life skills-based sexuality education programme on the life-skills, sexuality knowledge, self-management skills for sexual health, and programme satisfaction of adolescents

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to develop and establish the efficacy of a life skills-based sexuality education programme for junior high school students that focused on prevention. A non-equivalent control-group pretest-posttest design was employed with 105 students in the first-year of junior high school participating. The experimental group received 10 sessions of a life skills-based sexuality education programme, and the control group received 10 sessions of the standard sexuality education, both provided during a home economics class. A comparison of the two groups’ post-test scores showed that the experimental group scored significantly higher than the control group on sexual and reproductive health related knowledge (F = 58.50, p < .001) and life-skills (F = 11.52, p = .007). In addition, the experimental group showed a larger improvement in self-management skills for sexual health than did the control group (F = 9.32, p = .003). A life skills-based sexuality education programme increased life skills levels, knowledge about sexuality and sexual and reproductive health, and helped participants identify appropriate behaviours when facing a sexually risky situation. Results highlight the value of including an evidence-based and practice-oriented life skills-based sexuality education programme in the formal curriculum of junior high schools in Korea.

KEYWORDS:

• Life skills
• sexuality education
• schools
• young people
• Korea

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) grant funded by the Korea government(MSIP), reference NRF-2017R1A2A2A05001108 and the Chung-Ang University Research Grants in 2018.