College Sexuality Education Courses for Adults
While the primary goal of most college sexuality education
courses is not to increase parent-child communication about
sexuality-related issues, common
goals of many such courses are
to increase knowledge and
communication about sexuality
as well as comfort with that
communication.Thus, their
goals often incorporate
parent-child communication.
Although many universities in this
country offer courses on sexuality
and many studies have demonstrated
that these courses do increase
students' knowledge (and sometimes affect the students' own
sexual attitudes and behaviors), few studies have examined the
impact of these courses upon college students' communication with
their own children.
One study did examine the impact of a somewhat typical freshman
human sexuality course upon students' communication with
their own children.1 The course covered a wide variety of typical
sexuality-related topics. Although the course did not focus primarily
upon parent communication with their children, one chapter in
the textbook did discuss the topic.
The course appeared to dramatically increase parent-child
communication about a variety of sexual topics during the next
three years. Among students who had children five years of age
or older and who took the course, 87 percent had discussed sexuality
topics with their children, whereas only 18 percent of the comparison
parents had done so. In addition, most of the parents who took the
course described their communication with their children as
"ongoing" rather than a single talk.
This study did not have a strong evaluation design. Nevertheless,
the course appeared to have one of the largest effects of any
study concerned with parent-child communication about
sexuality-related issues. Because the children did not attend the
class, the measure of parent-child communication did not simply
reflect communication that took place during the course itself,
but rather communication that took place after the hours of
instruction and up to three years after the class.
Given that the course was much more intensive than any other
instruction discussed in this review, this greater intensiveness may
have had an impact, even though the focus of the course was not
parent-child communication.
Reference
- B. M. King, L. S. Parisi, and K. R. O'Dwyer, "College Sexuality
Education Promotes Future Discussions about Sexuality between
Former Students and Their Children," Journal of Sex Education &
Therapy, 1993, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 285-93.
