Abstinence Only Sex Education: Understanding Evangelical Christian Parental Support for a Community-Based Curricular Approach

• In Event: 523 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. Parental Involvement and Higher Education

Abstract

Evangelical Christianity and school-based sex education in the United States have developed alongside each other since the sexual revolution of the 1960s continuing through the 1970s. This complex relationship, leads to common assumptions that evangelical Christian groups uniformly support abstinence-based sex education, and execute its curriculum in ways that are developmentally harmful for young people. This research seeks to understand nuances of the values, attitudes, and believes that evangelical Christian parents hold toward sex and sex education, as well as how these views fit in with their own religious communities, and the common evangelical stereotype. This qualitative study of evangelical Christians (N=20) in a medium sized Texas town asks parents to explain the types of sexual education content they support, and the context in which they hope to see that content delivered. Additionally, parents were asked to explain these attitudes in the context of their own religious beliefs, and to explain the relationship between their beliefs about sex/sex education and their religious communities. This research concludes with suggestions for curricular adjustments that will allow local abstinence-based programs to fit more closely with known best practices for sexual education, and may also be supportable by evangelical Christians within the community.

Authors

• Lauren Amelia Dent, University of North Texas

• Patricia Maloney, Texas Tech University