Effectiveness of comprehensive sexuality education curriculum on improving hostile and benevolent sexism among university students / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To explore the effectiveness of a comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) curriculum on university students hostile and benevolent sexism, so as to provide a reference for evaluating the effects of CSE on reducing ambivalent sexism.@*Methods@#From September 2018 to January 2019, 165 university students from a university in Beijing were recruited using convenience sampling for a 5 month of CSE curriculum (36 sessions, 2 sessions per week, 45 min per session), including CSE and gender studies, sexual physiology and health, gender and gender roles, gender bias, intimate relationships and gender bias, gender based violence and gender bias, culture and gender bias, and gender and power. Students who took CSE curriculum were included in the intervention group ( n =97) and students from the same university who had not taken CSE curriculum were included in the control group ( n =68). Using the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, both groups of university students were surveyed before and after the curriculum to analyze the effectiveness of the CSE curriculum. Chi -square test, ANOVA，cluster analysis and Kruskal Wallis test were used for statistical analysis.@*Results@#After the CSE curriculum, both hostile and benevolent sexism scores were lower in the intervention group (2.21±0.76, 2.36±0.68) than in the control group (2.81±0.61, 3.03±0.60) ( F =17.24, 33.26), and pre test scores were higher in the intervention group (2.64±0.67, 2.88±0.68) ( F =45.62, 66.93) ( P <0.01). On both hostile and benevolent sexism, female students scores (2.46±0.72, 2.65±0.70) were lower than male students scores (2.86±0.59, 3.09± 0.69 ) ( F=11.02, 14.20, P <0.01). Comparison of the curriculum effectiveness of hostile and benevolent sexism among clustered groups showed that the difference in hostile sexism scores was higher in the inconsistent type [0.63(0.25, 1.25)]than in the more consistent type [0.38(-0.16, 0.88)] and the lower consistent type [0.38(0.06, 0.63)] ( H=8.71, P <0.05); and the difference in benevolent sexism scores was higher in the more consistent type [0.75(0.53, 1.22)] than in the less consistent type [0.38(0.09, 0.88 )] and inconsistent type [0.38(-0.13,0.63)] ( H=10.82, P <0.05).@*Conclusions@#CSE can improve hostile and benevolent sexism in university students with sex and type differences. Attention should be paid to CSE curriculum to improve ambivalent sexism among university students with a view to fostering their awareness of gender equality.