Identifying and Validating of Sex Education Strategies for 12 to 16 Iranian Adolescents Based on the Perspectives of Teachers and Parents: Mixed Research

This was a mixed-methods research, aimed to identify and validate sex education strategies for 12-to-16 year-old Iranian adolescents based on the perspectives of their teachers and parents. Participants in the qualitative phase were 20 sex educators, teachers, and parents with scientific expertise or practical experience, selected through theoretical purposive sampling. Using semi-structured questions, the participants were interviewed about their opinions regarding the principles of sex education and the best and/or most important approach to that. The qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis, which revealed 19 basic themes regarding sex education strategies. Such principles were narrowed down to five basic categories, namely “overcoming cultural barriers", "sociocultural considerations", "capacity building in the education system and parents", "education strategies", and "principles of Education". A questionnaire was designed accordingly for adolescent sex education. To examine its rigor, this instrument was used in the quantitative phase of the study to collect data from a sample of 345 teachers in the middle and secondary schools in Khoy and Chaypareh Cities, selected through stratified random sampling method. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to examine the validity of the questionnaire. The results revealed sufficient loading for the questionnaire items on the relevant factors, thus corroborating its validity. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, on the other hand, corroborated the reliability of the instrument in terms of the number of its items. The result of current research can be insightful for educational planning with the aim of strengthening adolescent sex education.