Sexual Education and Attitudes Towards Masturbation

Presenter Information

Jannine Ray, Minnesota State University - MankatoFollow

Location

CSU Ballroom

Start Date

21-4-2014 2:00 PM

End Date

21-4-2014 3:30 PM

Student's Major

Psychology

Student's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Mentor's Name

Eric Sprankle

Mentor's Email Address

eric.sprankle@mnsu.edu

Mentor's Department

Psychology

Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Second Mentor's Name

Shelby Afflerbach

Second Mentor's Department

Psychology

Second Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Description

The long-standing social stigma surrounding masturbation has led to its prohibition from being included in public school curriculum as a healthy sexual practice. Furthermore, not only is masturbation a healthy sexual practice for the individual, research has demonstrated masturbation to be helpful in treating sexual dysfunctions for couples. Therefore, if the topic of masturbation is included in comprehensive sexual education as a healthy sexual practice, it may promote sexual health among individuals both intra- and interpersonally. The present study recruited from a convenient sample from a medium sized state university in the upper Midwest. Participants completed two surveys, administered through an online data collection platform. The first survey, Attitudes Towards Masturbation, is an established measure with sound reliability and validity, which assessed the participants’ comfort and beliefs about masturbation. The second survey was created specifically for this study and assessed the type of sexual education (comprehensive versus abstinence) received at home and in formal school settings. It is predicted that participants who received positive masturbation education (at home or at school) will have more positive attitudes toward masturbation than participants who received negative or no masturbation education. The results of the study indicate that positive masturbation education at school does not predict positive attitudes toward masturbation. However, positive masturbation education at home predicted positive attitudes for obtaining birth control and what masturbation is. Also, positive masturbation education at home during high school predicts positive attitudes. Lastly, positive masturbation education at school during high school does not predict positive attitudes.

Creative Commons License

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