The project purpose was to determine whether selected personal characteristics of health science teachers of school grades 6-8 and 9-11 were related to 1 measure of sex education teaching performance--the inclusion of topics within the instructional unit. The study population was limited to 269 health science teachers in public schools in Indiana with 94 teaching within grades 6-8 and 175 teaching in grades 9-11. Some significant relationships were established between the teacher characteristic variables and the 60 sex education topics. None of the teacher characteristics variables were consistently related to the inclusion of the topics when considering the topics as a group although significance was found more frequently at the 9-11 grade than at the 6-8 grade level. More significant relationships were established for the variable erotophila-erotophobia (persons who associate primarily positive emotions with sexuality are considered erotophilics and individuals associating primarily negative emotions with sex are classified as erotophobics) than for any other teacher characteristic. Erotophilic individuals more often included the birth control topics within sex education instruction. For the teachers in grades 9-11 those with the masters degree in health education were more likely than those without the advanced degree to include sexual behavior-related topics.

Teacher characteristics and the inclusion of sex education topics in grades 6-8 and 9-11.

The authors discuss the connotations of the term intervention as it applies to family life educators. With respect to intervention, they examine the family life educators' image of themselves and the image others have of them. Views are advanced that family life educators should take a bolder stance as interventionists, further extend their operations beyond their home base, broaden the types of students and problems they work with, assemble new types of groups, and, above all, use skilltraining procedures in order to teach new attitudes, and in order to truly modify their pupils' behavior patterns in their present and future families.

Family Life Education as Intervention

In her seminal review paper describing the major events affecting family life and sex education during the "turbulent sixties," Somerville (1971a) accurately predicts that "the issue of who shall teach will undoubtedly persist well into the 1970's" (p 28) At the present time a number of groups including home economists, health educators, sociologists, and social science educators, are attempting at a national level to develop curricula in the area of family life education The Center for the Family, American Home Economics Association, for example, is developing a national curriculum guide, 5th through 12th grade, in family living After setbacks of the 1960's at the hands of anti-sex education groups, family life education appears to be entering into a new era of development The national Parent Teachers Association, for example, is advocating that "parenting" education be a part of the curricula in the nation's secondary schools Another indicator of the new trend in family life education is the recent reactivation of the Committee on Standards and Certification by the Education Section of the National Council on Family Relations, under the direction of Richard Kerckhoff of Purdue University The goals of the Committee are to improve professional standards and to develop a specific set of competencies for family life

Family Life Education: Teacher Selection, Education, and Training Issues--A Selected Bibliography.

Where do high school students get the ideas they have about marriage and family living? This is the thrust of the problem. No attempt is made here to learn what the students believe. Nine high schools selected at random from sixty-two schools in Northeastern Indiana participated in the study. 572 students from large county-wide senior high schools to small village high schools constituted the sample. These included 292 males and 280 females of high school age. The questionnaire was constructed to have the respondents indicate where he/she believed most, next most, and the least .mount of information came from. Twenty-four items ranging in nature from dating and knowledge of the opposite sex through engagement to marriage and family living were selected as to source of knowledge from parents, school, church, peer group, reading, or others. A figure of twenty per cent was accepted as significant level to show the category as being an influence in forming ideas on the subject. The students indicated that much of their information regarding dating had come from the peer group, but did, however, select the parents in a significant number. The information provided by the study indicates that the family remains as the chief socializing agency in matters of

Source of Preparatory Orientation of High School Students in Northeastern Indiana to Issues Involved in Marriage and Family Living.

This study investigated the academic background and instructional practices of California family life education (FLE) teachers from home economics and other disciplines. A total of 661 principals and 415 teachers in schools with a ninth and/or tenth grade completed surveys examining teacher and course characteristics. Principals reported that approximately half of the FLE teachers in the state held credentials in home economics. Teacher reports concerning academic prepara tion indicated that home economics teachers were significantly more likely than teachers in all other areas except nursing to have obtained preservice training in family life, and to have attended continuing education courses and conferences on the subject. However, home economics teachers were significantly less likely than their colleagues in health, physical education, and nursing to have acquired preservice training in health. Teachers from all disciplines provided coverage of numerous FLE topics in their curricula, with home economics teachers handling significantly longer courses and being more likely to address communication, decisionmaking, marriage, and family issues than teachers from the other areas. FLE programs tended not to be broadly evaluated, but home economics teachers differed significantly from their colleagues in their greater use of measures of student satisfaction. Implications of the findings for preservice and inservice preparation of secondary home economics teachers are discussed.

Preparation and Practices of Secondary Family Life Education Teachers in Home Economics and Other Disciplines.

In this second report from The Family Coordinator's Family Life Education Panel an attempt is made to see what the future family life teacher will be like In what ways will he be different from today's teacher? What different kind of preparation will he have for his work? How will his profession differ from today's profession of family life education? How will his personal characteristics be different from those of today's educator?

Terry W. Hancock

Papers

The Family Life Educator of the Future.