Comparing Attitudes of Male and Female University Students before and after a Semester Course on Human Sexuality

The attitudes of 3 different classes of students who attended a semester class in human sexuality at the University of New Mexico were tested prior to and at completion of the course. The course and the testing questions are described. Male and female attitudes differed, but not widely, in several course areas. Pretest attitudes were liberal and posttest attitudes were found to be somewhat more liberal. Males, slightly more conservative in their pretest answers, changed to more closely resemble the female responses in the postcourse testing. For the following areas, there was the greatest pre- and posttest unanimity: sex education, venereal disease, masturbation, sexual response discussion, sex laws, and abortion. The highest percentage of change for both male and female responses occurred on the natural childbirth question. Limitations of the study include the difficulty of isolating the influence exerted by the course separately from exterior influences, the difficulty with analyzing "undecided" answers, and the subjective nature of such responses as "strongly agree" and "disagree." Findings of this study may be useful in the formulation of college level human sexuality courses.