Assessing rural African-American churches' attitudes toward adolescent sexual behavior - Implications for curricula development

This article highlights the results of the findings according to the Rural African-American Church Leader Assessment, with implications for the minister portion of the curriculum designed to address the desires of the church leaders as documented through the assessments. Development of the Church Leader Assessment Tool. The assessment tool was developed and validated as the result of a semiqualitative focus group of 15 randomly selected ministers/church leaders. Data Collection. Assessment surveys were distributed in-person to identified senior church leaders (n=104) at their particular churches. Analysis. Analysis of the Church Leader Assessments consisted of frequencies, descriptive analysis, and Chi Square Analysis of Independence. The objective of the analysis was to identify the major knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes that the church leaders possessed regarding adolescent sexuality. Findings from the Church Leader Assessment highlighted an interest and commitment to the prevention of adolescent sexual activity. Eighty-eight percent (88%) of church leaders reported that sex education should begin before the age of 13. All responding church leaders indicated that sex education should be taught in the Church, yet only 58% of the leaders reported that their church provided some form of adolescent sex education. The results supported the idea that the development of church-based sex education programs must involve church leadership in rural African-American communities.

Assessing rural African-American churches' attitudes toward adolescent sexual behavior - Implications for curricula development Academic Article