Conceptions of kindergarten teachers on child development and learning in the field of sexuality: pilot study for validation of instrument

Abstract

Kindergarten teachers play an important role in what concerns to sex education given the affection and bonding established with children. However, these professionals still find difficult to accept that sex education begins with the youngest children. Literature points to lack of knowledge about child sexuality and difficulties of these teachers engaging to sexual education from the pre-school age. In order to evaluate the conceptions of kindergarten teachers regarding sexual development and learning of preschool children, we used the Sexual Education Questionnaire for Childhood Educators (SEQCE), which resulted from the translation of The Questionnaire on Young Children’s Sexual Learning (Koch & Brick, 1996) which consists in three scales. The first scale assesses knowledge about children’s sexual development and learning; the second assesses attitudes and beliefs about children’s sexual learning; and the third examines the level of comfort related to sexual development of children. The original questionnaire was translated to Portuguese, followed by its retroversion. The instrument was also subject to the evaluation of 2 judges and 2 specialists, followed by a pilot test, applied to a 11 kindergarten teachers sample. The internal consistency analysis was measured by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, with acceptable values being obtained at all three scales, and the consistency of the instrument was considered satisfactory. The first results highlight the lack of training, which is in line with recent investigations and proves the need of training investment within these professionals.