Abstract
The purpose of this study is to survey middle school students’s awareness of sexuality and relationships with the opposite sex. The students need to have at their disposal basic resources on sexuality education and an established and systematic curriculum. To achieve this result, questionaires were distributed to 640 students who were chosen randomly in three middle schools in Seung-ju Goon and Goo-rye Goon in Chonnam area, 573 questionaries were used for the final analysis. The results were as follows： In the area of awareness of sexuality, male students regarded sex more positively than female students. It also showed that 19.9% or male students and 17.6% of female students were not aware of their virginity. Male students said they felt sexual impulses most when they saw naked women, and secondly, by sex magazines. This indicates students are motivated mostly by outside influences. There is a considerable gap in the degree of sexual knowledge between male and female according to their school year and father’s family education level. However, little difference is seen according to student’s family circumstance, father’s education level. However, little difference is seen according to student’s family circumstance, father’s job, and student’s religion and vise versa. School restrictions were so severs that 48.2% of boys and 47.1% of girls said that schools paid little attention to their needs. The school restricted rather than permitted relationships with opposite sex. Most of the students revealed a dissatisfaction with the school sexuality education program. Because of confucianism, Korean society has a negative attitude towards sexual activity including sexual education in the schools. 56.8% of male students and 81.4% of females students wanted female teachers to be their sexuality education teachers or advisors rather than male teachers, and 44.8% of male students and 51.2% of females students wanted to receive sexuality education in their Home Economics classes. Materials for sexuality education were considered most effective through videos and audio-visuals. As a result, this survey showed that there appeared to be a great need for a sound, effective, and sensitive sexuality education curriculum in the middle schools for teenagers. It should be conducted in such a way that the teenagers will learn about their sexual needs, their gender differences, and understand and know how to conduct themselves in today’s society sexually.