Developing a scale for measuring attitudes of secondary school teachers towards sex education in Dhaka city

In Bangladesh, many people view sex education as a delicate subject, which makes it difficult to implement in secondary schools. The purpose of this study was to create and validate a psychometric scale to evaluate the attitudes of educators regarding sex education. Teachers’ qualitative feedback guided the creation of the items in this exploratory sequential mixed-methods design, which was then validated quantitatively. 393 secondary school teachers in Dhaka completed the survey, and nine university faculty members from three different institutions verified the information. SPSS and SmartPLS 4 were used to perform exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The final 25-item scale showed good internal consistency, construct validity, and cultural relevance. Teachers showed a generally positive orientation toward sex education, while indicating areas where further support may be beneficial, particularly in community engagement and professional development. The scale offers a tool for future research and policy-related applications in the Bangladeshi education context.