A Quantitative Self-Assessment of Seminarians' Response to a Curriculum Addition  on Marriage, Sexuality, FertilityCare, and Naprotechnology: The Kenrick-Glennon  Experience (2006-2015)

Daly KD, Richárd E, Hilgers TW

doi:10.1177/0024363918813126

The Linacre Quarterly, 86(1), 83-88, 2019

A Quantitative Self-Assessment of Seminarians' Response to a Curriculum Addition on Marriage, Sexuality, FertilityCare, and Naprotechnology: The Kenrick-Glennon Experience (2006-2015)

K Diane Daly , Edward Richárd , Thomas Hilgers

Author affiliations (2)

Saint John's Mercy Medical Center
Institute for Human Reproduction ROR

DOI10.1177/0024363918813126 PMID32431391

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Abstract

A special course on Marriage, the Family and Human Sexuality was established at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis so as to assist the seminarians in their better understanding of the Church's teaching relative to natural methods of family planning and women's health care. This article compares the response at the beginning of this three-credit semester course to the same seven-item questionnaire given at the conclusion of the course. The preand postcourse scores were calculated for each of the questions. The scores obtained after the course were all significantly higher than they were before the course with p values ranging from 0.01 to <0.0001. Four of the items showed marked improvement including an understanding of the church's teaching related to natural methods, current methods of natural family planning, the impact of a natural method on a couple's marriage, and also the impact of a natural method on family life. Statistically significant improvement was also seen in their understanding of the topic of natural family planning and the Creighton Model System and its relevance toward the seminarian's vocation, the use of the methods to either achieve or avoid pregnancy, and how contraception and abortion are linked. In these last three items, the level of statistical significance was quite high, although not as high as the other four items. There were 104 seminarians over an eight-year period of time, who provided answers to these questions, both before and after the course. This course was modeled after a course that was initiated at the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction, which was for priests, seminarians, and Catholic leaders, titled Love & Life Unlimited. NONTECHNICAL

Summary

This is an evaluation of a ten-point, seven-question questionnaire that was utilized at the beginning of a course at Kenrick Seminary in Marriage, Sexuality, Creighton Model and NaProTECHNOLOGY. The same questionnaire was given to the students at the beginning of the course and then two to three months later at the conclusion of the three-credit course. The results show that there is a significant improvement in the seminarians' knowledge and general attitude about natural methods of family planning and suggests that such courses would be beneficial to establish in seminaries throughout the country.

Topics

NaProTECHNOLOGY > Education > Seminary and Clergy Formation Fertility Awareness > Education > NFP Curriculum Outcomes Ethics/Philosophy > Catholic Teaching > Humanae Vitae Implementation RRM Methods > Creighton Model > Training Programs

Kenrick-Glennon Seminary natural family planning curriculum evaluation pre-post, Daly Richard Hilgers seminarian NaProTECHNOLOGY FertilityCare education questionnaire, seven-item Likert scale pre-post course assessment 104 seminarians 2006-2015, Catholic seminary sexuality marriage course Creighton Model System instruction, p-value 0.0001 knowledge improvement contraception abortion linkage seminarians, Pope Paul VI Institute Love and Life Unlimited priest education model, natural family planning achieve avoid pregnancy vocation relevance clerical formation, seminary formation reproductive health pastoral counseling Humanae vitae curriculum, marriage and family life impact natural methods three-credit semester course, clergy NFP knowledge attitudes self-assessment quantitative study St. Louis

PMID 32431391 32431391 DOI 10.1177/0024363918813126 10.1177/0024363918813126

Cite this article

Daly, K. D., Richárd, E., & Hilgers, T. W. (2019). A Quantitative Self-Assessment of Seminarians' Response to a Curriculum Addition on Marriage, Sexuality, FertilityCare, and Naprotechnology: The Kenrick-Glennon Experience (2006-2015). The Linacre Quarterly, 86(1), 83-88. https://doi.org/10.1177/0024363918813126

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