The objective of this research is to study the role of magazine in sex education. The study is based on a content analysis of 16 magazines which are readers as a dividing criteria. These categories include housewives, lower class and new generation. The last category is subdivided into new generation with a foreign orientation or a Thai edition of copyrighted international magazine and new generation with a local orientation or local magazine catered for new-generation readers. Using the technique of simple random sampling and systematic random sampling, the study draws on 264 samples of magazine issues which in turn yielded a total 1,350 of information about sex education. The samples are drawn from a sampling frame during a one-year period from January to December of 2000. The research finds that the role of magazine is mostly reflected in content about conflict resolution in marital life. Meanwhile, there is relatively little content about prevention of sexually-transmitted diseases, contraception, and preventive sex that are related to social problems such as AIDS, unwanted pregnancy, and abortion. The study also finds some discrepancy in the content about contraception. In addition, sex values as presented in the magazines tend to reflect a liberal orientation.
