A STUDY OF THE ATTITUDES OF THE ADVENTIST CHURCH MEMBERS IN TAIWAN TOWARD THE SUPPORT OF SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

Problem. The Seventh-day Adventist denomination has developed a school system to serve the individual needs of its members and general needs of the church. From 1972 to 1986, the educational work of the Adventist church in Taiwan has declined steadily. This study was to investigate the attitudes of church members toward the support of Adventist education on relation to demographic and personal variables.; Method. The Adventist Christian Education Attitude Scale measured (1) demographic characteristics; (2) 59 attitude statements, arranged in five scales, identified by factor analysis; and (3) the 13 reasons why church members did not attend or send their youth to Adventist schools. Questionnaires were mailed to 495 church members, 457 of whom responded.; The 18 null hypothesis were tested by the t-test for independent means and one-way analysis of variance, each hypothesis was tested at an alpha level of.05.; Results. This study revealed the following: (1) Of the five identified areas of church members' attitude toward Adventist education, the Christ-centered education and character building of children and youth was ranked highest; the curriculum offering and teacher qualifications lowest. (2) There was a significant difference in attitudes toward the support of Adventist education in relation to 17 demographic and personal characteristics. (3) The first five reasons why church members do not attend or do not send their youth to Adventist schools were: (a) the schools are not officially recognized by the Taiwan government; (b) opportunity to find a job after graduation is limited; (c) the cost for Adventist education is too burdensome; (d) the curriculum offering is limited; and (e) teachers are inadequately qualified.; Conclusions. The major conclusions were: (1) Ministers and teachers had a more favorable attitude than members in other occupations toward the support of Adventist education. (2) Parents who were members of the Adventist church had a more positive attitude toward Adventist education than those parents who had other religious affiliations. (3) Church members who had attended an Adventist school for a longer period of time reported a higher degree of support for Adventist schools than those who had attended an Adventist school for a shorter period of time. (4) Church members who had attended an Adventist college had a more negative attitude toward the Adventist education than those who had not.