“All these contraceptives, videos and that …”: young people talking about school sex education

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This paper draws on a study into the sexual behaviour of young people aged between 16 and 25 years, and presents comments based on recollections of, and reactions to, school sex education. The comments are categorized and described, and related to some measures of sexual lifestyle. Around one-fifth of the respondents made favourable comments, others totally denigrated their school's efforts, whilst many pointed to specific deficits. The type of deficit reported was related to gender, with females tending to criticize a biological emphasis upon facts without adequate explanation or discussion, and males being more likely to find the factual information lacking, particularly about contraception. The majority of comments about the timing of sex education were that “it came too late” and that “we knew it all already”. Many respondents mentioned the disruptive classroom behaviour that took place during sex education classes and the mention of participating in such behaviour was more a feature of male than female accounts. For males, reported participation was related to more active sexual lives. Young people who mentioned the teaching techniques and media used for sex education most frequently mentioned educational videos, and many found these memorable for their inappropriateness. Some teachers used video without sufficient discussion and there was a belief expressed by some young people that their teachers had used videos because they were unable to discuss sexual issues in the classroom. It was clear that teachers involved in sex education were themselves the subject of close scrutiny by their pupils with regard to their ability to handle this sensitive subject without embarrassment. Some implications of the results for organizing and managing school sex education are discussed.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: