Sexual Health Education

Dr. Heather Sears (Psychology), several graduate students, and I were involved in conducting four studies on attitudes toward sexual health education in collaboration with the New Brunswick Department of Education. We surveyed 4206 parents, 1663 high school students, 745 middle school students, and 336 teachers about their attitudes toward sexual health education at school and at home.

Our results showed that parents, students, and teachers are strongly in favour of having sexual health education in the schools. All three groups also thought that the curriculum should include a wide variety of topics, and that most of these topics should be covered by the end of middle school. Other important results were that: Parents wanted more support from schools to provide sexual health education at home; teachers who are expected to teach sexual health need in-service training to equip them to do so; and. students want more factual information as well as practical skills about a range of sexual health topics. The results of these studies have been published in four separate articles in The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality (see below). 

We have also published a number of other studies based on these data. First, we published a study  in the Journal of Marriage and Family examining predictors of parent-child sexual communication based on the parents' reports. We found that parents' demographic characteristics, own sexual health education, knowledge and comfort talking about sexuality with their childen, and ratings of the importance of comprehensive school-based sexual health education as well as their child's grade level were uniquely associated with their reports of their communication about sexuality. However, different predictors were associated with different sexual topics.  Heather Sears and I completed  a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to continue our research on parent-child sexual communication.

Second, Lyndsay Foster, one of my doctoral students, has taken the lead on a study analyzing predictors of  middle school students' ratings of the quality of the  sexual health eduation they have received at home on these data. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that students’ perceptions of higher quality school-based SHE and parents’ more frequent encouragement of questions about sexuality contributed uniquely to perceptions of higher quality SHE by parents. Although adolescent characteristics did not contribute uniquely, students with less dating and sexual experience reported highly quality SHE by parents. These results suggest that parents can contribute to a more positive communication experience by:  frequently inviting their adolescent to ask sexual questions rather than waiting to be asked questions or to see signs of readiness; and, stating clearly that their goal in having these discussion is not to learn about their adolescent's sexual history. Finally, middle schools students evaluation of SHE at school and at home were significantly associated, supporting the idea that schools and parents are partners and not independent institutions that contribute to adolescents' sexual development. 
 
Third, we published a study in Sex Eductation on factors associated with middle school students' perceptions of the quality of the school-based sexual health education that they received. Boys and students in a lowe grade and with less sexual experience rated the quality of the SHE more positively.  After accounting for student characteristics, students who more strongly agreed that their SHE matched heir interests and covered sexual health topics more adequately, as well as who viewed their teacher as being more comfortable talking about sexual health topics and doing a better job answering questions, reported higher quality SHE. Students' perceptions of the adequacy of coverage of 10 sexual health topics were also positively correlated with their reports of higher quality SHE, although only two topics (correct names for genitals and puberty/physical development) contributed uniquely to the prediction of this variable.  These results reinforce the need for a comprehensive SHE curriculum as well as adequate preparation of teachers if SHE is to be engaging to students.

Jacqueline Cohen, a former doctoral student, has taken the lead on a study  examining predictors of teachers' and willingness to teach sexual health eduction and perceptions of factors influencing their willingness to provide SHE, based on the teacher data. On average, the teachers werer only somewhat willing to teach SHE and their willingness varied between topics.  The teachers who reported greater willingness to teach SHE were more likely to be teaching middle school, have less teaching experience, have received training to teach SHE, feel more knowledgeable about sexual health topics, and view broad-based SHE as more important. A number of factors were identified as barriers to some participants' willingness to teach SHE;  all but one of these factors enhanced other teachers' willingness to teach SHE. Teachers who were teaching middle school, had received training to teach sexual health, had  more experience teaching SHE, and felt more knowledgeable about sexual health topics were more likely to regard these factors as enhancing their willingness to teach SHE. A manuscript based on these data was published in Sex Education.

I am following up on this work with Dr. Lisa Dawn Hamilton at Mount Allison University by surveying university students about their experiences of SHE in middle school and high school.  I am also involved in a project assessing the attitudes of parents in Ontario towards school-based sexual health education with Dr. Alex McKay of the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada. We are currently preparing a manuscript based on this work.

Publications Based on this Work:              

Byers, E. S., Sears, H.A., & Foster, L. R. (2013). Factors associated with middle school students' perceptions of the quality of school-based sexual health education. Sex Education, 13(2), 214-227.

             Cohen, J. N., Byers, E. S., & Sears, H. A. (2012). Factors affecting                              Canadian  teachers’ willingness to teach sexual health education. Sex                    Education, 12(3), 299-316.

Cohen, J. N., Byers, E. S., Sears, H. A., & Weaver, A. D. (2004). Teachers and sexual health education: Attitudes, knowledge, and comfort. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 13, 1-15.

Byers, E. S., Sears, H. A., Voyer, S. D., Thurlow, T. L., Cohen, J. N., & Weaver, A. D. (2003). An adolescent perspective on sexual health education at school and at home: I. High school students. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 12, 1-17.

Byers, E. S., Sears, H. A., Voyer, S. D., Thurlow, T. L., Cohen, J. N., & Weaver, A. D. (2003). An adolescent perspective on sexual health education at school and at home: II. Middle school students. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 12, 19-33.

Weaver, A. D., Byers, E. S., Sears, J. N., & Randall, H. E. S. (2002). Sexual health education at school and at home: Attitudes and experiences of New Brunswick parents. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 11. 19-32.