Sexuality Education

What is comprehensive sexuality education?

Comprehensive sexuality education is learning about:

the emotional, social, spiritual, physical and biological aspects of growing up
relationships
sex
human sexuality
sexual and reproductive health.

It involves young people in expanding knowledge, exploring attitudes and developing skills in order to lead fulfilling and healthy lives.

Family Planning supports and has developed an ‘age appropriate’ approach to sexuality (and relationships) education. This means that programmes are developed in response to a child or young person’s stage or level of development.

What does sexuality education aim to achieve?

Sexuality education aims to equip children and young people with the information, skills and values they need to have safe, fulfilling and enjoyable relationships and to take responsibility for their sexual and reproductive health and well-being.

It aims to contribute to behaviour change, including reducing unprotected and unwanted sex, and reducing harmful behaviour, including sexual offences such as assault and abuse.

What is good quality sexuality education?

Researchers have identified characteristics of effective sexuality education programmes including:

Both school and home contribute to sexuality education
Trained educators are used
A comprehensive range of topics is addressed, including contraception
Psychosocial factors which affect behaviour, including values, norms and self efficacy are addressed
Programmes begin before a young person first has sex
Participatory learning methods are used
Children and young people are taught using small group work.

Does sexuality education work?

Nearly all sexuality education programmes that have been studied increased knowledge about different aspects of sexuality and risk of pregnancy or HIV and other STIs. This is important, because increasing knowledge is a primary role of schools .

International research shows that good quality sexuality education has a protective function. Young people who have had good, comprehensive sexuality education are more likely to delay having sex.

There is no evidence that comprehensive sexuality education hastens the first experience of sex. Research has found that many comprehensive sexuality education programmes delay the initiation of sex; reduce the number of sexual partners and increase condom or contraceptive use. Some programmes have been found to reduce the frequency of sex.

Programmes with a comprehensive focus, providing accurate and complete information on sexual and reproductive health, using teaching skills to engage in healthier behaviour and addressing attitudes and values, were usually shown to result in better health outcomes.

Comprehensive sexuality education effectively promotes abstinence as well as other protective behaviours.

There is good evidence that a “just say no” or abstinence-only approach combined with no information (or incorrect information) about contraception is not effective in changing behaviour in the long term.

Abstinence-only approaches generally do not address sexual diversity and identity issues, a weakness of many programmes, noted by the ERO review.

What is an appropriate age to start sexuality education?

Young people are maturing at younger ages than ever before. They are bombarded with media messages about sexuality and if parents and educators are not talking about sexuality their will get their messages from the internet, music, videos and films. Sexuality education helps them make sense of these media messages and to separate fact from fiction.

Because sexuality education is much more than “the birds and the bees” it should start young. Normalising conversations about bodies, good and bad feelings, families and relationships and learning communication skills from a young age makes it ok for children to ask questions and build on their understanding as they mature.

What are the most commonly asked questions by young people?

Younger students generally want to know about changes to their own and others’ bodies, what is going to happen, whether what they feel and look like is “normal”, what happens with reproduction, how to manage things like crushes, periods, erections, wet dreams, and how to show someone they like them.

Older students want to know how to tell if they are ready to have sex, how to tell if someone likes them, information about types of sex, how to make sexual activity more enjoyable for both partners, information about types of contraception and where to get it, how to know if you’re pregnant, how to get an abortion, emotions in relationships, dealing with break ups, sexual orientation and identity.

Girls tend to ask more relationship and emotions related questions and boys are a little more body and sexual activities focussed.

Is sexuality education best delivered by a third party or parents?

Sexuality education is more effective when both home and school contribute.

Parents are the first sexuality educators of their children and we remind parents that values are taught not caught. Parents and caregivers also role model relationship behaviours, gender roles and expectations.

Young people have a right to education and information and to understand what is happening to their bodies as they develop and mature. This is spelt out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Not all parents are comfortable talking about sexuality and relationships.

School comprehensive sexuality education should be complementing this education. Effective sexuality education includes small group work and participatory methods, enabling young people to reflect on their own and others’ attitudes and values – the diversity that exists in society and to practice skills such as communication skills.

Young people may develop different values from their parents and this can be challenging for parents to accept.

However, there’s research evidence that parents talking with their young people about their dreams and hopes for them is a protective factor – more likely to delay becoming sexually active and to use contraception/protection when they are having sex.