Youth-Informed Sexual Health Education: A Systematic Review and Study to Explore the School-Based Needs and Interests of Youth

Abstract

This 3-paper dissertation examines the school-based sexual health education needs and interest of youth. To illustrate what is currently known regarding this topic area, the first paper presents findings from a systematic literature of studies from around the world that directly asked youth what they want to learn in school about sexual health. As shown in this paper, youth desire relevant and respectful sexual health education that covers a comprehensive range of physical, emotional, and social content. Findings from this review also revealed a significant need for additional research regarding this topic area as the limited number of included studies often lacked sufficient detail to guide educators in the selection and facilitation of specific content. The second and third papers of this dissertation present a study designed to identify how important youth believe it is to learn in school about content and skills represented within the National Sexuality Education Standards (NSES). The second paper provides a detailed overview of the survey development process, as well as the level of importance youth place on learning in school about pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and related influencing factors. The third paper focuses on level of importance for learning about relationships, identity, and safety, in addition to instructional preferences for learning about sexual health. Findings from the study revealed overwhelming support for the content and skills represented within the NSES. All topics were considered on average to be “important,” “very important,” or “extremely important” to learn in school; however, statistically significant differences did emerge based on age, gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual experience. School-based instruction was also identified by youth as their top preferences for where, how, and from whom they would like to learn about sexual health.