Can't Get No Satisfaction? Gender, Sexual Orientation, and Youth Satisfaction with Sex Education

Background and Purpose:Sexual development is an important developmental task of adolescence and emerging adulthood.  The goal of sex education is generally to teach youth about healthy sexual expression and relationships. In Canada, no curriculum guidelines exist, and program delivery may vary dramatically. With a few exceptions, there appears to be a dearth of research conducted investigating youth satisfaction with regard to sex education. To our knowledge, an examination of links between youth satisfaction, demographics, and sexual attitudes is novel. Additionally,  research has shown that young men tend to get more permissive messages in sex education than young women, who tend to receive more restrictive and fear-based messaging, and that sex education tends to be Eurocentric and heteronormative. Accordingly, youth satisfaction was explored across gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation categories. Additionally, links were examined between youth satisfaction and other informational and attitudinal variables.

Methods:Participants were 330 first-year undergraduates (mean age=19; 56% female; 54% Caucasian; 72% heterosexual) attending a university in southwestern Ontario. Participants received course credit for completing an online survey about their sex education, attitudes, and experiences. Satisfaction with sex education received was assessed by asking six questions with the prompt, “How satisfied were you with:” and topics including “the amount of information received” and “the tone of the session(s)”. A subscale was created from the satisfaction items (alpha=.89). Participants were also asked about types of sex education information received, sexual assertiveness, self-efficacy, and acceptance of rape myths.

Results: An independent samples t-test revealed that males were significantly more satisfied with their sex education than females (male mean=2.93, SD=0.48; female mean=2.73; SD=0.64; t(328)=3.245, p<.01). In comparing sexual orientation, an ANOVA revealed the highest satisfaction rates in exclusively heterosexual youth (mean=2.87, SD=0.53) and the lowest in youth identifying as queer (mean=1.75, SD=1.06; F(6,313)=4.907, p<.001). Regressions indicated that sex education satisfaction was linked with slightly lower sexual assertiveness (b=-.12, p<.05). Satisfaction was also positively linked with sex education topics examined (dating violence: b=.27, p<.001; biology: b=.30, p<.001; sexual behaviors: b=.24, p<.001; rape: b=.33, p<.001 b=.21, p<.001).

Conclusions and Implications: Youth who receive sex education information that feels relevant to them may be more satisfied with said education. School sex education also appears to be geared towards young people who tend to be in positions of majority and privilege. Other youth may be marginalized or may not receive sufficient or relevant sex education reflective of their experiences. In this study, male and heterosexual youth were significantly more satisfied with their sex education than were females and queer-identifying youth. This is an equity issue, in which some youth people may not have their needs met on a systemic level, which may result in long-term health and safety consequences. Social workers can and should intervene across practice, policy, and research, and can advocate for more inclusive sex education, across gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and other identity areas including ability. Social work can take a leading role in ensuring that youth have access to respectful, relevant, and culturally competent sex education.