Selling Our Kids Short: Exploring the Role of Race in Sex Education

Background and Purpose: Sex education is intended to teach youth about healthy relationships and sexual development, and may have far-reaching consequences in the lives of young people as they navigate relationships and sexual experiences. However, among the gaps in school-based sex education is a lack of attention to race and racial justice. Research suggests that sex education in the United States and Canada has a history of racism, and tends to focus on white people as “the norm,” often portraying people of color negatively or not at all. Although some sex research focuses on racial health disparities, less attention is paid to the experiences of racialized individuals and the role of racial identity in sex education messaging, attitudes, and behaviors. Accordingly, this study asks: what role does race play with regard to sex education content received and related outcomes?

Methods: Participants were 345 first-year undergraduates (mean age=18.8 years; 56% female; 60% Caucasian; 70% heterosexual) attending a university in southwestern Ontario.  Participants received course credit for completing an online survey. Using a 0-3 scale, participants indicated the extent to which their schools had communicated 35 sexual health topics, and 60 gender and sexual values. Through factor analysis, subscales were created, including biology and health information (7 items; alpha=.85); gendered double standard messages (11 items; alpha=.87); messages that sex is natural (8 items; alpha=.84); messages that “sex is a game” (7 items; alpha=.82); and messages that sex is serious (5 items; alpha=.75). Participants were also asked about their sexual risk-taking, condom self-efficacy, and endorsement of rape myths.

 Results: Initial analyses indicated that youth of color received significantly less information about health and biology from school, and fewer messages that sex is to be taken seriously, than white youth.  OLS regression revealed that youth of color engaged in significantly less sexual risk-taking in relationships than white youth (b=-.53, p<.001). They also reported lower levels of condom self-efficacy (b=-.33, p<.01) and higher levels of rape myths endorsement (b=.72, p<.01). Additionally, when added into the final regression, an interaction term between race and health information was significantly linked with rape myths endorsement (b=-.26, p<.05) suggesting that race moderated the relationship between sexual health information received and rape myth attitudes.

Conclusions and Implications: Results suggest that race is an important concept with regard to sex education. Youth of color tend to have different experiences in sex education than white youth, which may be detrimental to them. One example is the finding that the (lower) amount of health information received by youth of color was linked with higher levels of rape myths endorsement, which itself is linked with adverse outcomes. Racialized individuals seem to be overlooked in sex education, which may lead to poorer health and relationship outcomes, and perpetuation of inequalities. Social workers must work within school contexts, and across practice, policy, and research settings, to prioritize more effective, anti-racist and egalitarian sex education. This is critical for the healthy development of all young people, and a grand challenge for social work.