Support for school-based relationships and sexual health education: a national survey of Australian parents

ABSTRACT

Despite significant evidence worldwide that parents support school-based delivery of relationships and sexuality education (RSE), Australian data has generally lacked larger, nationally representative samples. Furthermore, misguided perceptions of parental attitudes are known to impact delivery. In response, online survey data were collected from 2,427 parents (56.5% female) nationwide, to examine their attitudes towards school-based RSE. Most had a child enrolled in a government school (65.3% primary, 55.7% secondary); and reported diverse religious affiliations (38.7% no religion, 21.3% Catholic, 11.1% Anglican) and voting preferences (26.7% Australian Labour Party, 25.1% Liberal/National, 23.6% undecided). Overall, 89.9% of parents supported schools to deliver RSE, with some modest differences being associated with particular demographic variables. Beyond widespread support for RSE, parents emphatically endorsed schools to address a diverse range of RSE-related issues (n = 40 topics). Parents’ responses also provided insight regarding when certain topics should first be introduced and the quality of current RSE provision in schools. Findings from this descriptive overview challenge the currently overstated assumption that parents do not support RSE in schools. Such persistent and obstructive discourse is counterproductive to evidence-based strategies that seek to strengthen young people’s personal and social development in a comprehensive and contemporary manner.

KEYWORDS:

• Parents
• Australian schools
• relationships and sexuality education
• attitudes
• advocacy

Acknowledgments

We thank the Canadian research team who made their instrument available for our use, Claudia Hodges who conducted the initial cognitive interviews for the survey instrument, Jun Chih who provided technical assistance, and all the parents who completed the survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2023.2169825

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Sexual Health and Blood-borne Virus Program of the Western Australian Department of Health’s Communicable Disease Control Directorate. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the funding body or the Government of Western Australia.