Sexual and reproductive health education for young people in Victoria, Australia: a mixed methods study

ABSTRACT

Young people aged >15 years (Years 11 and 12 students) in Australia are unlikely to receive school-based sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education. The aims of this study were to gather the perspectives of young people regarding their experiences of school-based SRH education and explore what they considered should be the core components of this form of education for Years 11 and 12 students. A mixed-methods study involving an online survey (n = 1226) and six workshops (n = 20) was undertaken in Victoria, Australia between September and November 2021. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the survey data. Qualitative workshop transcripts were coded before five themes and three sub-themes were identified. Participants reported feeling let down by the inadequate provision of SRH education at school. Those who had received SRH education in Years 11 and 12 were more likely to report they left school with enough knowledge to protect their SRH. Participants reported wanting SRH education in Years 11 and 12 and described some of the strategies that schools can adopt to make this possible without compromising other learning priorities. Further work is required to clarify the best way forward in this respect.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual and reproductive health
• sexuality education
• school-based education
• mixed-methods

Disclosure statement

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

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2022.2103110

Notes

1. VCAL will be integrated into VCE from 2023. Not that both VCE and VCAL are referred to as VCE hereafter.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF). The MRFF supports health and medical research and innovation, with the goal of improving the health and wellbeing of Australians. MRFF funding was provided to the Australian Prevention Partnership Centre under the MRFF Boosting Preventive Health Research Program.