Student perspectives on a state-wide relationships and sexual health programme in South Australian schools, 2006–2017

ABSTRACT

Relationships and sexual health education is an accepted part of the school curriculum to support adolescent development. In recent years, the nature of this education has expanded to include topics encompassing a social model of health (e.g. with a focus on gender roles). There has, however, been limited exploration of student views about the inclusion of these topics. This paper presents student feedback on South Australia’s Relationships and Sexual Health Programme, a state-wide curriculum produced by the state’s major sexual and reproductive health organisation. The findings are drawn from an annual survey conducted from 2006 to 2017, involving 29,533 secondary school students aged 12–16 years. Regression analyses were used to assess the relationship between the year the survey was conducted and student ratings of the programme (‘good/excellent’ vs ‘poor/satisfactory’) and, separately, the individual topics students’ considered most important. There was a positive association between survey year and rating the programme as ‘good/excellent’ with regard to providing a ‘safe and supportive classroom environment’, and a small negative association between survey year and ‘overall rating’ as ‘good/excellent’. Over time, there was an increase in the number of students selecting the topic ‘consent’ as the most important. These findings demonstrate student support for the inclusion of a range of social health topics in relationships and sexual health education.

KEYWORDS:

• relationships and sex education
• secondary school students
• relationships
• consent
• programme

Acknowledgments

SGEK’s and TKO’s contributions to this study were supported by Australian Government Research Training Program. ZL was supported by an Early Career Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia (APP1141382). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

SHINE SA provided the data used in this study. The University of Adelaide researchers independently analysed the data and collectively the author group discussed the interpretation of findings.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council [Early Career Fellowship APP1141382]; Australian Government [Research Training Program Scholarships].