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

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic characteristics.

Variable	N	%
Gender
Man/Male	1046	43.10
Woman/Female	1371	56.49
Non-binary	1	<.0
I don’t know/prefer not to answer	1	<.0
Unknown	8	0.33
State or Territory
New South Wales	624	25.71
Victoria	502	20.68
Queensland	388	15.99
South Australia	158	6.51
Western Australia	643	26.49
Tasmania	49	2.02
Australian Capital Territory	41	1.69
Northern Territory	22	0.91
Child enrolled in a primary school (N = 1786)
Government	1167	67.81
Catholic	339	19.70
Independent (faith-based)	169	9.82
Independent (not faith-based)	111	6.45
Child enrolled in a secondary school (N = 1407)
Government	784	57.82
Catholic	310	22.86
Independent (faith-based)	221	16.30
Independent (not faith-based)	92	6.78
Currently have children in both primary and secondary school	650	47.94
Ethnicity (up to two options possible)
Australian	1484	61.15
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander	39	1.61
European	283	11.66
Asian	308	12.69
UK	725	29.87
Middle Eastern	13	0.54
Russian	8	0.33
African	12	0.49
South African	11	0.45
North American	12	0.49
Latin American	12	0.49
New Zealand (including Māori)	25	1.03
Other	13	0.54
Education
I have never attended school	1	<.0
Year 1–6	5	0.21
Year 7–9	16	0.66
Year 10	101	4.16
Year 11	43	1.77
Year 12	265	10.92
TAFE or apprenticeship	562	23.16
Undergraduate university degree	765	31.52
Postgraduate university degree	655	26.99
I don’t know/prefer not to answer	14	0.58
Disability (N = 626)
Has a child with a physical disability	46	1.90
Has child with an intellectual/developmental disability	262	10.80
Has child with both a physical and an intellectual/developmental disability	29	1.19
This disability has been formally diagnosed	289	11.91
Religion
No religion	939	38.69
Catholic	518	21.34
Anglican (Church of England/Protestant)	270	11.12
Uniting Church	69	2.84
Presbyterian	52	2.14
Buddhist	56	2.31
Muslim	55	2.27
Greek Orthodox	47	1.94
Baptist	55	2.27
Hindu	66	2.72
Christian	70	2.88
Jewish	9	0.37
Other	28	1.15
I don’t know/prefer not to answer	193	7.95
Importance of religion to everyday life
Very important	440	18.13
Somewhat important	459	18.91
Not very important	438	18.05
Not at all important	976	40.21
I don’t know/prefer not to answer	114	4.70
Political Affiliation
Australian Labour Party	649	26.74
Liberal/National Coalition	608	25.05
Australian Greens	202	8.32
Other	144	5.93
Undecided	572	23.57
I don’t know/prefer not to answer	252	10.38

All figures add to 2,427 with no missing data

Table 2. Parental agreement that relationships and sexual health education should be provided in schools, Australia and states/territories.

	Australia (N = 2427) % (n)	NSW (N = 624) % (n)	VIC (N = 502) % (n)	QLD (N = 388) % (n)	SA (N = 158) % (n)	WA (N = 643) % (n)	TAS (N = 49) % (n)	ACT (N = 41) % (n)	NT (N = 22) % (n)
Strongly agree	45.94 (1115)	43.42 (271)	39.84 (200)	47.42 (184)	41.77 (66)	336 (52.26)	55.10 (27)	48. 78 (20)	50.00 (11)
Agree	44.05 (1069)	43.75 (273)	48.80 (245)	43.56 (169)	50.63 (80)	259 (40.28)	34.69 (17)	43.90 (18)	36.36 (8)
Neither agree nor disagree	5.64 (137)	7.05 (44)	6.37 (32)	4.38 (17)	3.80 (6)	4.51 (29)	8.16 (4)	4.88 (2)	13.64 (3)
Disagree	2.22 (54)	2.56 (16)	2.59 (13)	2.84 (11)	1.90 (3)	1.56 (10)	2.04 (1)	0	0
Strongly disagree	1.65 (40)	2.24 (14)	1.79 (9)	1.79 (5)	1.90 (3)	1.24 (8)	0	2.44 (1)	0
I don’t know/prefer not to answer	0.49 (12)	.96 (6)	0.60 (3)	0.52 (2)	0	0.16 (1)	0	0	0

All figures add to 2,427 with no missing data

Figure 1. Parents response (%) to the item “Overall how would you rate the quality of the relationships and sexual health education that your child/children have received in school?.

Data availability statement

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