Sexuality Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Analysis of the Challenges and Changes Experienced by Sexuality Educators

Abstract

The implementation of sexuality education has changed dramatically as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, only two empirical studies have investigated the difficulties sexuality educators faced as they adjusted to this new educational landscape. The purpose of the present study was to expand on this research with a larger sample of sexuality educators (n = 133) from a more diverse range of employment settings and occupations. Participants responded to two open-ended questions about the changes and challenges they experienced with the implementation of their curricula due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An inductive qualitative content analysis revealed four themes: issues with remote learning, changes to pedagogical techniques and curricula, course content specific to sex/relationships during COVID-19, and reasons for cancelation or temporary suspension of curricula. The results provide important context about common obstacles experienced by sexuality educators, as well as those that only impacted specific programs or settings. The findings also highlight the ways in which educators conceptualized the pandemic as a teachable moment for sexual health. This research serves as an important reference for educators and public health officials as the downstream effects of the pandemic on sexuality education make themselves known.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• sexuality education
• qualitative research
• sexuality educators

Acknowledgments

Funding provided by the Department of Psychology at St. Lawrence University’s Valentine Fund supported this research. We would like to thank our participants for their continued work in providing our nation’s youth crucial sexuality education, as well as the editor and anonymous reviewers for their feedback on this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 These benefits have largely been attributed to comprehensive sexuality education (Kirby, 2008).

2 This survey contained quantitative measures that were unrelated to the pandemic and thus were not reported in the present manuscript. Only data from our open-ended questions about the impact of the pandemic have been included here.

3 Students living in China are blocked from accessing websites owned by Google (e.g., Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive), Facebook (e.g., Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger), Twitter (e.g., Periscope), and a number of other U.S.-based tech companies (see Leskin, 2019 for an overview; Lau, 2020). This practice of internet censorship has colloquially been labeled the “Great Firewall” and existed before the pandemic (Leskin, 2019).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by St. Lawrence University Psychology Department’s Valentine Fund.