The Content and Context of Sexuality Education: An Exploratory Study in One State

Abstract

The findings of studies correlating sexuality education courses with sexual behavior have generally been discouraging: One study found no consistent relationship between sexuality education and the beginning of sexual intercourse, although it found that such courses did increase the use of contraceptives.' Another found an extremely small positive association between sexuality education and sexual activity, but a stronger one between sexuality education and the use of contraceptives.2 Other researchers found no direct association between receiving AIDS education and having two or more partners or using condoms.3 The generally small effect demonstrated in these studies may stem in part from the fact that the content of many courses lacks elements that have been shown to have some positive effect on teenagers. The failure to provide programs with these positive elements may in turn reflect a variety of factors, one of them a lack of public support for sexuality education. Whether the level of community support is a factor in course content is difficult to determine, however, because, as one review has observed,4 few previous studies have explored either the content of sexuality education courses or the context in which curriculum decisions are made. The question of public support for sexuality education is important nonetheless, because if educators are discouraged from using productive but unpopular strategies to