Oral Presentation ESA-SRB-ANZBMS 2024 in conjunction with ENSA

Understanding sexual and reproductive health education in Australian high schools using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (#2)

Ava Medley 1 2 , Emmalee A Ford 1 2 3 , Catherine Chojenta 2 4 , Kirsty G Pringle 1 2 , Jessie M Sutherland 1 2
  1. School of Biomedical Science & Pharmacy, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, University Of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia
  2. Women's Health Research Program, Hunter Medical Research Institute, Newcastle, NSW, Australia
  3. Family Planning Australia, Newington, NSW, Australia
  4. School of Medicine and Public Health, College of Health Medicine and Wellbeing, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia

Infertility impacts one in every six people and is exacerbated by the growing prevalence of preventable risk factors including age, lifestyle, and untreated sexually transmitted infections. Comprehensive sexuality education is recommended globally, by UNESCO, as an effective intervention in improving sexual and reproductive health, including fertility. Despite the Australian curriculum attempting to include a cohesive and comprehensive sexuality education to Australian adolescents, delivery and relevance varies widely among students. This project aimed to investigate the thoughts and perceptions of Australia’s adolescents on their sexual health education to understand how this can be improved.

We recruited 25 participants, aged 15–18 with diverse demographic backgrounds, into focus groups and discussed their experiences and opinions of sexual health education. The Reflexive Thematic Analysis Model by Braun and Clarke was used to analyse focus group transcripts and develop patterns of meaning (themes). Regular engagement with a youth sexual health consumer advisory group, was used to validate thematic analysis and guide future recommendations to improve comprehensive sexuality education. This engagement approach was adopted to ensure reflective and representative analysis and minimise researcher biases.

Thematic analysis revealed five fundamental themes of “Culture of Sex”, “Lack of relatable and comprehensive content”, “Biases influencing content”, “Uptake of false sexual health information”, and “Delivery of sexual and reproductive health information”. These themes are indicative of the contemporary deficiencies experienced by Australian adolescents in their sexual health education and reciprocally highlight explicit elements to target for improvement.

These findings have the potential to shape national recommendations that both align with the international guidelines for comprehensive sexuality education and promote increased engagement and relevancy in the context of the Australian adolescent population. Ultimately, this study applies a progressive, stakeholder-driven, early intervention approach towards improving the sexual and reproductive health of young Australians.