Communicating with Confidence: Evaluating Sexual Education Exposure’s Effect on Sexual Communication

This study examined associations between reports of receiving information on sexual education topics common to different sexual education curricula (e.g. abstinence only until marriage, comprehensive) and reported confidence in sexual communication of information and preferences, taking into account information received from school health classes, parents/guardians, online resources, and peers.
Data used from 293 participants aged 18-25 was used to perform descriptive analyses and linear regressions adjusted for significant covariates. Exposure to a comprehensive sexual education curriculum was found to be significantly positively associated with increased sexual communication confidence, while exposure to an abstinence only until marriage curriculum was not found to be a significant predictor. All resources were found to be positively associated with sexual communication confidence with the exception of health class, which was an insignificant predictor.
Comprehensive sexual education is an important factor in increasing young adults’ confidence in sexual communication of information and preferences. However, sexual education delivery in health classes in the United States is currently ineffective. A reevaluation of how sexual education should be delivered in the United States is needed.