London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

School sex education is often negative, heterosexist, out of touch and taught by poorly trained, embarrassed teachers, according to a new review of the views and experiences of young people in different countries, published in the online journal BMJ Open.

Led by the University of Bristol, the research concluded that schools' failure to acknowledge that sex education is a special subject with unique challenges is doing a huge disservice to young people, and missing a key opportunity to safeguard and improve their sexual health.

The researchers base their findings on 55 qualitative studies which explored the views and experiences of young people, most aged between 12 and 18, who had been taught sex and relationship education in school based programmes in the UK, Ireland, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Iran, Brazil and Sweden between 1990 and 2015.

The researchers synthesised the feedback and found that despite the wide geographical reach of the studies, young people's views were remarkably consistent. So what effect can poor sex education have on young people and what needs to change? Dr Cicely Marston, Associate Professor in Social Science at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:

"This comprehensive review found consistent evidence of failings where sexuality education is delivered, and in many settings there is no sexuality education at all. Yet good sexuality education is vital to support young people to develop healthy relationships with positive emotional and physical consequences.

"The review highlights how difficult it can be to discuss sex, particularly when the discussion is led by untrained teachers who are not given sufficient help to deliver the material, and who as a result may well themselves be uncomfortable talking about it. The review also found that discussions in school sexuality education tend to veer away from 'difficult', socially-sensitive topics such as performance anxiety even though young people say that for them, such topics are very important.

"Young people deserve to be supported to think through the anxieties they might feel: for instance, why should young men but not young women be expected to 'know' about sex. What does it mean to 'perform' well sexually with a partner? Who decides?

"Good communication about sex is essential to ensure that young people are able to avoid sexual exploitation, to engage in satisfying sexual or non-sexual relationships with others, and develop sexually at the right pace for them. For this, comprehensive, high quality sexuality education programmes are essential."

Related links

• Research examines how young people talk about oral sex
• Are we facing an epidemic of harmful anal sex, brought on only because of the availability of online porn? - Cicely Marston blog