School-based Sexuality Education Curricula: Are Parents Supportive?

Viktoriya I. Yuodeshko ()
Additional contact information
Viktoriya I. Yuodeshko: Research Institute of Labour of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus

Population and Economics, 2023, vol. 7, issue 2, 23-39

Abstract: This paper discusses the findings of a study on the attitudes of Belarusian parents with school-aged children towards school-based sexuality education programs. The study aimed to measure parental support for comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and its individual components, identify the topics and age ranges approved by parents, and determine which course characteristics are important to them. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used to evaluate the factors that influence parental support for introducing sexuality education in schools. The study found that a fairly high share of 60.6% of parents were supportive of the introduction of CSE, despite low satisfaction and awareness of the current information presented in schools. Parents approved a median age of 13.3 years as the minimum age for CSE curriculum. However, topics such as safe use of cell phones, computers, the Internet, and social media; psychological pressure and violence; peer bullying; confronting peers; sources of help; relationships, love, friendship, parenting, and family were considered permissible for earlier age ranges. The study found that parental support to school-based sexuality education is influenced by several factors. These include parents' normative ideas about the balance of responsibility between family and school in educating children and adolescents about sexuality, the level of awareness of and satisfaction with available information on sexual development and health in the school curriculum, whether parents have a college degree, parents' personal experiences in having intimate conversations with their children, and any difficulties they may encounter in such communication. The paper offers recommendations for a CSE course architecture that is relevant to the context of Belarus and meets parental expectations, as well as on perspectives for advancing sexuality education in Belarus.

Keywords: Belarus; sample; survey; children; adolescents; reproductive; health; sexuality; education; parents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://populationandeconomics.pensoft.net/article/102566/

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:arh:jpopec:v:7:y:2023:i:2:p:23-39

DOI: 10.3897/popecon.7.e102566

Access Statistics for this article

Population and Economics is currently edited by Irina E. Kalabikhina

More articles in Population and Economics from ARPHA Platform
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Teodor Georgiev ().