Sexuality education at kindergarten and primary and secondary school setting across China / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To understand the current situation of school based sexuality education, attitudes and evaluations of teachers and students toward sexuality education, so as to provide evidence for promoting the development of school based sexuality education.@*Methods@#From September to October 2021, 2 140 valid data from students in basic education and 2 146 from kindergarten and primary and secondary school teachers were collected by online questionnaire. The data were described and statistically analyzed, and the influencing factors of teachers willingness to teach sexuality education courses were explored by logistic regression analysis.@*Results@#About 52.06% of the students had not received sexuality education in school, and 47.53% of the teachers did not carry out sexuality education in the school. Sexuality education in schools mainly focuses on reproductive health and physical development. About 48.93% of the teachers thought that the implementation of sexuality education in schools was not good, and the proportion of high school students who thought sexuality education in schools were "very bad" (32.87%) or "not very good" ( 21.23 %) was the highest. The teachers who undertook sexuality education were mainly mental health teachers (55.51% reported by teachers, 43.96% reported by students). About 71.02% of teachers believe that the best way to carry out sexuality education classes was to set up sexuality education curriculum. Students and teachers reported the need for sexuality education, and more than 50% of primary school students and high school students thought that sexuality education were "very needed" and "somewhat needed". About 51.77 % of teachers considered sexuality education "very urgent". All increased recognition of sexuality education, confidence in answering sex questions, external support for sexuality education, and acceptance of sexuality education training increased the likelihood of teachers teaching sexuality education ( OR =1.02, 1.95, 1.03, 3.53, P <0.05).@*Conclusion@#The current situation of school based sexuality education is not optimistic, the gap between sexuality education and students needs is wide, and the abilities of sexuality education teachers are insufficient.

Enhancing school based sexuality education to promote the development of students physical and mental health / 中国学校卫生

Abstract@#School-based sexuality education continues to face problems and challenges, such as schools are unable to carry out their main role in regards to the provision of sexuality education, a shortage of teachers specialized in teaching this subject and the absence of a separate and dedicated curriculum that focuses on comprehensive sexuality education teaching content. In order to promote school-based sexuality education, it is necessary to promote a comprehensive curriculum that enhances content relevance, while continuously improving and optimizing national policies on sexuality education by focusing on more accurate policy making, refining implementation methods, and strengthening the synergistic effect of school-based sexuality education policies.