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Young people's knowledge about puberty and sexual development
Background
This project, was funded by the Kreitman Foundation.
The Trust decided to undertake this research because very little information was available concerning young people’s knowledge about puberty and sexual development. What is clear however, is that what young people know about these aspects of their development are essential for healthy psychological development, and in order to protect themselves from risk.
The Project
Our aim in this project was twofold: to identify what 11-16 year-olds knew (and did not know) about their development, and to develop a research tool that could be used in classrooms to measure young people’s knowledge in these areas. In addition, we aimed to examine young people’s knowledge in this area in relation to key variables of age, gender and school.
The research was undertaken in 1994/1995, in collaboration with Dr Sandra Winn of the Health and Social Policy Research Centre at the University of Brighton. A total of 737 young people aged 11-16, attending four schools in East Sussex, completed the Sexual Knowledge Questionnaire. This questionnaire was developed by the Trust to measure knowledge about puberty and sexual development. It explored young people’s knowledge in five areas – the changes of puberty, knowledge about conception, fertility, contraception, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. In addition, 81 individual interviews were undertaken.
The main results of the study were the knowledge increased more between ages 11-14 than between ages 14-16, and that girls knew more than boys at every ages. A number of significant gaps in young people’s knowledge were identified. The research was considered to have a number of implications for programmes of health and sex education in schools. First, it was found that even by age 15-16 some young people lacked information, which is essential if they are to avoid an unplanned pregnancy or an infection with a sexually transmitted disease. Second, it suggests that boys and girls need to be taught separately to enable the different needs of each gender to be addressed. Third, young people know more about some aspects of puberty and sexual development than others, and there are particular times when knowledge develops more rapidly. Giving teachers this information could thus help them to target areas of particular ignorance.
The results of the research have been published as “Knowledge about puberty and sexual development in 11-16 year-olds: Implications for health and sex education in schools”, In Educational Studies, vol.21,1995. The results also appeared as a chapter in a book edited by John Coleman & Debi Roker ‘ Teenage Sexuality: Health, Risk and Education’ (1999)
Project Leader
Debi Roker and John Coleman were responsible for this project
More information:
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February 1999