Young people require good quality information about their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) while transitioning to adulthood and parents have a key role in providing it. This study intended explored Jordanian and Syrian parents' perspectives on initiating discussions about SRHR with their children. A convenience sample of Jordanian…

Awareness of culturally diverse young people's rights and needs to sexuality education has been raised internationally. However, existing literature has generally focused more on how culturally diverse young people navigate western mainstream societies, leaving the Asian context underexamined. This paper explores the experiences and views of South…

Young people of Pacific heritage living in Aotearoa New Zealand experience poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Current understandings of Pacific youth sexual and reproductive experiences are limited and efforts to deliver culturally appropriate sexuality education are made difficult by lack of resources and cultural sensitivities and…

Increases in STD cases in Indiana communities have led to questions about the sexual health of adolescents. School-based sex education can help teenagers adopt healthy attitudes and behaviours. Effective sex education programmes should involve learning from adolescents and young people about their health needs. Student voice, however, is generally…

This article reports on the findings of a quantitative online survey investigating Australian fathers' perspectives on communicating with their children about relationships and sexuality. A diverse sample of 612 Australian fathers of children aged 3 to 12 years completed the "Sex Ed Dads" survey, sharing their views on sexuality…

This paper analyses two Chinese sex education picture books for children aged between 3 and 6 years of age using van Leeuwen's legitimation framework, which identifies four types of legitimation strategies: authorization, moral evaluation, rationalisation and mythopoesis. Our findings suggest that personal authority tends to be vested in mothers…

Many studies have confirmed the positive effects of comprehensive sexuality education on the development of children's sexuality, such as the acquisition of sexual health knowledge. However, little is known about the impact of comprehensive sexuality education on children's social development, although several core aspects of the approach stress…

Heterosexism and heteronormativity are pervasive in the South African society, but to what degree are they present in Life Orientation (LO) textbooks? This question, explored through a content analysis of widely used Grade 10 LO textbooks, was framed by queer theory. The paper quantitatively examines the coverage of sexualities, and qualitatively…

Throughout the world people face confusion in their thinking about love, sex and marriage. Since the problem is universal, it is useful to examine its scope in a limited or local sense. This paper examines a story of one person in the hope of shedding light on a problem that exists for all. The method we use is to record a narrative told by one…

An early-twentieth-century movement for social purity in England, Canada and the United States aimed to eradicate prostitution, the double standard of sexual morals and their dreaded corollary, the venereal diseases. Social purists suggested that "purity education" for children was the best pedagogical prophylaxis against such…

This paper aims to understand why and how young Muslim women pursue sexual relationships in the urban bustees (slums) of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. I discuss how girls in heterosexual romantic relationships decide where, when and how to have sex, and the importance of class discourses and popular Bollywood culture in this decision-making…

Based on in-depth interviews with 64 American parents of teenagers, I examine how parents navigate the complex landscape of abstinence, personal responsibility, and sexual well-being in their sexuality lessons to their children. Reflecting the dominance of the abstinence-only discourse, many parents expressed a sense of accountability to promote…

There are many assumptions made about the beliefs behind abstinence-only until marriage (AOUM) sex education, yet comparatively little research examining the views of abstinence education providers. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 21 abstinence grantees throughout New York State, I examine how individuals working in abstinence organizations…

This paper provides an overview of the contributions to this special issue in the context of a wider argument about the notion of queering elementary education. When "Queering Elementary Education" was published 10 years ago there was very little writing or research on matters related to primary education, and just finding experienced educators to…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a special sex education program in sexual health on Iranian newly-wed couples. A sample of 64 couples referred to three health centers of Tehran Medicine University, a few months prior to their marriage, were divided into case and control groups. The case group received three lecture sessions…