This paper focuses on a single lesson created as part of a year-long comprehensive sex and sexuality programme for youth (9-12-year-old) of refugee and immigrant backgrounds. Utilising the concept of youth agency, we analysed the process of art-making with the students and its product to explore how the creation of penises and vulvas out of craft…

There is emerging evidence that young people have a good understanding of consent as a concept, but this does not align with real world practices. The perspectives of young people on the complexities of enacting consent are lacking, as are their views on the role of sex and relationships education. This study explored the topic of consent with 18…

This article examines a set of sexuality education textbooks used in a selection of primary schools in Beijing. These textbooks, under the overall name of [characters omitted] (Cherish Lives), embody a comprehensive sexuality education approach with content designed on the basis of the UNESCO International Technical Guidance on Sexuality…

The study of contemporary youth gender cultures within an educational context illustrates the emergence of new possibilities of self-expression as well as more favourable attitudes towards diversity, at a time when stereotypical gender mandates still persist. This study aimed to deepen understanding of gender identity construction by analysing…

Since the introduction of the HPV vaccine in Chile in 2014, there have been few studies exploring parental perspectives on the vaccine or on adolescent sex and sexuality education, and even fewer exploring fathers' perspectives. Subsequent to an earlier study of Chilean mothers' attitudes towards the HPV vaccine and adolescent sexual health and…

This article focuses on South African teenage girls' engagement with pornography. Using a decolonial approach and drawing upon new feminist materialism, this study focuses on the ways in which bodies, gender and sexuality configure to produce and constrain girls' capacities for sexual expression. The paper makes three claims. First, the article…

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…

Scholarly conversations regarding sexual violence and sexuality education typically emphasise cisgender and heterosexual experiences, leaving sexual and gender minority young people's voices unheard. This happens despite adolescence being a crucial period for the onset of sexual violence, with sexual and gender minority youth reporting elevated…

Pornography often depicts traditional gender norms and aggression paired with sexual behaviour. Among adolescents, exposure to pornography is related to unhealthy beliefs about gender, sex and relationships. Critical thinking about media may reduce the internalisation of unhealthy messages in pornography. However, there is a dearth of research…

Research suggests that intimate relationship violence and coercive control are prevalent in young people's relationships. Furthermore, young people often fail to recognise such behaviour as abuse. While such findings indicate the normalisation of controlling and coercive behaviours amongst young people, there is little focus on how these…

Shortcomings in sex and relationship education (SRE) related to norms and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexuality (LGBTQIA) perspectives have been reported internationally and in Sweden. This paper reports on findings from a critical study of SRE content in Swedish biology textbooks for 13- to 16-year-old pupils, with the…

Sexual consent has increasingly become a central component of Relationships and Sex Education. This paper draws upon findings from qualitative research conducted with teenagers in England, which explored their perspectives on consent within their contemporary youth sexual cultures, including in digital (sexting) contexts. The findings suggest that…

This paper explores two scenarios in which young women refuse the sexual advances of young men in the films "Looking for Alibrandi" and "The Rage in Placid Lake." The paper highlights the heteronormative nature of education around refusing sex, which reinstates gendered stereotypes of masculine as active and feminine as…

This paper details findings from an evaluation of a gender-transformative sexual and reproductive health and rights group education programme facilitated with young men aged 15-24 years in South Africa. A total of 475 young men participated in the group education programme. A self-administered pre- and post-questionnaire survey was conducted with…

This paper draws on findings from a two-year study of gender and gender transgression among school children and youth in rural Ontario, Canada conducted while running gender equity workshops for students aged 8-18 years, in which I asked participants to document what gender looked and felt like. Through writing prompts, pictures, discussion and…