American Journal of Sexuality Education最新文献

Autistic adolescents are often excluded from comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) by schools, parents, and healthcare providers, despite growing recognition of their sexual agency. This scoping review examined 42 U.S.- based studies to identify thematic categories that highlight the recurring challenges and opportunities in providing sexuality education for autistic adolescents. Five themes emerged: (1) pervasive misconceptions about autism and sexuality; (2) inadequate access to formal sexual education; (3) parental and clinician discomfort or lack of preparedness to address sexual health; (4) heightened vulnerability to sexual exploitation and adverse health outcomes; and (5) recommendations for inclusive, affirming, and developmentally responsive curricula. Findings highlight how autistic adolescents often receive fragmented, reactive instruction that prioritizes behavior management rather than proactive skill-building in consent, boundaries, and healthy relationships. Evidence suggests that tailored approaches incorporating visual supports, concrete language, and LGBTQ+ inclusivity improve accessibility and relevance. Addressing these gaps requires proper CSE training for autistic adolescents' family members, teachers, and clinicians to enhance communication, strengthen mutual understanding, and foster more supportive, informed relationships across all parties involved. This review contributes to the growing body of literature that calls for CSE that empowers autistic adolescents to make informed decisions and promotes equitable sexual health outcomes.

Adolescents receive inadequate sexual health information from various sources, leaving gaps in sexual and relational knowledge. Exploring unanswered questions among adolescents will help identify these important gaps. Through an online survey with U.S. adolescents, participants (N= 248, M _age = 15.93, 20.9% trans, 60.7% queer) listed a question they or other teens have about sex or relationships. Using thematic analysis, we identified seven major themes (i.e., Relationships, Sexual Activity, Thoughts and Opinions about Sex, Health, Communication, LGBTQ+ topics, Sex Education) and 13 subthemes. We also explored patterns by gender and sexual identity. Responses covered a wide array of topics, including questions on the identification of romantic feelings, STI/STD prevention, and anticipation of one's first sexual encounter. Themes of Relationships and Sexual Activity were most prevalent. Patterns in the data varied, suggesting that queer and trans participants, as well as their cisgender and heterosexual peers, have specific unanswered questions regarding sexuality and relationships.

Sexual health experts are advocating for schools to address healthy relationships and pornography in sex education. We developed and pilot tested the Healthy Relationships Program, an online intervention to be assigned as sex education homework covering healthy relationships, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy prevention, and pornography use for high schoolers in Massachusetts (N=54; ages 14-19 years). Participants found the content useful, the format enjoyable, and would recommend the program. Preliminary results suggest the intervention may increase condom use, sexual knowledge, and pornography literacy, and decrease dating violence. The Healthy Relationships Program appears feasible, acceptable, and may positively impact student sexual health.

Prior literature has indicated that autistic students report unsatisfactory sexual education experiences and may also be at greater risk of both sexual assault victimization and perpetration than non-autistic peers. Current mixed methods findings combine data from two related studies to explore satisfaction with sexual education among autistic and non-autistic college students. Findings support hypotheses that autistic students are less satisfied with consent education than non-autistic peers. Qualitatively, a theme of difficulties in identifying one's own desire to consent was observed across groups. Within the autistic group, a theme of delayed recognition of sexual assault was observed. Findings support the importance of early and comprehensive sexual education and suggest further attention may be needed to support students in navigating healthy sexual decision-making.

The present study compares the feasibility and acceptability of two asynchronous, interactive, 2-3-hour, online interventions: Media Aware, which is a comprehensive sex education program, taught from a media literacy perspective and Health Aware, which is a comprehensive sex education program containing identical sexual health content, but no media literacy content. Among n = 649 community college students, both programs were equivalently high in program fidelity (88% completed all lessons) and acceptability (average 90% positive ratings). Qualitative analyses revealed that both programs were informative and usable, with few criticisms besides program length. Results suggest, both programs represent promising approaches to sex education for college students.