Children and young people’s views on learning about sex, sexuality and relationships: literature review

Young people receive messages about relationships, sex and sexuality throughout all aspects of their lives. What they learn in school is important, however, lived experience, relationships, social media, and social norms also have an impact.

To find out what research tells us about young people’s experiences of learning about relationships, sex and sexuality we reviewed the published literature.

We identified 172 journal articles and reports, all of which drew on the direct views of children for inclusion in our study. We looked at:

• how and where 11- to 25-year-olds learn about relationships, sex and sexuality
• children’s views of the relationships and sex education (RSE) they currently receive or have previously received
• differences in children’s experiences based on their personal characteristics (e.g. sexuality, gender identity, age).

Our literature review highlights the need for adults to better understand children’s different experiences and will inform the NSPCC’s research, service development, policy influencing, and communications.

Source: Children and young people’s views on learning about on learning about sex and relationships | NSPCC Learning