October 16, 2022 • 14 mins
In this episode Dr Jacqui Hendriks talks about her recent research. Jacqui has led the First national survey of Australian parents and their attitudes towards relationships and sexuality education in schools.
Resources:
See Dr Jacqui Hendriks Curtain University bio. See research: Support for school-based relationships and sexual health education: a national survey of Australian parents. For more information about SHV @ shvic.org.au.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This podcast contains discussion about adult topics,
here's your judgment.
If there are little ears around.
Welcome to doing it.
This is a podcast made by the everybody education team at sexual health victoria.
We run a whole lot of education programs for communities and medical professionals across victoria.
We also run sexual health clinics in the city and Box Hill in Melbourne.
(00:24):
My name is Anne and I'm part of the S HV Schools and community team.
We go into schools and run the Everybody Education program for all year levels.
It's about bodies growing up,
puberty,
sex reproduction and relationships.
This podcast is for parents and carers of school aged Children so we can share what goes on in a relationship and sexuality education class and help support those sorts of conversations at home.
(00:53):
Today,
I'll be talking to dr Jackie Hendriks from Curtin University.
Jackie is a lecturer and researcher with an interest in sexuality diversity and relationships and sexuality education.
Jackie is a big advocate for delivery of quality,
comprehensive RSE in schools.
One of the biggest obstacles we find when working with schools to deliver RSE is the fear of parent carer disapproval.
(01:21):
This fear of disapproval is often assumed to be greater in faith based schools,
but is the fear founded.
Jackie has recently endeavored to find out in research titled the first national survey of Australian parents and their attitudes towards relationships and sexuality education in schools.
(01:45):
Dr Jackie Hendricks thank you so much for speaking with me about your research into the attitudes of parents and carers in relationships and sexuality education in schools.
Thank you very much for having me.
Could you just first of all clarify what we mean when we're talking about relationships and sexuality education.
So really comprehensive RSE is going to cover lots of different topics in an age appropriate way as a young person develops,
(02:13):
it will start with really simple things like learning correct names for body parts,
understanding different emotions and the skills that are needed to be a good friend.
It will then move on to the social,
emotional and physical changes that come with puberty.
How to engage in romantic or sexual relationships in a way that's authentic and healthy.
The different issues related to consent and how to reduce the risk of unintended pregnancies.
(02:39):
It's also important that RSC recognizes issues like social media and pornography and that it helps young people to be critical consumers of the media that they are exposed to.
And finally,
comprehensive RSC should really strive to affirm the different types of human experiences so that people with different genders,
sexual orientations,
(03:00):
cultural or religious backgrounds and those living with a disability can see themselves recognized and celebrated.
Great.
So really what you've listed there is the contents of RSE from Foundation to year 12.
Yes.
O.
R.
S.
E.
Is actually a really extensive topic and there's lots of different issues that schools and families would need to cover over a young person's lifetime and what led you to research parents and carers attitudes towards RSE.
(03:29):
So we know that there's been a significant amount of research done in the last couple of decades,
both in Australia and internationally regarding the delivery of RSE and schools.
And we know that when RSC is delivered in a really engaging in comprehensive way that it's associated with a whole range of health benefits.
But despite all the evidence that we had,
we know that schools are still really hesitant to provide RSC in any great detail.
(03:54):
And one of the most common barriers that we were hearing is that they continued to be worried about how parents were going to respond and they didn't really know what sorts of topics families wanted them to cover or wanted them to avoid.
We also knew internationally that a number of large scale surveys of parents had been conducted and they were showing that the vast majority of parents in these other countries,
(04:18):
even parents living in quite conservative countries,
actually really wanted their kids to learn about RSC in schools.
So we were just really curious to see how strong the support was within Australia.
That is something that we hear when we go into schools,
we hear the fear from teachers and leadership teams about parental complaints.
(04:38):
Yeah.
And unfortunately,
there is this situation where it can often be a very vocal minority and it can just take one or two parents asking some questions or pushing back that can really derail a school program.
So we were just really curious to do some comprehensive research to actually see what the average parent wanted from their school.
(05:00):
So what did you find?
Um well,
first of all,
I just want to highlight that we engaged a professional market research company to distribute our survey.
And this meant that the more than 2400 parents who completed it came from every state and territory.
And we also had a really nice mix of males and females,
plus a small handful of gender diverse parents.
(05:22):
Um our recruitment method was quite rigorous.
We really wanted our sample to be random.
Um and this is important because a lot of times when people answer online surveys,
they're doing it because they feel really strongly about a topic.
So we worked really hard to make sure that the people who answered our survey had been randomly approached overall,
we found that 90% of parents were really highly supportive of schools delivering relationships and sexuality education.
(05:48):
About 6% were ambivalent about it,
and less than 4% of parents actually said they didn't feel it was an appropriate topic for schools to cover.
We also gave the parents a very comprehensive list of 40 different topics related to relationships and sexuality education.
We asked them to tell us if they felt each of these issues should be covered by a school and we asked them at what grade level they should first be introduced.
(06:15):
Now across the board,
there was emphatic support for schools to cover all of the 40 topics in most cases,
the level of support was actually 95% or higher.
And it covered all sorts of things um,
from teaching the correct names for genitals,
pornography,
contraception and the different types of sexual activities.
(06:36):
There were a couple of topics where the level of support was a little bit lower,
roughly 10 to 15% of parents felt topics like sexual orientation,
gender diversity,
and pleasure shouldn't be talked about in schools.
But overall parents were telling us that they wanted schools to cover a really broad range of things when it came to the year levels,
(06:57):
there were a number of topics that parents felt could easily be covered in primary schools,
but everything else,
Most parents actually wanted schools to start addressing these things like sexual intercourse in year seven and eight,
which is kind of interesting because we know that many schools will actually hold off on some of these topics until those really last years of high school.
And we also found that most parents rated the current delivery of RSC in their child's school to be pretty reasonable.
(07:24):
However,
one in five thought that their current school wasn't actually delivering anything at all?
So,
you got a sample of parents and carers from a range of different schools.
Did you notice a difference between parents and carers attending faith based schools in particular?
So nearly half our sample had a child that was currently enrolled in a faith based school and these parents were just just as supportive of schools delivering RSC as all our other families.
(07:52):
We also asked the parents what their individual religious affiliations were,
and we asked them how important religion was in their daily life and people were less likely to support RSC in schools if they were of an Islamic faith or religion was something that was incredibly important to them.
I don't think these findings are anything to be too concerned about.
(08:15):
I think it just means we have to work a little bit harder to understand the perspectives of these parents and we need to figure out how we can provide their Children with RSC that is still respectful of their faith,
which absolutely can be done.
We know we can go into a school of any faith and work with those students and work with those families and absolutely,
(08:36):
as we've already said,
there's so many different topics that a school needs to address irrespective relationships and sexuality education.
So there's still very heaps of different things that we can cover with young people.
I've heard you say before,
that you've got enough data to look specifically at catholic schools.
(08:57):
Yes,
so we looked at the Catholic school system specifically just because in Australia,
there is a dedicated school sector for Catholic families and we did have a significant number of Catholic parents.
So 20% of our overall sample identified as Catholic and again,
they were just as likely to support really comprehensive delivery of RSC in schools as any other family.
(09:21):
That's a really fantastic finding to have and to show that schools of any faith or any background can feel really supported in delivering this content.
Absolutely not only do they want you to cover it,
they interestingly,
they want you to cover a really wide variety of topics.
So even things that traditionally we thought catholic parents wouldn't have felt comfortable with issues like contraception in reality,
(09:45):
when we actually ask the parents,
they do want it covered your research shows that parents and carers are generally really supportive of this wide variety of topics.
Yet they also,
the research also broke it down into what people were comfortable with in secondary versus primary.
And there's some things on the secondary list that we would really like to see delivered in primary school things like gender diversity,
(10:11):
or pornography.
How can we get parents and carers onboard with delivering some of these topics a little bit earlier.
So,
an issue like gender diversity,
for example,
we know the proportion of people who a gender diverse in Australia is actually quite significant.
We will all know someone,
we will all have friends and family.
So I think we need to move away from this idea that these are topics that require special attention that we might be indoctrinating a young person by mentioning these things when they're really young.
(10:41):
Um,
in a primary school setting,
when students are learning about families,
there's simple ways to acknowledge that there's lots of different types of families.
We might have same sex families.
We may come from a single parent family.
There's lots of different picture books that can talk about gender diversity issues like pornography.
And consent can actually be addressed in an age appropriate way down in the earlier years of primary school.
(11:07):
An issue like consent,
for example,
it can be about teaching a young person that they are in charge of their body,
that they get to say who touches them or when they agree to do things.
And we can talk about privacy and permission when it comes to pornography.
It's about teaching young people that everything that they see online is not necessarily reality and how to be critical consumers of social media and other platforms.
(11:35):
And then we just build on that in an age appropriate way and introduce the sexual elements in secondary school.
I don't think we need to spend heaps of time talking about all of these different topics in great detail,
but by just including them in an age appropriate way sends a really powerful message in your research.
Were you surprised by any findings?
(11:55):
Um,
I knew from speaking to lots of families over the years,
that parents were actually really quite relieved when a school is happy to deliver RSC they,
it takes the pressure off a parent to have to raise these things all the time.
So I felt quietly confident that there was going to be parental support in Australia,
(12:16):
but I was really pleasantly surprised that this level of support was so high and that parents actually wanted a whole range of issues to be covered by school.
Um I think we've got some media outlets and some politicians out there who like to promote this idea that certain faiths are really resistant to schools,
talking about sex,
talking to students about sex,
(12:37):
or that a family will place their child in a faith based school in an effort to avoid these sorts of lessons.
So,
it was really interesting to see that this wasn't the case.
Yeah,
that's fantastic to hear,
and this is something we can take to schools to really reassure them that this is what parents and carers really want for their young people.
Dr Jackie Hendricks,
(12:57):
thank you so much for speaking with me.
You're very welcome.
Thanks.
Thank you so much to Dr Jackie Hendricks from Curtin University for telling us about this research.
Some key things which stood out in this discussion for me are There is emphatic support for relationships and sexuality education to be delivered in schools.
(13:22):
Most rse topics have the support of 95% of parents and carers,
the more sensitive or marginally less supported topics seem to be sexual orientation,
gender diversity and pleasure.
One in five respondents thought that their child's school wasn't delivering any kind of RSE families attending faith based schools also support RSC at school.
(13:56):
I'm going to link to Dr Jackie Hendricks bio in the show notes.
At time of publishing.
The study was not available online.
As soon as it's available,
I will put a link in the show notes for that.
For more information about sexual health victoria,
you can go to S H vik dot org dot au.
You can follow us on instagram,
(14:16):
facebook twitter linkedin.
You can contact me directly at doing it at S H vik dot org dot au.
Subscribe to the podcast like it if you like it,
leave us a comment.
If you can thank you so much for listening.
This podcast contains discussion about adult topics,
here's your judgment.
If there are little ears around.
Welcome to doing it.
This is a podcast made by the everybody education team at sexual health victoria.
We run a whole lot of education programs for communities and medical professionals across victoria.
We also run sexual health clinics in the city and Box Hill in Melbourne.
(00:24):
My name is Anne and I'm part of the S HV Schools and community team.
We go into schools and run the Everybody Education program for all year levels.
It's about bodies growing up,
puberty,
sex reproduction and relationships.
This podcast is for parents and carers of school aged Children so we can share what goes on in a relationship and sexuality education class and help support those sorts of conversations at home.
(00:53):
Today,
I'll be talking to dr Jackie Hendriks from Curtin University.
Jackie is a lecturer and researcher with an interest in sexuality diversity and relationships and sexuality education.
Jackie is a big advocate for delivery of quality,
comprehensive RSE in schools.
One of the biggest obstacles we find when working with schools to deliver RSE is the fear of parent carer disapproval.
(01:21):
This fear of disapproval is often assumed to be greater in faith based schools,
but is the fear founded.
Jackie has recently endeavored to find out in research titled the first national survey of Australian parents and their attitudes towards relationships and sexuality education in schools.
(01:45):
Dr Jackie Hendricks thank you so much for speaking with me about your research into the attitudes of parents and carers in relationships and sexuality education in schools.
Thank you very much for having me.
Could you just first of all clarify what we mean when we're talking about relationships and sexuality education.
So really comprehensive RSE is going to cover lots of different topics in an age appropriate way as a young person develops,
(02:13):
it will start with really simple things like learning correct names for body parts,
understanding different emotions and the skills that are needed to be a good friend.
It will then move on to the social,
emotional and physical changes that come with puberty.
How to engage in romantic or sexual relationships in a way that's authentic and healthy.
The different issues related to consent and how to reduce the risk of unintended pregnancies.
(02:39):
It's also important that RSC recognizes issues like social media and pornography and that it helps young people to be critical consumers of the media that they are exposed to.
And finally,
comprehensive RSC should really strive to affirm the different types of human experiences so that people with different genders,
sexual orientations,
(03:00):
cultural or religious backgrounds and those living with a disability can see themselves recognized and celebrated.
Great.
So really what you've listed there is the contents of RSE from Foundation to year 12.
Yes.
O.
R.
S.
E.
Is actually a really extensive topic and there's lots of different issues that schools and families would need to cover over a young person's lifetime and what led you to research parents and carers attitudes towards RSE.
(03:29):
So we know that there's been a significant amount of research done in the last couple of decades,
both in Australia and internationally regarding the delivery of RSE and schools.
And we know that when RSC is delivered in a really engaging in comprehensive way that it's associated with a whole range of health benefits.
But despite all the evidence that we had,
we know that schools are still really hesitant to provide RSC in any great detail.
(03:54):
And one of the most common barriers that we were hearing is that they continued to be worried about how parents were going to respond and they didn't really know what sorts of topics families wanted them to cover or wanted them to avoid.
We also knew internationally that a number of large scale surveys of parents had been conducted and they were showing that the vast majority of parents in these other countries,
(04:18):
even parents living in quite conservative countries,
actually really wanted their kids to learn about RSC in schools.
So we were just really curious to see how strong the support was within Australia.
That is something that we hear when we go into schools,
we hear the fear from teachers and leadership teams about parental complaints.
(04:38):
Yeah.
And unfortunately,
there is this situation where it can often be a very vocal minority and it can just take one or two parents asking some questions or pushing back that can really derail a school program.
So we were just really curious to do some comprehensive research to actually see what the average parent wanted from their school.
(05:00):
So what did you find?
Um well,
first of all,
I just want to highlight that we engaged a professional market research company to distribute our survey.
And this meant that the more than 2400 parents who completed it came from every state and territory.
And we also had a really nice mix of males and females,
plus a small handful of gender diverse parents.
(05:22):
Um our recruitment method was quite rigorous.
We really wanted our sample to be random.
Um and this is important because a lot of times when people answer online surveys,
they're doing it because they feel really strongly about a topic.
So we worked really hard to make sure that the people who answered our survey had been randomly approached overall,
we found that 90% of parents were really highly supportive of schools delivering relationships and sexuality education.
(05:48):
About 6% were ambivalent about it,
and less than 4% of parents actually said they didn't feel it was an appropriate topic for schools to cover.
We also gave the parents a very comprehensive list of 40 different topics related to relationships and sexuality education.
We asked them to tell us if they felt each of these issues should be covered by a school and we asked them at what grade level they should first be introduced.
(06:15):
Now across the board,
there was emphatic support for schools to cover all of the 40 topics in most cases,
the level of support was actually 95% or higher.
And it covered all sorts of things um,
from teaching the correct names for genitals,
pornography,
contraception and the different types of sexual activities.
(06:36):
There were a couple of topics where the level of support was a little bit lower,
roughly 10 to 15% of parents felt topics like sexual orientation,
gender diversity,
and pleasure shouldn't be talked about in schools.
But overall parents were telling us that they wanted schools to cover a really broad range of things when it came to the year levels,
(06:57):
there were a number of topics that parents felt could easily be covered in primary schools,
but everything else,
Most parents actually wanted schools to start addressing these things like sexual intercourse in year seven and eight,
which is kind of interesting because we know that many schools will actually hold off on some of these topics until those really last years of high school.
And we also found that most parents rated the current delivery of RSC in their child's school to be pretty reasonable.
(07:24):
However,
one in five thought that their current school wasn't actually delivering anything at all?
So,
you got a sample of parents and carers from a range of different schools.
Did you notice a difference between parents and carers attending faith based schools in particular?
So nearly half our sample had a child that was currently enrolled in a faith based school and these parents were just just as supportive of schools delivering RSC as all our other families.
(07:52):
We also asked the parents what their individual religious affiliations were,
and we asked them how important religion was in their daily life and people were less likely to support RSC in schools if they were of an Islamic faith or religion was something that was incredibly important to them.
I don't think these findings are anything to be too concerned about.
(08:15):
I think it just means we have to work a little bit harder to understand the perspectives of these parents and we need to figure out how we can provide their Children with RSC that is still respectful of their faith,
which absolutely can be done.
We know we can go into a school of any faith and work with those students and work with those families and absolutely,
(08:36):
as we've already said,
there's so many different topics that a school needs to address irrespective relationships and sexuality education.
So there's still very heaps of different things that we can cover with young people.
I've heard you say before,
that you've got enough data to look specifically at catholic schools.
(08:57):
Yes,
so we looked at the Catholic school system specifically just because in Australia,
there is a dedicated school sector for Catholic families and we did have a significant number of Catholic parents.
So 20% of our overall sample identified as Catholic and again,
they were just as likely to support really comprehensive delivery of RSC in schools as any other family.
(09:21):
That's a really fantastic finding to have and to show that schools of any faith or any background can feel really supported in delivering this content.
Absolutely not only do they want you to cover it,
they interestingly,
they want you to cover a really wide variety of topics.
So even things that traditionally we thought catholic parents wouldn't have felt comfortable with issues like contraception in reality,
(09:45):
when we actually ask the parents,
they do want it covered your research shows that parents and carers are generally really supportive of this wide variety of topics.
Yet they also,
the research also broke it down into what people were comfortable with in secondary versus primary.
And there's some things on the secondary list that we would really like to see delivered in primary school things like gender diversity,
(10:11):
or pornography.
How can we get parents and carers onboard with delivering some of these topics a little bit earlier.
So,
an issue like gender diversity,
for example,
we know the proportion of people who a gender diverse in Australia is actually quite significant.
We will all know someone,
we will all have friends and family.
So I think we need to move away from this idea that these are topics that require special attention that we might be indoctrinating a young person by mentioning these things when they're really young.
(10:41):
Um,
in a primary school setting,
when students are learning about families,
there's simple ways to acknowledge that there's lots of different types of families.
We might have same sex families.
We may come from a single parent family.
There's lots of different picture books that can talk about gender diversity issues like pornography.
And consent can actually be addressed in an age appropriate way down in the earlier years of primary school.
(11:07):
An issue like consent,
for example,
it can be about teaching a young person that they are in charge of their body,
that they get to say who touches them or when they agree to do things.
And we can talk about privacy and permission when it comes to pornography.
It's about teaching young people that everything that they see online is not necessarily reality and how to be critical consumers of social media and other platforms.
(11:35):
And then we just build on that in an age appropriate way and introduce the sexual elements in secondary school.
I don't think we need to spend heaps of time talking about all of these different topics in great detail,
but by just including them in an age appropriate way sends a really powerful message in your research.
Were you surprised by any findings?
(11:55):
Um,
I knew from speaking to lots of families over the years,
that parents were actually really quite relieved when a school is happy to deliver RSC they,
it takes the pressure off a parent to have to raise these things all the time.
So I felt quietly confident that there was going to be parental support in Australia,
(12:16):
but I was really pleasantly surprised that this level of support was so high and that parents actually wanted a whole range of issues to be covered by school.
Um I think we've got some media outlets and some politicians out there who like to promote this idea that certain faiths are really resistant to schools,
talking about sex,
talking to students about sex,
(12:37):
or that a family will place their child in a faith based school in an effort to avoid these sorts of lessons.
So,
it was really interesting to see that this wasn't the case.
Yeah,
that's fantastic to hear,
and this is something we can take to schools to really reassure them that this is what parents and carers really want for their young people.
Dr Jackie Hendricks,
(12:57):
thank you so much for speaking with me.
You're very welcome.
Thanks.
Thank you so much to Dr Jackie Hendricks from Curtin University for telling us about this research.
Some key things which stood out in this discussion for me are There is emphatic support for relationships and sexuality education to be delivered in schools.
(13:22):
Most rse topics have the support of 95% of parents and carers,
the more sensitive or marginally less supported topics seem to be sexual orientation,
gender diversity and pleasure.
One in five respondents thought that their child's school wasn't delivering any kind of RSE families attending faith based schools also support RSC at school.
(13:56):
I'm going to link to Dr Jackie Hendricks bio in the show notes.
At time of publishing.
The study was not available online.
As soon as it's available,
I will put a link in the show notes for that.
For more information about sexual health victoria,
you can go to S H vik dot org dot au.
You can follow us on instagram,
(14:16):
facebook twitter linkedin.
You can contact me directly at doing it at S H vik dot org dot au.
Subscribe to the podcast like it if you like it,
leave us a comment.
If you can thank you so much for listening.
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