Let’s talk about sex: college students’ attitudes towards Sexuality Education in a Spanish University

Abstract

The concept of Sexual Education has greatly evolved over the years. Its definition and scope have been adapted to changing social and political circumstances.University students face broad access to information, but not always adequate. A lack of good tools for discrimination can lead to the persistence of stereotypes, rejection of diversity, low perception of risk or the appearance of sexual dysfunctions.Methods: between December 2020 and April 2021, 1,028 students from the University of Valladolid filled out a questionnaire exploring their attitudes towards Sexuality. A latent class analysis was carried out to characterise different student profiles, and the Chi-squared distribution test was applied to assess the influence of sociodemographic factors on each of the profiles.Results: the sample mostly represented undergraduate students (93%), women (67%) and heterosexuals (80%), with an average age of 21. 51% identified as Christians and 53% had not left home. Gender, sexual orientation and religious feelings influenced the characterization of every classes (p<0.05). Regarding the proposed Opinions on Sexuality, three student profiles were identified: unfavourable (17%), with a greater proportion of women, heterosexuals, and Christians; intermediate (68%) and favourable (15%) made up of more men, non-heterosexuals and non-religious. Concerning Myths, four profiles were observed: indifferent (31%), with more women and non-religious students, those who accept them (2%), composed of more men, heterosexuals and the religious, intermediates (48%) and those who reject the myths (20%), with a higher percentage of non-heterosexual undergraduates.Conclusions: different student profiles have been identified by the opinions and attitudes expressed towards Sexuality. The results show that gender, sexual orientation and religious feelings were the most influential factors for their characterisation despite the indifference shown by a large number of students. These observations detect needs to be covered by future proposals to improve Sexual Education.