Sexual-Related Knowledge, School and Family Sexuality Education and Its Association with Experience of Sexual Intercourse among Vocational Secondary School Students in China

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the associations between sexual-related knowledge, access to school and family sexuality education, and the experience of sexual intercourse, in order to make recommendations on sexuality education for vocational secondary school students in China. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 3180 vocational secondary school students in the Shanghai municipality and the Shaanxi province, China. Data were collected through an online, electronic questionnaire, which included socio-demographics, sexual-related knowledge, sources of information, and sexual-related behaviors. Results: The score on sexual-related knowledge among girls (53.8) is higher than that of boys (48.8), and that of participants from Shanghai (55.2) is higher than their counterparts from Shaanxi (47.6). The proportions of girls (70% and 41.7%, respectively) and participants from Shanghai (65% and 35.7%, respectively) who reported acquiring sexual information from their schools/teachers and parents are higher than that of boys (54.3% and 21.0%, respectively) and their counterparts from Shaanxi (59.7% and 27.4%, respectively). About 6% of participants had experienced sexual intercourse and 10% had watched porn actively. Experience of sexual intercourse was associated with higher sexual-related knowledge scores (OR = 1.01, 95% CI: 1.00–1.02) and active porn watching (OR = 2.63, 95% CI: 1.79–3.84) but was not associated with school and family sexuality education. Conclusions: Vocational secondary school students had poor sexual knowledge and inadequate school and family sexuality education. School and family-based comprehensive sexuality education should be promoted among vocational secondary school students.

Spolna zdravstvena pismenost slovenskih srednješolcev

“…We found that female students have better knowledge about sexuality than male students, which confirms our first hypothesis and is consistent with the results of other studies (Fang et al, 2022). However, other studies show no gender differences in (Phongluxa et al, 2020), which could be culturally conditioned.…”

“…We found that friends are an important source of information about sexuality, which is consistent with the results of a survey conducted in China (Fang et al, 2022). Several other studies have found that secondary school teachers can present an important source of information for adolescents regarding sexuality (Fang et al, 2022;Liškova et al, 2019;Ramirez -Villalobos et al, 2021).…”

“…We found that friends are an important source of information about sexuality, which is consistent with the results of a survey conducted in China (Fang et al, 2022). Several other studies have found that secondary school teachers can present an important source of information for adolescents regarding sexuality (Fang et al, 2022;Liškova et al, 2019;Ramirez -Villalobos et al, 2021). However, the results of our study are not consistent with these findings, as in the Slovenian school environment, teachers do not provide sexuality education and are not recognised as an important source of information on this topic.…”

Induced abortions among Chinese adolescent girls

“…Those living in rural areas typically have a lower quality of education and receive fewer reproductive health services [25,30,31]. Compared with their rural counterparts who have limited education, women with higher education have stayed in school for a longer period and have fewer opportunities to make contact with society and engage in sexual intercourse [23,32]. The cumulative number of induced abortions in a cohort also increased with later cohorts.…”

Chinese young people’s diverse experiences with heterosexual romantic relationships in various high school contexts

“…Therefore, in this article, educational stratification will be used to refer to such class stratification that happened in Chinese high schools. However, previous youth studies in China rarely pay attention to vocational high school students, though few studies have tried to investigate the intersection of sexuality education and educational stratification (Fang et al, 2022; Liu, 2022). Therefore, through interviews with high school students and schoolteachers in an academic high school and a vocational high school in Tianjin, China, this article will contribute to filling such gap by providing information on how Chinese young people deal with their excitement, curiosity and concerns about sexuality and heterosexual romantic relationships in their high-school ages.…”