Preventing Sexual Violence Through Comprehensive Sex Education

In the United States, one in three youth will experience a form of abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, etc.) from a partner before the age of eighteen. Increasingly, violence prevention education is being incorporated into comprehensive sex education curriculum. The main goal of this is to give youth the tools and information they need to make informed and responsible decisions pertaining to sexual, romantic, and social relationships. 

In learning about healthy relationships, young people learn about positive expressions of intimacy, boundaries, and strategies for avoiding and/or ending unhealthy relationships. Primary themes in comprehensive sex education can include healthy relationships, gender equality, the detrimental impacts of bullying, identity development, and body confidence. Sex education reduces the risk of gender-based violence and bullying through teaching about the impacts these things can have on them or their peers.The programs are designed to build on and draw on skills learned previously. Beginning education about healthy relationships, consent, and personal boundaries with younger children allows educators to develop behavioral standards in order to proactively lower the rates of interpersonal violence. 

In addition to violence prevention, age-appropriate comprehensive sex education is a “powerful vehicle for addressing reproductive justice, gender equity, LGBTQ+ equality, and power and oppression”. Traditional sex education programs educate young people on health concerns such as pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Historically, sex education and violence prevention programs have been independent of one another. Now, more programs are being modified to include primary prevention, which proactively addresses the root causes of violence.

Research has concluded that the majority of risk factors for violence perpetration can be altered through education that is approached from a lens of prevention. However, our government is still funding abstinence only programs, which provide shaming, inaccurate lessons to young people. This type of curriculum enforces gender stereotypes and heteronormative concepts. Additionally, current primary prevention strategies fail to address the majority of risk factors for sexual violence prevention. 

In 2012, in an effort to standardize sexual education across the country -The National Sexuality Education Standards (NSES) - was developed. According to the NSES, comprehensive sex education teaches students to express and respect boundaries, identify trusted adults they can communicate with if they are experiencing violence, understand characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships, understand how media influences perceptions of what is healthy, and advocate for and create safe environments. There are eight standards included: 

1. Core Concepts - understanding healthy lifestyle and disease prevention
2. Analyzing Influences - understanding influences of family, peers, culture, media, technology, etc. on health, sexual, and relationship decisions
3. Accessing Information - know where to access accurate information, products, and services pertaining to health and sexuality
4. Interpersonal Communication - demonstrate effective communication inside and outside of relationships
5. Decision Making - making decisions that enhance health
6. Goal Setting - ability to set goals pertaining to health
7. Self-Management - ability to practice healthy behaviors and independently recognize unhealthy ones
8. Advocacy - advocate for personal, family, and community health

The NSES program does have some limitations on violence prevention. For example, any sex education program within a school cannot address any form of abuse happening inside a child’s home, but it is incredibly important to center and incorporate NSES into sex education programs as this can be a successful primary prevention strategy. 

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England helps support schools and organizations to provide sex education to a wide range of students. To learn more about this, you can contact [email protected].