Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/30314
Appears in Collections:Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: How men and women learn about sex: multi-generational perspectives on insufficient preparedness and prevailing gender norms in Scotland
Author(s): Patterson, Susan
McDaid, Lisa
Hunt, Kate
Hilton, Shona
Flowers, Paul
McMillan, Lesley
Milne, Dona
Contact Email: kate.hunt@stir.ac.uk
Keywords: sexual health
sex education
school
gender norms
life course
young people
relationships
Issue Date: 2020
Date Deposited: 22-Oct-2019
Citation: Patterson S, McDaid L, Hunt K, Hilton S, Flowers P, McMillan L & Milne D (2020) How men and women learn about sex: multi-generational perspectives on insufficient preparedness and prevailing gender norms in Scotland. Sex Education, 20 (4), pp. 441-456. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2019.1683534
Abstract: Attitudes towards sexual health and relationships are learned from a young age, and there is an ongoing need for innovative and comprehensive approaches to sex education that keep pace with rapidly changing contexts of people’s lives. We used thematic analysis of data from two qualitative studies in Scotland to explore learning contexts from a multi-generational perspective, as well as the influence of different socio-cultural factors on provision, access to and experience of sex education. The importance, but inadequacy, of school as a source of learning was a persistent theme over time. Participants’ strategies to address perceived gaps in knowledge included experience, conversations and vicarious and online learning. Gender and age differences emerged, with younger participants more likely to go online for information, and prevailing gender norms shaping attitudes and behaviours across both study groups. Participants who identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual described feeling particularly unprepared for sex and relationships due to narrow, heteronormative content received. Although schools continues to be a common source of information, it appears that they fail to equip people for their post-school sexual life-course. We recommend the mandatory provision of comprehensive, positive, inclusive, and skills-based learning to improve people’s chances of forming and building healthy, positive relationships across the lifespan.
DOI Link: 10.1080/14681811.2019.1683534
Rights: © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Licence URL(s): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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