Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Nov 1:15:1391197.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1391197. eCollection 2024.

Parental opposition to comprehensive sexuality education in Australia: associations with religiosity and school sector

Jacqueline Hendriks  1   2 , Neil Francis  2 , Hanna Saltis  1   2 , Katrina Marson  3 , Jenny Walsh  4 , Natasha Lawton  5 , Sharyn Burns  1   2
Affiliations

Parental opposition to comprehensive sexuality education in Australia: associations with religiosity and school sector

Jacqueline Hendriks et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Purpose: To empirically examine associations between parental opposition towards comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and religiosity.

Methods: A nationally representative survey of Australian parents (N = 2,418) examined opposition towards 40 CSE topics, by parental religiosity and secular/religious school sector.

Results: Whilst opposition to most CSE topics correlated positively with religiosity, even amongst very religious parents, disapproval was minimal (2.8-31.2%; or 9.0-20.2% netted against non-religious parents). Parents with children enrolled in a Catholic school were less likely than secular-school parents to oppose CSE. Those with children at other-faith-schools were more likely to oppose CSE, but again disapproval was minimal (1.2-21.9%; or 1.3-9.4% netted against secular-school parents).

Discussion: Only small minorities of very religious parents and parents with children in religious schools opposed the teaching of various CSE topics. Decision-makers should therefore be cautious about assuming that CSE delivery is not widely supported by particular families.

Keywords: Australia; comprehensive sexuality education; parent attitudes; religion; religiosity; school sector.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling editor JF declared a past collaboration RT with the author JH.

References

    1. Australian Bureau of Statistics . (2021) Cultural diversity: Census: ABS. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics. Available at: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural... (Accessed August 29, 2024).
    1. ACARA . (2023) Health and physical education. F-10 curriculum. Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. Available at: https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/teacher-resources/understand-this...
    1. Burns S., Saltis H., Hendriks J., Abdolmanafi A., Davis-Mccabe C., Tilley P. M., et al. . (2023). Australian teacher attitudes, beliefs and comfort towards sexuality and gender diverse students. Sex Educ. 23, 540–555. doi: 10.1080/14681811.2022.2087177 - DOI
    1. Dake J. A., Price J. H., Baksovich C. M., Wielinski M. (2014). Preferences regarding school sexuality education among elementary schoolchildren's parents. Am. J. Health Educ. 45, 29–36. doi: 10.1080/19325037.2013.852998 - DOI
    1. Ezer P., Jones T., Fisher C., Power J. (2018). A critical discourse analysis of sexuality education in the Australian curriculum. Sex Educ. 19, 551–567. doi: 10.1080/14681811.2018.1553709 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources