Abstract
Statement of the Problem
This thesis examined high school students’ mindsets and knowledge about sexual health, gender identity, and sexual orientation. This study compiled and analyzed data from pre-and post-surveys before and after students participated in a two-week inclusive sexual health curriculum. The goal of this study was to gather data on student attitudes, concerns, and knowledge of sexual and gender topics and analyze how the information differed before and after engaging in the sexuality education curriculum. This study additionally sought to gain student feedback about the most impactful lessons taught in the curriculum. Youth need an inclusive, rights-based sexuality education that allows for discussion of physical, emotional, and social well-being to guide students to make responsible, knowledgeable, and beneficial decisions about their sexual health, relationships, and gender identity.
Sources of Data
High school students from one large, urban public school district in Northern California were surveyed using a pre-and post-survey. The pre-survey had eleven mixed-method questions, with several having multiple statements to respond to within the question. The first 10 questions were quantitative, with some questions designed to pull out themes about student mindsets. The last question, being open-ended, allowed a qualitative approach. The post-survey consisted of 17 mixed-method questions, eleven identical questions to the pre-survey, with six additional questions. Survey questions utilized a five-point Likert Scale to gather the intensity of beliefs on student concerns, mindsets, and knowledge. In addition, several survey questions allowed for student feedback on sexual health curriculum lessons.
Conclusion Researched
The quantitative data was analyzed utilizing a computation of pre-and post-means and a comparison of percentages. The qualitative data was analyzed employing a thematic approach. The survey data revealed varying student concerns and knowledge about sexual health, relationships, gender, and sexual orientation. Students demonstrated significant movement in mindset percentages after engaging with the sexual health curriculum. However, results showed patterns of male-identified students showing resistance to altering their mindsets around consent and other topics, with less movement and strength of belief between the pre-and post-survey percentages. Female-identified students showed considerable growth in both mindset shifts and knowledge between pre- and post-surveys. In addition, gender-diverse youth and LGBTQ+ students showed the highest percentages in the strength of beliefs around the topics addressed in the sexual health curriculum, as well as greater concern over bullying and gender identity topics.