Safe sex’
Evaluation of sex education and sexual risk by young adults in Sydney
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15099187 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Meghan A Cook (0000-0002-7964-6781, Macquarie University), L L Wynn (0000-0003-2466-8534, Macquarie University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 12 |
| Pages | 1733-1747 |
| Publication date | 2021-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Culture Health & Sexuality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1369-1058 • E-ISSN: 1464-5351 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13691058.2020.1805797 |
| PMID | 33000677 |
| OpenAlex | W3090307412 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 26 |
In this qualitative study, 28 young adults (18-29-year-olds) living in Sydney define 'safe sex', report on their experiences of sex education, and reflect on the relationship between the sex education received in school and the reality of sexual activity. Participants had a broadly neoliberal understanding of health and risk as something individuals should manage through an ideal of rational decision-making. Yet regardless of how comprehensive or limited their sex education experiences, most noted a wide gulf between safe sex as taught in the classroom and the reality of actual sexual encounters, arguing that sexual decision-making was rarely rational, and shaped by age and experience, drug use, sexual desire, and complicated interpersonal dynamics. Sex education that aims to empower by presenting individuals as sole decision-makers when it comes to prophylactic use fails to acknowledge the social contexts of sex described by participants. Significantly, young people defined 'safe sex' not only in biomedical terms such as disease transmission and pregnancy, but also in terms of the social and psychological consequences of sexual encounters, with an emphasis on consent
Developmental psychology · Family medicine · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV · Human sexuality · Ideal (ethics · Interpersonal communication · Political science · Population · Reproductive health · Safer sex · Sex education · Sociology · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Demography · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics
Abstinence-Only Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates
Perceiving risk and (re)constructing safety
The Australian Human Rights Commission
Risk Society
School‐based sex education policies and indicators of sexual health among young people
‘It was as useful as a chocolate kettle’
The language of the right
Battling a ‘sex-saturated society’
Would you say you had unprotected sex if …? Sexual health language in emails to a reproductive health website
'I'd never share a needle'…[but I often have unsafe sex]
Lust, trust and latex
Constructing the neoliberal sexual actor
The discursive construction of low-risk to sexually transmitted diseases between women who are sexually active with women
When safe sex isn't safe
Safe Sex in the 1970s
Arousing suspicion and violating trust
Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists
The Mindful Body
The Egg and the Sperm
Competing Responsibilities
| Citations per year | 0.4 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2025 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |