But Everything Else, I Learned Online
School-Based and Internet-Based Sexual Learning Experiences of Heterosexual and LGBQ + Youth
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4245148 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joshua Gamson, Rosanna Hertz |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 461-485 |
| Publication date | 2023-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Qualitative Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0162-0436 • E-ISSN: 1573-7837 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11133-023-09550-w |
| OpenAlex | W4388865534 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 26 |
Building upon scholarship on sex education, our research aims to understand how youth with a range of sexual identities have experienced school-based sex education, how they have explored sexual content online, and how they see the two in relation to each other. We thus ask: (1) How do youth with varied sexual identities recall experiencing formal school-based sex education from elementary through high school offerings? (2) How do heterosexual and LGBQ + youth utilize the Internet and social media sites for sexual learning? Through in-depth interviews with college students, we find that heterosexual and LGBQ + youth report that formal sex education was both limited and heteronormative; LGBQ + youth felt particularly unprepared for sexual experiences and health hygiene, and sometimes found ways to translate the information provided for their own needs. Despite some overall similarities in online sexual explorations, experiences of online sexual learning proved quite divergent for youth of different sexual identities. Heterosexual youth were likely to search for information on sexual pleasure and entertainment; in contrast, LGBQ + youth sought information to fill in knowledge gaps about non-conforming sexualities, and often used the digital space for identity discovery, confirmation, and affirmation. For both groups, online explorations interacted with offline ones through a back-and-forth in which youth tested out in one arena what they had learned in the other. These findings highlight the dynamic interaction between formal school curriculum, informal online sexual learning, and sexual scripts, identities and practices
Heterosexuality · Human sexuality · Queer · Sexual identity · Sociology · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology
Talk About Sex
Changes in Adolescents' Receipt of Sex Education, 2006–2013
Sexuality Education and Desire
Risky Lessons
Adolescents’ Use of the Internet for Sex Education
Sex education and the promotion of heteronormativity
Researching young people's sexuality and learning about sex
What do we know about LGBQ+ college student academic experiences and outcomes
Sexuality and digital Space
Sexuality Education in the United States
Changes in coming out milestones across five age cohorts
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning Youths' Perspectives of Inclusive School-Based Sexuality Education
The Interplay between Online and Offline Explorations of Identity, Relationships, and Sex
Sexuality Education in the Digital Era
Sexual scripts
To me, it's my life
Methodological Pluralism and the Possibilities and Limits of Interviewing
Children Having Children
Using conceptual depth criteria
Celebration and Suppression
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |