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CHoosing And Maintaining Effective Programs for Sex Education in Schools

Parent Views

CHAMPSS Toolbox > Assess > Parent Views

The following resources below provide useful information gathered from a wide range of parent surveys and public opinion polls to gauge support for adolescent sexual health education.

STATE DATA
  • TXVoterViewsonSexEd

    The Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy Texas Voter Views on Sex Ed in Schools

    The Texas Campaign and Baseline & Associates conducted a public opinion poll on sex education in Texas public schools. In 2020, a large, bipartisan majority of voters were supportive of sex education (n=601, margin of error in results +/- 4%). A webinar, PowerPoint slide show, and poll results are accessible on their website.

    https://txcampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Poll-one-pager.pdf

  • CultureWarsintheClassroom

    Culture Wars in the Classroom: Texas Voters Call for a Cease-Fire

    This statewide poll of Texas voters found that 80% were in support of teaching about contraception, in addition to abstinence, in high school sex education classes. They also found that the majority of Hispanic parents were supportive (85%) of comprehensive sex education that includes teaching about condoms and other contraceptives as well as teaching about abstinence.

    https://tfn.org/cms/assets/uploads/2015/11/TFN_poll_0710_report.pdf

NATIONAL DATA
  • SexEduinAmerica

    Sex Education in America: A National Public Radio (NPR)/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) of Government Nationwide Poll

    This nationwide telephone survey conducted by NPR, Kaiser, and HKS in 2004 was administered to the general public/parents and school principals, with two distinct surveys for each group to examine attitudes and beliefs about sex education in the U.S. The findings revealed that Americans largely support sex education in schools with only 7% who indicated it should not be taught in schools. Almost half of parents reported favoring abstinence-plus curriculums which promote abstinence and include topics such as birth control, sexual orientation, negotiation skills, and how to use condoms. One-third of parents reported that the most important part of teaching sex education is teaching students how to make responsible decisions about sex, including using condoms and other forms of contraception.

    Read/ Listen to the NPR Article here:

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1622610

  • SexualHealthofYoungPeople

    Sexual Health of Young People in the U.S. South: Challenges and Opportunities

    This 2012 report describes the results of a biennial, nationally representative survey of U.S. adults. Results revealed that 89.6% were in favor of sex education in public schools.

    https://forwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/CDR_SexualHealth_6.pdf

  • PublicOpinion

    Parents’ views on sex education in schools: How much do Democrats and Republicans agree?

    This study examined parental support of sex education in both middle school and high school by political affiliation. Across a nationally representative U.S. sample of parents, support for sex education in both middle and high school is generally higher among Democrat parents than Republican parents. Overall, however, there is a high level of support by parents regardless of political affiliation.

    https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180250

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