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Effectiveness of a Comprehensive School-Based Sex Education Program for Young Adolescents in the Netherlands

  • Empirical Research
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Abstract

Most sexual education programs traditionally focused on providing sexual information regarding the risks of sex. However, current studies on sexual behavior in youth show a need for truly comprehensive sex education approaches with a sex-positive focus on sexuality, that effectively improve sexual competence. Therefore, in the current study the effectiveness of “Love is…”, a four lesson school-based program based on the Sexual Interactional Competence model and Attitude-Social-Influence-Self-Efficacy-model was studied. A cluster-randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of “Love is…” was conducted in 2018-2020. The sample consisted of 1160 adolescents in grades 8 and 9 from nine schools in the Netherlands. The sample was 48% female, 34% Dutch/Caucasian, 41% none-religious and 50% higher educated. They were randomized at class level into a program group [n = 32 classes; 567 students (Mage = 13.74 (SD = 0.74))] and a control group [n = 31 classes; 593 students (Mage = 13.86 (SD = 0.73))]. Results showed that “Love is…” increased sexual knowledge, that adolescents in the program group showed less cyber victim blaming attitudes and increased in communications skills after the program. In conclusion, the current study shows that “Love is…” was effective not only on the knowledge level, but also regarding sexual attitudes and competences. However, due to the developmental process of sexuality, there is a necessity to continue lessons in following grades through booster sessions by reinforcing competences as communicating comfortably about sexuality.

On 12 November 2019 the study design and hypotheses were registered in the Dutch Trial Registration, number NL8150. (https://onderzoekmetmensen.nl/nl/trial/26676).

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Levvel and Qpido, especially Ruth Schipper and Esther Jalink, who assisted with the study. We also thank all the research students who helped to collect the data. Special thanks to all the adolescents and schools who participated in the study.

Funding

This work was supported by the municipality of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Research reported in this paper is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the municipality of Amsterdam.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    M. C. Versloot-Swildens, A. Popma & L. M. C. Nauta-Jansen

  2. Rutgers, Dutch Centre of Expertise on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Utrecht, the Netherlands

    H. de Graaf

  3. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    J. W. R. Twisk

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Contributions

M.V. conceived of the study, participated in its coordination, analysis and drafted the manuscript; H.G. participated in the design and interpretation of the data; J.T. performed data analysis and participated in the interpretation of the data; A.P. participated in the conception and design; L.J. participated in its design, interpretation of the data and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to M. C. Versloot-Swildens.

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Conflict of interest

The first author, M.V., is an employee at the care facility (Qpido/Levvel) providing “Love is…”. She has no commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as potential conflicts of interest. The statistical analyses were conducted by an independent expert, J.T. J.T., H.d.G., A.P., L.J. also have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was given by the VUmc medical ethical board, 2018-352/IRB00002991 prior to data collection.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Parents approved via passive consent for their child’s participation.

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Versloot-Swildens, M.C., de Graaf, H., Twisk, J.W.R. et al. Effectiveness of a Comprehensive School-Based Sex Education Program for Young Adolescents in the Netherlands. J. Youth Adolescence 53, 998–1014 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01903-6

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