Abstract
The authorization of the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) represents a significant legislative shift in how social policy in the United States implements school-based sexual health education to address concerns for youth health. In contrast to its abstinence-based predecessors, this federally funded program provides a more comprehensive approach to sex education that includes content on contraception, is evidence-based, and emphasizes diversity and service to vulnerable populations. Yet, despite these improvements to how sex education policy facilitates the healthy development of youth, the design and implementation of PREP do not provide substantial support of lesbian, bisexual, and gay (LGB) populations. This paper applies a family impact analysis framework to further explore this policy limitation and demonstrates how PREP perpetuates the heteronormative legacy of sex education in a way that continues to marginalize and harm LGB families.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
It is recognized that similar issues exist regarding people who identify as queer (Q) and/or transgender (T) within the larger LGBTQ acronym representing sexual and gender minorities. However, for the sake of parsimony, these related populations are not addressed in this analysis.
A promotion or valuing of heterosexuality over non-heterosexuality that systematically privileges heterosexuals while oppressing those who identify/are perceived as gay, bisexual, or lesbian
Any family containing a lesbian, bisexual, or gay member
A live seminar conducted over the internet
References
Administration for Children and Families. (2012). Webinar: working with parents of teens for state PREP and tribal PREP grantees, September 26, 2012. Retrieved 8/30, 2014 from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/fysb/resource/parents-app-20120926.
Administration for Children and Families. (2013). Personal Responsibility Education Program Fact Sheet. Retrieved 9/5, 2014 from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/fysb/resource/prep-fact-sheet.
Advocates for Children. (2005). In harm’s way: A survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students who speak about harassment and discrimination in New York City schools. New York.
Advocates for Youth. (2013). Sex education programs: definitions and point-by-point comparisons. Advocatesforyouth.org. Retrieved 8/30, 2014 from http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/655?task=view.
Affordable Care Act (2010) Title II Role Of Public Programs, Subtitle L, Maternal and Child Health Services , Title V, Section 2953, Public Law 113-93, 42 U.S.C 713(c)(1).
Alabama Department of Public Health. (n.d.). Alabama Personal Responsibility Education Program Request for Proposal. Retrieved 9/10, 2014 from http://www.adph.org/teenpregnancyprevention/assets/FY2013PREPRFP.pdf.
American Counseling Association. (2003). Advocacy competencies. Retrieved 6/27, 2012, from www.counseling.org.
Berg-Kelly, K. (2003). Adolescent homosexuality: We need to learn more about causes and consequences. Acta Paediatrica, 92(2), 141.
Berkowitz, D., & Marsiglio, W. (2007). Gay men: Negotiating procreative, father, and family identities. Journal of Marriage and Family, 69(2), 366–381.
Birkett, M., Espelage, D. L., & Koenig, B. (2009). LGB and questioning students in schools: The moderating effects of homophobic bullying and school climate on negative outcomes. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 38(7), 989–1000.
Bogenschneider, K., Little, O., Ooms, T., Benning, S., & Cadigan, K. (2012). The family impacthandbook: How to view policy and practice through the family impact lens. Retrievedfrom http://familyimpactseminars.org/doc.asp?d=fi_handbook_0712.pdf.
Boonstra, H. D. (2010). Sex education: Another big step forward -- and a step back. Guttmacher Policy Review, 13(2).
Bos, H. M. W., & Gartrell, N. K. (2010). Adolescents of the USA National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study: Can family characteristics counteract the negative effects of stigmatization? Family Process, 49, 559–572.
Bregman, H. R., Malik, N. M., Page, M. J., Makynen, E., & Lindahl, K. M. (2013). Identity profiles in lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth: The role of family influences. Journal of youth and adolescence, 42(3), 417–430.
Centers for Disease Control. (2012). HIV amongst gay and bisexual men. Retrieved 1/30, 2013, from http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/msm/pdf/msm.pdf.
Elia, J. P., & Eliason, M. (2010). Discourses of exclusion: Sexuality education's silencing of sexual others. Journal of LGBT Youth, 7(1).
Elliott, S. (2014). “Who’s to Blame?” Constructing the Responsible Sexual Agent in Neoliberal Sex Education. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 1-14.
Evans, N. J. (2002). The impact of an LGBT safe zone project on campus climate. Journal of College Student Development, 43(4), 522–539.
Gay, L., & Straight, E. N. (2007). Gay straight alliances: Creating safer schools for LGBT students and their allies (GLSEN research brief). New York: Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education network.
Goesling, B., Colman, S., Trenholm, C., Terzian, M., & Moore, K. (2014). Programs to reduce teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and associated sexual risk behaviors: a systematic review. Journal of Adolescent Health, 54(5), 499–507.
Gross, E., Bogenschneider, K., & Johnson, C. (2006). How to conduct a family impact analysis. Family Policy Matters: How Policymaking Affects Families and What Professionals Can Do, 2.
Henkin, R. (2012). Confronting bullying: It really can get better. English Journal, 101(6), 110–113.
Kann, L., O'Malley Olsen, E., McManus, T., Kinchen, S., Chyen, D., Harris, W., & Wechsler, H. (2011). Sexual identity, sex of sexual contacts, and health-risk behaviors among students in grades 9--12 --- youth risk behavior surveillance, selected sites, united states,2001--2009. (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) No. 60).Centers for Disease Control.
Kosciw, J., & Diaz, E. (2008). Involved, invisible, ignored: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parents and their children in our nation's K-12 schools. New York: GLSEN.
Kosciw, J., Greytak, E., Bartkiewicz, M., Boesen, M., & Palmer, N. (2012). The 2011 national school climate survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth in our nation’s schools. New York: GLSEN.
Lamb, S. (2013). Just the Facts? The Separation of Sex Education from Moral Education. Educational Theory, 63(5), 443–460.
Lick, D., Tornello, S., Riskind, R., Schmidt, K., & Patterson, C. J. (2012). Social climate for sexual minorities predictswell-being among heterosexual offspring of lesbian and gay parents. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 9, 99–112.
Mahatmya, D., & Gring-Pemble, L. (2014). DREAMers and their families: A family impact analysis of the DREAM Act and implications for family well-being. Journal of Family Studies, 20(1), 79–87.
Massachusetts Department of Public Health. (n.d.). State Personal Responsibility Education Program: Needs Statement. Retrieved 9/8, 2014 from http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/docs/eohhs/healthcare-reform/sec-2953-narrative.pdf.
McCarty-Caplan, D. (2013). Schools, sex education, and support for sexual minorities: Exploring historic marginalization and future potential. American Journal of Sexuality Education, 8(4), 246–273.
McClelland, S., & Fine, M. (2008). Embedded science: Critical analysis of abstinence-only evaluation research. Cultural Studies, Critical Methodologies, 8(1), 50–81.
McNeill, T. (2013). Sex education and the promotion of heteronormativity. Sexualities, 16(7), 826–846.
Moore, M. R., & Stambolis-Ruhstorfer, M. (2013). LGBT sexuality and families at the start of the twenty-first century. Annual Review of Sociology, 39, 491–507.
Mustanski, B., Greene, G., Ryan, D., Whitton, S. (2014): Feasibility, Acceptability,and Initial Efficacy of an Online Sexual Health Promotion Program for LGBT Youth: The Queer Sex Ed Intervention, The Journal of Sex Research.
National Association of School Psychologists. (2006). Position statement on gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth (formerly sexual minority youth). Retrieved 6/27, 2008, from http://www.nasponlin.org.
National Association of Social Workers. (2000). Lesbian, gay, and bisexual issues. Social work speaks (5th ed., p. 193). Washington, DC: NASW Press.
National Education Association. (2008). Safe schools for everyone: Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students. Retrieved 6/27, 2008, from http://www.nea.org/tools/30420.htm.
Ooms, T. (1995). Taking families seriously: Family impactanalysis as an essential policy tool. Leuven: Paper presented at the expertmeeting on family impact, University of Leuven.
Ooms, T., & Preister, S. (1988). A strategy for strengthening families: Using family impact criteria in policymaking and program evaluation. Washington, DC: The Family Impact Seminar.
Peplau, F. (2007). The close relationships of lesbians and gay men. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 405–424.
Policy Institute for Family Impact Seminars. (2014). Checklist for Assessing the Impact of Policies on Families. Retrieved September 8th, 2014 from http://aces.nmsu.edu/ces/familyimpactseminar/documents/family-impact-checklist.pdf.
Policy Institute for Family Impact Seminars. (2015) Using research to build better public policy for families. Retrieved April 2, 2015 from http://www.familyimpactseminars.org/index.asp?p=2&page=pub_category.
Robitaille, C., & Saint-Jacques, M. (2009). Social stigma and the situation of young people in lesbian and gay families. Journal of Homosexuality, 56, 421–442.
Rombo, D., & Njue, J. (2012). Family impact analysis of section 6 (Sexual transmission) of the Kenya HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act No. 14 of 2006. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 21(1), 14–24.
Smith, W., & Wagoner, J. (2009). Failure to launch: Obama's new teen initiative can be fixed, and here's how. American Journal of Sexuality Education, 4(3-4), 198–207.
Stacey, J. (2006). Gay parenthood and the decline of paternity as we knew it. Sexualities, 9, 27–55.
Szalacha, L. A. (2004). Educating teachers on LGBTQ issues: A review of research and program evaluations. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Issues in Education, 1(4), 67–79. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=13596869&site=ehost-live.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Adolescent Health. (2010).Teenage PregnancyPrevention (TPP):Research and Demonstration ProgramsandPersonal Responsibility Education Program(PREP)Funding Opportunity Announcement and Application Instructions. Retrieved from http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/grants/assets/foa_tpp_tier_2.pdf.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Adolescent Heath. (2014). TPP Resource Center: Evidence-Based Programs. Retrieved from http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/oah-initiatives/teen_pregnancy/db/.
Young, M., & Goldfarb, E. S. (2000). The problematic (a) - (h) in abstinence education. Journal of Sex Education & Therapy, 25(2), 156–160. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=3802450&site=ehost-live.
Zief, Shapiro, & Strong (2014). How States areImplementing Evidence-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs Through the Personal Responsibility Education Program. OPRE Report #2014-27, FYSB Report#2014-1, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and HumanServices.
Zief, Shapiro, & Strong. (2013). The Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP): Launching aNationwide Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Effort, OPRE Report # 2013-37. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and HumanServices.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McCarty-Caplan, D. Sex Education and Support of LGB Families: a Family Impact Analysis of the Personal Responsibility Education Program. Sex Res Soc Policy 12, 213–223 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-015-0189-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-015-0189-6