Tenth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

As well as teaching children about puberty, relationships, and understanding their bodies, Sexuality Education (Sex Ed) is a powerful tool in society’s push to combat problems such sexually transmitted disease and unwanted pregnancy, homophobia, family violence, and sexual abuse. However, Sex Ed is under-delivered in schools and in the home, and consequently children are not getting enough access to valuable outcomes. To date, the majority of Sex Ed research has focused on the role of schools and mothers; however, research shows that when fathers talk about sensitive topics, children tend to pay attention. This tantalising finding prompted my research into the role of fathers in Sex Ed. I aimed to find out whether fathers could be an untapped resource who could be supported to reach more children with sexual health and sexuality related outcomes. This mixed-methods research comprised 615 online surveys of Australian fathers to explore their experiences and intentions in the Sex Ed space, followed by semi-structured interviews with ten survey participants. I found that today’s fathers value Sex Ed and their role as sexuality educators of their own children. Fathers’ top four concerns for their children are very much of our time: avoiding violent relationships, recognising and reporting sexual abuse, understanding consent, and expressing emotions and concerns. My findings suggest that fathers want to have meaningful conversations about sexual health and sexuality related topics with their children, and that they want resources and supports aimed specifically at men to support them to do so.