How does sexual health education vary in quality of its delivery from the perspective of teachers?

Teachers are key to the quality of school-based sexual health education (SHE) that students receive. The authors sought to determine teachers’ perceptions of the quality of the SHE they provide. In addition, they examined factors associated with these perceptions, topics about which little is known. Participants were 343 teachers aged 23 to 62 ( M = 41.55 years; 80.5% women) teaching at the elementary (K–5, n = 123), middle school (Grades 6–8, n = 160), and high school (Grades 9–12, n = 60) levels. Teachers typically reported partial coverage of assigned outcomes, rated their teaching quality as being moderate in quality on average (i.e., neither high nor low in quality), and indicated that they seldom or only occasionally used a range of teaching methods. Elementary school teachers rated their SHE teaching quality as significantly poorer than did middle school and high school teachers. Canonical correlation analysis indicated that higher quality ratings of one’s SHE teaching were associated with extensive in-service training and self-directed learning, greater experience teaching SHE, and more comfort and willingness to provide SHE. A second profile emerged of teachers who had more years teaching generally, more SHE teaching experience, more in-service training, and yet less willingness to provide SHE. This work underscores the need to study the teaching context more closely, as well as the willingness of teachers for self-directed learning in efforts to improve SHE delivery.