Launch of new research from joint ESRI/HSE Health and Wellbeing research programme on how young people receive information on relationships and sex; and new HSE educational resources encouraging parent-child conversations about relationships, sexuality and growing up.
The new research report ‘Talking about Sex and Sexual Behavior among Young People in Ireland’ uses data from the Growing up in Ireland ’98 Cohort at 13 and 17 years of age to analyze how young people receive information on sex and relationships and the role of this information in shaping sexual behaviors among Irish adolescents.
Key findings include:
- A significant variation in relationships and sexuality education across second-level schools, supporting previous Irish research that finds that policy and leadership at the school level plays an important role in the timing of RSE provision
- Young people who had better-quality relationships with their parents were more likely to talk to them about sex and relationships
- Young people who had discussed sex and relationships with their parents before the age of 13 were significantly more likely to have used contraception at first sex (age 17 and over).
To support parent-child communication in this area, the Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme, HSE Health and Wellbeing, is launching the following resources today:
- Making the ‘Big Talk’ many small talks: 4 -7 years
- Making the ‘Big Talk’ many small talks: 8 – 12 years;
- Making the ‘Big Talk’ many small talks: Healthy Ireland Library Collection – this lists the range of relationships and sexuality related resources available throughout all local libraries as part of the ‘HI at your library’ scheme.
- An updated version of ‘Busy Bodies’ a booklet about puberty and early adolescence for children’s use in the home and school.
The resources are available to order for FREE from www.healthpromotion.ie and also for download from sexualwellbeing.ie.
The research report is available here and further information to support parents are available here.