Sexual Health Education in the Schools: Questions and Answers
The Sex Information and Education Council of Canada

This document is designed to support the provision of high quality sexual health education in Canadian schools. It provides research-based answers to some of the most common questions that parents, communities, educators, program planners, school and health administrators, and governments may have about sexual health education in the schools. These questions include: Why do we need sexual health education in the schools?; Do parents want sexual health education taught in the schools?; Do young people want sexual health education taught in the schools?; Does sexual health education that provides information on contraception and condom use lead youth to become sexually active at an earlier age?; What is the evidence that sexual health education programs can effectively help youth reduce their risk of unintended pregnancy and STI/HIV infection?; What are the key ingredients of behaviourally effective sexual health education programs?; What is the impact of making condoms easily available to teenagers?; are “abstinence-only” programs an appropriate form of school-based sexual health education? Should sexual health education teach young people about sexual orientation?; What are the social and economic benefits to society of implementing broadly-based sexual health education in the schools? (The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 2004; 13: 129-141).

Correlates of Exposure to Sexually Explicit Material Among Canadian Post-Secondary Students.
Todd G. Morrison, National University of Ireland, Rebecca Harriman, Melanie A. Morrison, University of Saskatchewan, Anomi Bearden, University of Victoria, and Shannon R. Ellis, University of Saskatchewan.

The purpose of this study was to investigate variables – beyond those examined traditionally within a harms-based framework – that may be associated with exposure to sexually explicit material (SEM). These variables included: genital self-image, sexual anxiety, sexual esteem, perceived importance of engaging in safer sex practices, and perceived susceptibility of contracting a sexually transmitted infection. Participants were 584 (382 female, 202 male) students enrolled in an Introductory Psychology course at a Canadian university. Significant results indicated that exposure to SEM correlated positively with sexual esteem (male and female participants) and with estimated number of sexual partners (females only). As well, for male and female participants, differences in exposure to SEM were noted as a function of sexual status (i.e., virgin/nonvirgin), with those who had not experienced vaginal intercourse reporting lower levels of exposure than those who had engaged in this sexual activity. Finally, as predicted, male and female participants’ levels of sexual anxiety were inversely correlated with their self-reported exposure to SEM. Such findings underscore the need to move beyond a traditional harms-based framework and, in so doing, formulate models that capture the complexity of the viewer/SEM interchange. (The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 2004; 13: 143-156).

The Impact of Computer Variables on the Viewing and Sending of Sexually Explicit Material on the Internet: Testing Cooper’s “Triple-A Engine”.
Lisa J. Byers, Ken S. Menzies, and William L. O’Grady, University of Guelph.

Cooper and colleagues have proposed that the “Triple-A Engine” of access, affordability and anonymity intensifies and accelerates online sexual activity (OSA) and is generating the next sexual revolution. If the Internet is causing a sexual revolution, then variations in technological variables such as control of Internet access and Internet skill level should explain a substantial portion of the variance in people’s OSA. We test this claim with an online survey of students at an English Canadian university for one type of sexual activity: viewing and sending sexually explicit material on the Internet (SEMI). We test seven hypotheses about the impact of technological and non-technological variables on SEMI using bivariate and multivariate techniques. We conclude that only the technological variable of time online per week impacts SEMI. Overall, our study suggests that the “Triple-A Engine” is not producing sexual change and thus is not powering a sexual revolution. (The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 2004; 13: 157-169)..

Sexuality of Canadian Women at Midlife
Julie Fraser, Eleanor Maticka-Tyndale, and Lisa Smylie. University of Windsor.

The sexuality of women at midlife has received insufficient attention in social scientific inquiry. This is troubling given the number of women in this age group and the tendency to emphasize biomedical over social factors in research on sexual health issues that may affect women at midlife. This paper reviews the literature on female sexuality at midlife including sexual behaviour measures from large scale national surveys in the United States, Great Britain and France. In the absence of comparable population studies in Canada, data from Canada’s National Population Health Survey (NPHS) were used in a logistic regression analysis to determine the relative influence of sociodemographic, lifestyle, and health factors on reported sexual intercourse activity of 15,249 Canadian women 35-59 years of age. Across this sample, sociodemographic and lifestyle factors were the most consistent predictors with health factors coming into play primarily for women over the age of 50. The study was limited by the lack of complete national data on sexual behaviour measures other than intercourse. While the Canadian government regularly collects data on a wide variety of health-related factors through instruments such as the NPHS, few if any questions ask about sexual behaviour and some provinces or health regions may opt to exclude such questions. Canada needs national surveys that give much greater priority to sexual behaviour and sexual health issues including those that affect women at midlife. (The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 2004; 13: 171-188).