Engaging Youth Perspectives on Sexual Rights and Gender Equality in Intimate Relationships as a Foundation for Rights-Based Sexuality Education

Short-term effects of a rights-based sexuality education curriculum for high-school students: a cluster-randomized trial

“…These include the randomization of classroom- and school-level clusters to treatment conditions, the use of a standard control curriculum to mirror the typical provision of sexuality education to high school students, the validation of survey measures through pilot testing and psychometric analyses, sound fidelity of implementation, the strong follow-up rates without indication of differential attrition between the intervention and control groups, and the use of multilevel analytic models to account for the clustered design. In addition, the randomized evaluation trial was enhanced by rigorous formative research methods and the use of existing best practices to both develop the curriculum and assess the fidelity of its implementation [ 27 , 34 ].…”

“…Items were identified in the research literature and reviewed for appropriateness for the target population and intervention objectives. New measurement scales of rights- and gender-based constructs were developed based on formative research with youth and parents [ 34 ] and a comprehensive review of the developing classroom curriculum. One-on-one cognitive interviews were conducted with youth to assess comprehension of the items and evaluate the quality of responses, after which the survey was revised accordingly.…”

Department for Education Statutory Guidance for Relationships and Sex Education in England: A Rights-Based Approach?

“…The receipt of CSE is identified as a human right by the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child (UNCRC), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the World Health Organization (WHO), all of which recognize and reinforce young people's sexual rights (Blake & Aggleton, 2017). There is recognition of young people's evolving capacity to exercise sexual rights on their own behalf, balanced with a need for protection and guidance to support their path to healthy adulthood (Berglas et al, 2014a(Berglas et al, , 2014b. In 2012, the UN Commission on Population and Development reaffirmed the connection between the principles of sexual rights for young people and gender equality in Commission on Population and Development 2012/1: Adolescents and Youth (Berglas et al, 2014a(Berglas et al, , 2014b.…”

“…There is recognition of young people's evolving capacity to exercise sexual rights on their own behalf, balanced with a need for protection and guidance to support their path to healthy adulthood (Berglas et al, 2014a(Berglas et al, , 2014b. In 2012, the UN Commission on Population and Development reaffirmed the connection between the principles of sexual rights for young people and gender equality in Commission on Population and Development 2012/1: Adolescents and Youth (Berglas et al, 2014a(Berglas et al, , 2014b.…”

“…By codifying young people's right to RSE in law, it could be concluded that current policy in England successfully meets the conceptualization of rights-based RSE as defined by a Table 1 Principles of Rights-Based Sex Education (according to Berglas et al, 2014aBerglas et al, , 2014b Principle Definition…”