Innovation in Sexuality and Relationship Education in Child Welfare: Shifting Toward a Focus on Ongoing Conversations, Connection, and Consent

Abstract

Youth in foster care experience disproportionate rates of abusive relationships, teen pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Extant research points to the need for interventions at multiple levels of the social ecology, however, there is a lack of evidence to guide the development of coordinated interventions for youth, foster parents, and child welfare professionals. The Texas Foster Youth Health Initiative (TFYHI) convened a multidisciplinary learning community to build a foundation for intervention development. The intentional learning and innovation process engaged several groups of stakeholders: young adults with lived experience (n = 41), foster parents (n = 14), and child welfare professionals (n = 52). Interviews, community listening sessions, and reflection exercises were designed to capture tacit and experiential knowledge and explore challenges and desired outcomes from different perspectives. Based on a thematic analysis of stakeholder perspectives, we identified overarching needs to normalize conversations about sexuality and relationships and shift away from risk-based and stigmatizing approaches. We also identified key strategies for designing coordinated interventions targeting youth, foster parents, and child welfare professionals: (1) Reflect on values about sexuality and relationships. (2) Validate youths’ need for connection. (3) Focus on strengthening youth-adult relationships and ongoing conversations. (4) Build healthy relationship skills including communication about consent, condom use, and contraception. (5) Identify teachable moments and model problem solving. (6) Use interactive approaches for sharing health information and empower youth to choose methods that fit their needs.

Promoting Healthy Relationships in Foster Care—“If I Had Seen What a Healthy Relationship Looks Like, that Would Have Changed My Perspective”

“…Along with training for caregivers, multi-session, inclusive, and skill-building interventions for youth are needed to provide foundational relationship and sexuality education. Multi-level interventions that encompass training and support for child welfare professionals, foster caregivers and mentors, and trauma-informed curricula for youth ( Ball et al, 2023 ; Colarossi et al, 2019 ) are promising approaches to improving outcomes for youth. Ultimately the relationship between foster caregiver and youth should provide the space to practice skills for healthy relationships that are based on respect, communication, trust, boundaries, and honesty and affirm identity development and self-worth.…”

Construcción de un plan de cultura sexual para escolares peruanos

“…La investigación muestra interesantes resultados; primeramente; a nivel internacional, los hallazgos indican que los/as adolescentes pueden verse afectados a contraer infecciones de transmisión sexual (ITS) y gravidez prematura, a causa de diversos factores; siendo uno de ellos, la falta de charlas e intervenciones, de igual manera, ante una capacitación inadecuada de los padres y profesores en temas de sexualidad humana (Gonzáles et al, 2015). Es así que, según consenso, se prioriza las charlas informativas para adolescentes, padres y profesores, a fin de erradicar la estigmatización sobre sexualidad, puesto que aún hay la idea errónea de no abordar temas de sexualidad en los colegios (Ball et al, 2023). Por otro lado, después, de eventos ocurridos durante la pandemia, las actividades preventivo-promocionales en salud, se volvieron puntos críticos y emergentes para que sean incluidos dentro del plan educativo escolar en Reino Unido, por ejemplo; que requieren de profesores de biología para sumarse a la tarea educativa (Hola y Billingsley, 2023).…”