SIECUS Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education

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Goals of Sexuality Education

The Guidelines recognize four primary goals of sexuality education.

Information. To provide accurate information about human sexuality, including: growth and development, human reproduction, anatomy, physiology, masturbation, family life, pregnancy, childbirth, parenthood, sexual response, sexual orientation, contraception, abortion, sexual abuse, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Attitudes, Values, and Insights. To provide an opportunity for young people to question, explore, and assess their sexual attitudes in order to understand their family’s values, develop their own values, increase self-esteem, develop insights concerning relationships with families and members of both genders, and understand their obligations and responsibilities to their families and others.

Relationships and Interpersonal Skills. To help young people develop interpersonal skills, including communication, decision-making, assertiveness, and peer refusal skills, as well as the ability to create satisfying relationships. Sexuality education programs should prepare students to understand their sexuality effectively and creatively in adult roles. This would include helping people develop the capacity for caring, supportive, non-coercive, and mutually pleasurable intimate and sexual relationships.

Responsibility. To help young people exercise responsibility regarding sexual relationships, including addressing abstinence, how to resist pressures to become prematurely involved in sexual intercourse, and encouraging the use of contraception and other sexual heath measures. Sexuality education should be a central component of programs designed to reduce the prevalence of sexually related medical problems; these included teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases including HIV infection, and sexual abuse.

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