Date of Award

Summer 2025

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Health Promotion, Education and Behavior

First Advisor

Rachel E. Davis

Abstract

Sex education in South Carolina (SC) is known to be limited, which may influence adolescent sexual behaviors, leading to a higher likelihood of lower ages of sexual initiation, more sexual partners, and more experiences of sexual violence. These behaviors are associated with many negative health outcomes.

A political content analysis of bills, laws, and educational standards provides insight to changes in political discourse around sex education from when the Comprehensive Health Education Act (CHEA) was passed in 1988 until 2024. A variable created through this analysis is used along with SC Youth Risk Behavior Survey data to assess changes in adolescent risk behaviors from 2005-2021 and how these changes relate to shifts in political discourse during the same period. Experiences with sex education and the influence on sexual behaviors are then captured through in-depth, one-on-one interviews with young adults who attended K-12 public schools in SC.

This dissertation found that while sex education has hardly changed since the CHEA was passed in 1988, there has been a steady shift in the age of sexual initiation increasing and reported numbers of sexual partners and experiences of sexual violence decreasing in adolescents over time. It was also observed that attempted policy change related to sex education increased in years following higher prevalence rates of adolescent lower age of sexual initiation, and increased number of sexual partners and experiences of sexual violence. Young adult participants do not credit the sex education they received with lasting influence on their behaviors though, instead noting greater influence from the larger sociopolitical environment in which they were raised. Participants also reported many negative associations with sexual development and sex as a result of this context and the way sex education had been taught.

The nuances of sex education in SC and how the sociopolitical climate reacts to and causes adolescent and young adult sexual behaviors are now better understood. Together, this information can be utilized for advocacy efforts for improved sex education in SC. This study provided a novel, three-pronged approach to assessing the state of sex education in SC and the influence this sex education has on adolescent and young adult sexual behaviors.

Rights

© 2025, Megan Elizabeth Austin

Download

Share

COinS