It’s On Us, a Washington, D.C.-based grassroots organization dedicated to combating sexual assault on college campuses, released a new report examining college men’s experience with sex education before arriving on campus.
According to the study, less than one out of every three college men learned about sex for the first time in a formal educational setting. Instead, the majority of college men first learned about sex through outlets that often do not display healthy expectations of relationships, such as movies, television shows, and video games.
Men of different backgrounds reported varying experiences with sexual education. College men in the LGBTQIA+ community were more likely to learn about sex earlier in childhood, while cisgender straight college men were more likely to learn about the topic as a teenager. LGBTQIA+ college men were also more likely than other men to say they turned to online resources to learn about sex. Compared to their non-Black peers, Black college men were more likely to say they received sexuality education in a community-based setting, such as in conversations with family members or trusted adults. Overall, college men’s current beliefs about sex align more with what they learned in community-based settings than what they were taught in school.
The report also revealed a lack of quality content in the sex education young men received before attending college. Less than half of school-based education and less than one-third of community-based education covered healthy conflict and communication in relationships. Some 58 percent of the entire study’s sample said they had not been taught about consent or sexual communication in a formal setting prior to college. Notably, the report also highlights that some sex education settings for young men teach rigid gender norms and fear-based messaging. These teachings often lead to feelings of hostility toward women — a known risk factor for perpetrating sexual violence.
“This research demonstrates that the work to prevent campus sexual assault starts long before students step onto a college campus — it begins with the movies they watch, the conversations they have with trusted adults, the content of their health classes in school and the many ways they learn about sex as they grow up,” said Tracey Vitchers, executive director of It’s On Us. “It’s clear that the current system is failing young men. To set them up for success, we need to meet college men where they are with prevention programming that acknowledges their varying knowledge levels of topics like consent and sex.”