Human Rights-Based Sexual Health Education
RCTClinical Trial
Adolescents often lack knowledge of bodily autonomy, reproductive rights, and recourse against sexual coercion, leaving them vulnerable to sexual violence and delayed reporting of abuse.
Picture this
Instead of framing sexual education purely as medical facts or biology lessons, the instruction teaches adolescents that they own a personal set of basic legal rights—like having a personal safety shield that gives them the explicitly taught authority to say no to unwanted physical contact, seek medical care, and report violations to authorities.
What the evidence says
Six months post-intervention, treated students showed a 0.25 SD increase in sexual violence knowledge (p < 0.01) and a 0.26 SD increase in attitudes supporting the reporting of sexual abuse to authorities or medical professionals (p < 0.01).
- Who was studied
- N = 4,599 human ninth-grade public school students across 21 urban Colombian cities.
- How
- Classroom-level Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) evaluating an 11-week web-based curriculum with follow-up surveys administered at 1 week and 6 months post-intervention.
What to do
Frame adolescent reproductive health curricula around fundamental human rights and bodily autonomy to increase recognition and reporting of sexual violence.
From the source
"The overarching theme is a human rights approach to pregnancy and teen sexuality. The course focuses on helping the students recognize themselves as endowed with rights, such as the right to say no to sex, to access basic health services, to access family planning services, and to live without sexual violence."
Do Information Technologies Improve Teenagers’ Sexual Education? Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in Colombia