Can We Talk About Sex? Exploring Teacher Preparedness of Comprehensive Sex Education Delivery in Southeast Georgia

In 2022, the CDC estimated that youth and adolescents between the ages of 15 through 24 accounted for almost half of the 2.5 million cases of sexually transmitted infections in the United States. Teachers who deliver accurate sexual health information increase the accessibility of pertinent details to adolescents during crucial years of cognitive development, which could decrease adverse sexual health outcomes among youth. The utilization of a Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE) curriculum addresses all parts of sexual health by covering topics ranging from physical, biological, emotional, and social aspects of sexuality. However, educators who provide sexual health education must follow the policies mandated by their respective states. While the efforts to codify CSE exist, and both Sex Education and HIV Education are mandated in the state of Georgia, there is no requirement for the curriculum to be medically accurate, age-appropriate, culturally appropriate, or unbiased. Additionally, Georgia does not have any policies around the support of teachers implementing the curriculum. The purpose of this research project was to identify the social-ecological factors that public school teachers report having an impact on their preparedness for effective delivery of CSE in the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS). Methods: Five virtual interviews were conducted with secondary-level health and physical education teachers who delivered CSE to students for at least one year. The Social Ecological Model was used to guide research and interview question development, and NVivo 12 was used to theme participant responses inductively. Results: Participants described the SCCPSS training as being helpful for CSE content delivery but would like additional support for more successful content delivery, especially when factoring in outdated college levels of education and diverse student needs. Participants believe SCCPSS could provide more support to assist in the delivery of a successful CSE program in their school ...