Participants sought for sex education and attitudes survey
The research is being led by Shauna Glennon, a fourth year PhD student in the School of Psychology, and supervised by Dr Sinead Smyth and Dr Catherine Fassbender. The study takes place in collaboration with the Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme (SHCPP) In the HSE.
'‘We need to understand how sex education as well as personal experiences and coping strategies interact to inform how young adults make decisions around sex," said Shauna Glennon, who said there may be differences in experience depending on where you went to school for example.
"In order to try to empower young adults to make healthy sexual decisions, we need to understand what influences their behaviour. This research is one important part of that’, said Shauna. ’This will allow us to positively inform sex education as well as public health policies.’'
The timing of this research collaboration is pertinent, as rates of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) have been increasing rapidly over the past few years, particularly among college-aged students.
The results of this research will inform the practices and policies of the SHCPP. It will also feed into the current revision of the Relationship and Sexuality Education Programme in primary and secondary schools.
"The goal is to recruit hundreds of students through communities, organisations and universities across Ireland, making sure that minority groups and sexualities are represented," said Shauna.
"It is a 100% anonymous survey, which has full ethical approval from the Research Ethics Committee.’'
The goal is to recruit hundreds of students at DCU and other universities across Ireland, with minority groups and sexualities to be represented.
Shauna said that those who contribute will help to ensure there is better advice on sexual education being given to the generation coming behind, but also to improve resources and education available to the current generation.