Report Highlights Men’s Precollege Sexual Education

A new report from It’s On Us found that young men often come to college underprepared for sexual assault prevention programming they receive there, with fewer than one in three learning about sex for the first time through formal education.

“Young men are not receiving the education they need before college. When education is inconsistent, incomplete, or absent, young men show up on campuses with varying levels of knowledge about sex and healthy relationships,” the organization wrote in a summary of the findings. “To meet young men where they are, prevention education must consider how past experiences with sex education inform college men’s current belief systems, and training should adapt to these varying levels of knowledge and understanding.”

The study is based on a sample of about 1,000 men ages 18 to 25 and currently enrolled in college.

Other key findings include:

• More than half of respondents first learned about sex from some sort of media.
• Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they had not been taught about consent and sexual communication in a formal sexual education setting before college.
• More than seven in 10 respondents said they had received some form of sexual education in their communities, such as in conversations with family or trusted adults.
• Black respondents were more likely to have received sex education in a community setting than other populations. Queer men were especially likely to have learned about sex through online sources.
• Less than half of school-based and less than a third of community-based sex education included education about healthy conflict and communication in relationships.
• Participants whose sex education encouraged “hierarchical family values” were more likely to report higher hostility toward women, as did participants who were taught to be apprehensive about sex.