Objectives
Holistic sexuality education
(HSE) is a new concept in sexuality education
(SE). Since it differs from other types of SE in a number of important
respects, strategies developed for the evaluation of the latter are not
necessarily applicable to HSE. In this paper the authors provide a basis for
discussion on how to evaluate HSE.
Methods
First, the international literature
on evaluation of SE in general was reviewed in terms of its applicability to
HSE. Second, the European Expert Group on Sexuality Education
extensively discussed the requirements of its evaluation and suggested
appropriate indicators and methods for evaluating HSE.
Results
The European
experience in SE is scarcely represented in the general evaluation literature.
The majority of the literature focuses on impact and neglects programme and
implementation evaluations. Furthermore, the current literature demonstrates
that evaluation criteria predominantly focus on the public health impact, while
there is not yet a consensus on sexual well-being criteria and aspects of positive sexuality, which are crucial parts of HSE. Finally, experimental
designs are still considered the gold standard, yet several of the conditions
for their use are not fulfilled in HSE. Realising that a new evaluation
framework for HSE is needed, the European expert group initiated its
development and agreed upon a number of indicators that provide a starting
point for further discussion.
Conclusions
Aside from the health impact, the
quality of SE programmes and their implementation also deserve attention and
should be evaluated. To be applicable to HSE, the evaluation criteria need to
cover more than the typical public health aspects. Since they do not register
long-term and multi-component characteristics, evaluation methods such as
randomised controlled trials are not sufficiently suitable for HSE. The
evaluation design should rely on a number of different information sources from
mixed methods that are complemented and triangulated to build a plausible case
for the effectiveness of SE in general and HSE in particular.
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- 1 * University Medical Centre, Radboud University , Nijmegen , the Netherlands.
- 2 Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) , Cologne , Germany.
- 3 International Centre for Reproductive Health, Ghent University , Ghent , Belgium.
- Eur J Contracept Reprod Health Care. 2016 Feb;21(1):68-80. doi: 10.3109/13625187.2015.1050715. Epub 2015 May 29.
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