Descriptive study about non-formal sex education resources available in Spain

BACKGROUND // Sex education (SE) is a fundamental element of a fulfilling and safe life. Currently, education is understood beyond what happens inside the classroom. The aim of this research was to describe and to compare sex education resources available in official webs of Autonomous Communities of Spain (ACS) that to could be used in non-formal educational context. METHODS // A review of the ACS official web pages related to healthcare, education, youth, family and equality was made. Finally, 216 resources were selected for descriptive analysis. The resources were classified based on United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Technical Guidelines. RESULTS // 64% of resources were targeted at young people/adolescents. 80% dealt some specific issues, the most frequent being Reproductive Health, Violence and Gender. Values and Rights related to sexuality, Skills for Health and Well-being and Sexual behaviour are issues rarely addressed. Only 6 ACS were a social network profile related to SE. ACS with the widest diversity of issues addressed were Andalusia, Asturias and the Canary Islands. CONCLUSIONS // Homogeneity in the kind of resources and issues disparity reveals potential inequities in SE access in Spain. To enhance out-of-school environments learning can provide better successful health promotion. UNESCO’s guidelines can be used to classify educational resource content and to identify the institutions that have best integrated actual SE paradigm.