Responsible Sexual Citizenship in Today's World
The Challenges Confronting Boys
IBSC has partnered with McGill University Professor Ada L. Sinacore to conduct a study on Responsible Sexual Citizenship in Today's World: The Challenges Confronting Boys. Judging from the reaction of delegates who attended Sinacore’s presentation at the 2018 IBSC Annual Conference, as well as the IBSC Research Committee, Board of Trustees, and management team, this study promises to provide valuable source data, resources, and a practical guide for this global issue challenging all our communities.
Why sexual citizenship? Citizenship implies social responsibility to a community and society. Thus, sexual citizenship includes participating in socially and sexually responsible behaviors. A citizenship model will allow the researcher to explore the limitations, challenges, and expectations confronting a diverse group of boys from varying schools and countries.
The aim of this study is twofold. First, we seek to learn from students what information they have related to responsible sexual citizenship, including topics such as knowledge and attitudes about:
- gender and sexuality,
- sexual health (e.g., puberty, attraction, safe-sex practices),
- consent,
- healthy and unhealthy relationships (both intimate and platonic),
- digital literacy, ethics, and responsibility (e.g., plagiarism, sexting),
- media and sexually explicit images, and
- their school climate.
As well, we want to determine where students are getting their information and whether or not it is accurate.
Second, we aim to learn from parents and school personnel (teachers, staff, administrators) how information about responsible sexual citizenship is provided to the students (i.e., classroom instruction, individual conversations, school activities). The goal of collecting this data is to be able to make recommendations to schools across the IBSC network about the educational and programmatic needs to ensure boys have accurate and up-to-date information.
Schools participating in the study need a designated person(s) to circulate the links to the online surveys to parents, school personnel, and students. Sinacore will provide you with the procedures for doing this.
We’ll present results of the study at the 2019 IBSC Annual Conference in Montreal in June. As well, participating schools will receive a summary of the results broken down by region with educational and programmatic recommendations.
Please take advantage of this opportunity to participate in this study.
Questions?
Please contact Ada L. Sinacore directly at sexualcitizenship.edu@mcgill.ca or 514-398-3446.
Please note: To participate, your school must be an IBSC member and pay a nominal administrative fee of $250 for schools that charge tuition and $50 for schools that do not charge tuition.