Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Apr 19, 2025; 15(4): 102624
Published online Apr 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i4.102624
Perceptions of sex education among college students: A case study of a medical school
Shang-Yu Lv, Zhuo-Cong Bao, Zhao-Dong Liu, Ye Zhang, Yu-Le Gu, Bing-Kui Li, Yun-Shu Deng, Yu-Ji Zhang, Yan Zhang
Shang-Yu Lv, The Second Clinical College, Shenyang Medical College, Shenyang 110034, Liaoning Province, China
Zhuo-Cong Bao, Zhao-Dong Liu, Ye Zhang, Graduate School, Shenyang Medical College, Shenyang 110034, Liaoning Province, China
Yu-Le Gu, Bing-Kui Li, Yun-Shu Deng, Yu-Ji Zhang, The First Clinical College, Shenyang Medical College, Shenyang 110034, Liaoning Province, China
Yan Zhang, International Education School, International Exchange and Cooperation Office, Shenyang Medical College, Shenyang 110034, Liaoning Province, China
Yan Zhang, Key Laboratory of Human Ethnic Specificity and Phenomics of Critical Illness in Liaoning Province, Shenyang Medical College, Shenyang 110034, Liaoning Province, China
Yan Zhang, Key Laboratory of Phenomics in Shenyang, Shenyang Medical College, Shenyang 110034, Liaoning Province, China
Yan Zhang, Department of Biochemistry, School of Basic Medicine, Shenyang Medical College, Shenyang 110034, Liaoning Province, China
Co-first authors: Shang-Yu Lv and Zhuo-Cong Bao.
Author contributions: Lv SY and Bao ZC contribute equally to this study as co-first authors; Lv SY, Bao ZC and Gu YL designed the research study and wrote the manuscript; Liu ZD and Zhang Y performed the research; Li BK and Deng YS contributed new reagents and analytic tools; Zhang YJ analyzed the data; Zhang Y contributed thesis guidance and communicated with the editor; all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Supported by Scientific Research Project of College Students in Liaoning Province, No. S202410164004.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Shenyang Medical College Institutional Review Board (Approval No. 2024006).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors disclosed no relevant relationships.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yan Zhang, International Education School, International Exchange and Cooperation Office, Shenyang Medical College, No. 146 North Huanghe Street, Shenyang 110034, Liaoning Province, China. zhangyan@symc.edu.cn
Received: November 21, 2024
Revised: December 22, 2024
Accepted: January 24, 2025
Published online: April 19, 2025
Processing time: 124 Days and 2.1 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Sex education was introduced early in foreign countries. For example, there is a more systematic sex education system abroad, which can better achieve the popularization of sex education. China's sex education started relatively late, yet there are many problems in the development of sex education in China; for example, college students lack knowledge of sexuality.

AIM

To explore the perception of sex education among medical college students.

METHODS

Students majoring in medicine in a medical school were selected as the survey subjects. Anonymous online questionnaires were used to conduct the survey, and the results were analyzed using GraphPad Prism, SPSS, Microsoft Excel, and other software. The questionnaire was administered to understand the source of sexual knowledge, sexual responsibility, mastery of sexual knowledge, and distress caused by sexual problems.

RESULTS

Most students majoring in medicine had no formal sex education, lacked sexual knowledge, or had a biased understanding of sexual responsibility. This study analyzed future research trends in sex education based on relevant achievements in the Chinese context and abroad to further realize the practical significance and value of sex education popularization in China and provide recommendations for parents and schools at different levels.

CONCLUSION

Sex education should be conducted among college students, and medical colleges and universities should strengthen scientific sex education.

Keywords: College students; Sex education; Medical schools; Perceptions; Observational study

Core Tip: In this study, taking a medical school student as the research object, an online anonymous questionnaire was released. The questionnaire questions involved "sexual concept", "sexual knowledge", "sexual responsibility", "sexual transmission" and other aspects, according to the survey results, the medical students' mastery of "sexual" knowledge was preliminarily understood, and the existing problems were discussed and suggestions were made.