Teaching sexual consent to young people in education settings: a narrative systematic review

The recent outpouring of testimonies about teenage sexual assault has reinvigorated calls for improved education on sexual consent. Better understanding of the approach, content and delivery of these programmes is key to informing best practice. In this paper, we systematically searched for peer-reviewed articles on programmes in education settings for young people aged 15–29 that purport to teach sexual consent, with 18 meeting the inclusion criteria. Nearly all reviewed programmes were implemented in the USA (n = 16) in university settings (n = 15), with short-term duration (1–2-hour sessions), with varied facilitators and interactive teaching strategies. Thematic analysis identified four main approaches to sexual consent education, some of which were interwoven within programmes: risky behaviour, sex-positive, life skills, and socioculturally adapted. In line with existing research into best practice sex and relationship education, we recommend that consent education programmes take a sex-positive and whole-school approach, are interactive and inclusive, and facilitate critical analysis of how experiences of consensual and non-consensual sexual activity are connected to socio-structural forces within socio-cultural contexts. Future research should evaluate a larger number of programmes and ensure consistent measurement of programme outcomes, whilst taking account of complex social systems and their shifting influence on consent.