Sexual literacy and parents’ confidence to discuss sex and relationships with children and adolescents in Australia

Abstract

Parents play a fundamental role in educating their children, including younger children and teenagers, about sex and relationships. These conversations often involve complex and sensitive topics, which many parents find challenging due to limited knowledge, low confidence, or discomfort. This study investigated whether parents with higher sexual literacy–defined as the ability to seek and assess information to support sexual wellbeing and communicate confidently about sex and relationships–reported greater confidence, comfort, and satisfaction with these discussions. An Australian survey of 1,918 parents and carers of school-aged children was conducted in 2024. Linear regression models examined associations between sexual literacy and parent–child communication outcomes. Exploratory factor analysis and graded response modelling refined 14 sexual literacy measures to a unidimensional 10-factor solution. Higher sexual literacy was significantly associated with greater confidence (B = 0.522, 95% CI [0.46, 0.58]), comfort (B = 0.452, 95% CI [0.40, 0.51]), and satisfaction (B = 0.346, [0.29, 0.40]) in communicating with children about sex and relationships (all p