Study Finds COVID-19 Pandemic Negatively Impacted Sex Ed for Middle Schoolers

Parker Haddock MD’27 hopes presenting her research, which showed the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted middle schoolers’ sexual health education, at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition in September will help educators adjust their curriculum to account for real-world impacts.

“The pandemic changed how kids might be learning about relationships, safety, and self-advocacy,” Haddock says. “It raises questions about how schools can restore that emotional and social learning post-pandemic, particularly in areas like sexual health education.”

She completed her research through Sex Ed by Brown Med, a sex education program at Calcutt Middle School in Central Falls, RI, taught by first- and second-year medical students, which Haddock has been involved in since fall 2023. Her research is built on questionnaires completed by middle schoolers at the beginning and end of each year’s program, on subjects like consent, healthy relationships, and safe sex practices. The program’s volunteer teaching staff have administered different versions of these assessments since its inception in 2014.

“We have this wealth of research that has been going on since before I became involved,” she says.

In particular, Haddock examined questionnaires completed by seventh-grade students who participated in the eight-lesson sex ed program during the 2018-2019 and 2023-2024 school years. Her assessment focused on potential shifts in factual knowledge and in students’ engagement.

While previous data have shown a positive impact on students’ knowledge and positive beliefs about sexual health, this study showed a decreased efficacy in promoting positive beliefs among post-pandemic students. While the program still increased post-pandemic students’ knowledge, the study demonstrated that it was no longer shifting their underlying beliefs.

“Post-pandemic students were still learning and retaining the factual knowledge, but we saw minimal to no shift in how they were thinking about these topics,” Haddock says. “It’s one thing to get students learning about sexual health, but that’s only half the battle. We have to teach ways that foster behavioral change.”

Haddock says future research would involve tweaking the program’s curriculum with an emphasis on how students can apply their knowledge to decision-making in real-life situations. Negative beliefs can have a major impact on students’ abilities to make informed decisions about their sexual activity. By presenting her study at the AAP conference, Haddock hopes to show educators how they can promote self-advocacy in sexual education.

“A sensitive topic like sexual education requires a lot of classroom-based discussion and engagement with the material,” Haddock says. “Knowing how we can enhance that engagement is critical to ensuring students make safe, informed choices.”