FORUM 1-2023 Research

" This issue of FORUM presents 13 current research projects and 7 project outlines in the field of sexual and reproductive health and sexual rights. All 20 contributions can be accessed and downloaded individually under ‘Articles in the publication’.

The results of the Family Demographic Panel FReDA of the Bundesinstituts für Bevölkerungsforschung (BiB; Federal Institute for Population Research): In 2021, around 30,000 respondents to the representative study provided information about, among other things, partnership, parenthood, gender roles and stress during the Corona pandemic.
Next up are the results of the parents’ survey within the framework of the Youth Sexuality Study of the German Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BZgA; Federal Centre for Health Education). Whether and how parents advise their children on contraception and what their attitude is toward sexual contact among minors is particularly interesting in the long term.
An article on family planning in Germany follows. Based on some 19,000 surveys, the representative study “women´s lives 3” paints a detailed picture of women’s reproductive lives in Germany. Unwanted pregnancies are the focus of the article by Tilmann Knittel and Laura Olejniczak.
An article by the Wissenschaftszentrums Berlin (WZB; Science Centre Berlin) focusses on the design of a new database that makes it possible to compare the reproductive policies of 31 countries and evaluate them according to categories. The researchers ask about typical patterns in the regulation of reproduction in wealthy countries and what follows from them.
ANSER is a research platform that promotes communication between academic research teams and political decision-makers in the field of sexual and reproductive rights, which also has an international focus. This is a project of Ghent University, reported by Emilie Peeters.
Online media are of great importance in the field of sexual education, as are questions about pregnancy termination. Nicola Döring investigates who is particularly influential on YouTube and TikTok, what messages are being sent and how the audience comments.
KisS is an online programme for the prevention of sexual aggression among young adults. Barbara Krahé and her team outline its design and its success.
Three so-called “Speak” studies conducted at different types of schools provide information on the frequency of sexualised violence experiences during adolescence, on the places where such violence takes place and on the perpetrators. Do LGBTIQ* persons living in Germany have a particular health burden? How does this target group assess their health and psychological well-being? Those are the subjects of an online survey conducted by Stefan Timmermanns and Heino Stöver.
Maika Böhm and Johanna Walsch present further results of a partial survey from the research project BeSPa, which revolves around the experiences of clients who received pregnancy advice on §219 via video or telephone.
From Switzerland, Daniel Kunz and Nikola Koschmieder report on the importance of sexual rights in family and school sexuality education. Alexandra Klein and Jann Schweitzer address sexuality education in schools from the pupils’ point of view in their interview study WiSex. Milena Wegelin presents the research project REFPER regarding the views of refugee women on family planning and contraception in Swiss asylum centres.
You will also find a brief outline of seven other research projects in the “Project Outlines“ section."