Perceived Helpfulness and Affirmingness of Different Sources of Sex and Relationship Education among Sexual Minority Men

Sexual minority men face considerable challenges in accessing relevant learning about sex and romantic relationships, and emerging research links their having more inclusive learning experiences with better mental and sexual health outcomes. Little is known about how helpful and affirming sexual minority men perceive different sources of information to be. Sexual minority men (N = 283) in romantic relationships indicated whether each of ten sources (e.g., schools, peers, pornography) had been a source of learning about sex and relationships across seven topics (e.g., sexual orientation) and how helpful and affirming each source had been. One-way ANCOVAs, which excluded three sources (i.e., dating apps, parents, and religious institutions) because of lower endorsement rates, assessed for differences in perceived helpfulness and affirming across learning sources, and for differences in helpfulness across topics within each source. Participants rated their sexual and romantic partners and their personal research on the Internet as more helpful and affirming than all other sources; peers were also seen as more helpful than other sources, except for partners and personal research. Peers and pornography were also perceived as highly affirming, while schools were ranked as less affirming than every other source. Differences in helpfulness across topics were found for schools, social media, and pornography as well. Sexual minority men find learning from personal research on the Internet and from sexual and romantic partners to be especially affirming, as well as helpful, experiences. Participants’ perception that informal sources are most helpful reinforces the need to better understand sexual minority men’s media literacy and the accuracy of sexual and relational health information available online.