“I Taught Myself”: Sexuality Education and Sexual Learning Across Discontinuous Youth Biographies

Young people whose lives are marked by repeated transitions between family, school, residential care, health services, and youth justice may experience sexuality education as fragmented rather than continuous. This study examines how formal sexuality education intersects with informal and experiential sexual learning among young people living in precarious social circumstances in Germany. The analysis draws on 16 qualitative problem-centered interviews with participants aged 15 to 21 years and applies a case-oriented reconstructive approach based primarily on the documentary method, complemented by grounded-theory procedures. The findings indicate that inequalities in sexuality education concern not only access but also timing, continuity, and perceived relevance. Responsibility was often distributed across families, schools, care settings, and other institutions without being sustained over time. Participants frequently described themselves as having “taught themselves”, although their learning was embedded in relationships with siblings, peers, intimate partners, digital media, and personal experience. Formal sexuality education was remembered mainly in relation to reproduction, contraception, and HIV/STI prevention, whereas relational, gendered, and practical dimensions were more often learned informally or experientially. The findings suggest that sexuality education should be understood as part of broader processes of sexual socialization and should ensure greater continuity across institutional transitions.