You will be asked to complete an anonymous survey. Generally, it takes about 30 minutes, although it may be longer or shorter depending on your experiences.

We won’t ask you to give us any information that could be used to identify you during the survey.

Example questions

• What you know about sexually transmissible infections (STIs)
• Your experiences with relationships and sex (or not)
• Your opinions about sex, sex education and consent
• If and how you look for information about sex
• Your gender, sexuality, the type of school you go to and your wellbeing

Most of the time, you will be asked to select from a list of answers. There are a few questions where you are asked to type in your answer. There may be some questions that you don’t know the answer to, or that you don’t want to answer. That’s fine, there is always an option to select such as ‘Prefer not to answer’ or ‘Not sure’.

If you need to leave before you finish or you lose your connection, you can pick up where you left off if you come back to the survey on the same device and browser within 12 hours.

No, but we hope you will.

Being part of this study is voluntary. Please read the information below to decide if you would like to participate. You may wish to discuss your participation with a parent or carer before starting the survey.

If you are currently experiencing treatment for anxiety and/or depression or other major mental health disorders, especially if you are having a tough time at the moment, please carefully consider if you’d like to complete this survey as there may be a few questions that you could find distressing.

If you decide not to participate, or don’t finish the survey, this won’t affect your relationship with La Trobe University or any other listed organisation.

The answers you provide in this survey are used to gather information about young people’s views about sex, sexual wellbeing and relationships. This information is collated with other people who complete the survey and may be used to inform the Australian Government, health professionals and educators to make decisions to help improve sexual health education and services across Australia.

There aren’t really any benefits to you, but hopefully you’ll feel good about helping other people with similar experiences to you.

We don’t judge your opinions or experiences and we’ve try to minimise any impact the questions have on you. However, there is a slight risk that some of the questions might make you uncomfortable or cause distress.

If the survey causes you distress, please stop the survey and talk to someone about it if you can.

You can also contact Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or kidshelpline.com.au or Lifeline on 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au. Both these services have wonderful counsellors to help you.

We will collect information about you in ways that will not reveal who you are.

We will store information about you in ways that will not reveal who you are.

We will publish information about the survey without identifying you.

We will keep your information for a minimum of 5 years after the project is completed.

The storage, transfer and destruction of your data will be undertaken in accordance with the Research Data Management Policy (https://policies.latrobe.edu.au/document/view.php?id=106/).

The availability of any publications that result from this research will be advertised on the ARCSHS website in the future at www.latrobe.edu.au/arcshs.

You may also email us to request any available reports.

What if I change my mind?

If you no longer want to complete the questionnaire, simply close the web browser. If you change your mind after clicking on the ‘Submit’ button, we cannot withdraw your responses because we cannot link who you are with your questionnaire responses.

If you would like to speak to us or would like further information about SSASH, please contact us at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society (ARCSHS) at La Trobe University:

Dr Sylvia Kauer, SSASH Research Fellow, s.kauer@latrobe.edu.au

Dr Jennifer Power, SSASH Principal Investigator, jennifer.power@latrobe.edu.au

Complaints

If you have a complaint about any part of this study, please quote the Ethics Reference Number HEC24064 and contact:

Senior Human Ethics Officer, Ethics and Integrity, Research Office, La Trobe University on 03 9479 1443 or humanethics@latrobe.edu.au