Healthy and Respectful Relationship Education and Sexual Abuse

Two disabled Black people (a femme wearing compression gloves and a non-binary person in a power wheelchair that's partially in view) sit across each other and laugh while on a coffee date in a brick building.
Photo by Chona Kasinger for Disabled And Here

What is the name of the article?

Healthy and Respectful Relationship Education and Sexual Abuse

What was the goal of the study?

The goal of this study was to look at how many high school students with disabilities got healthy and respectful relationship (HRR) education. It also looked at how experiences of sexual abuse differed for students who got HHR training compared to students who did not get HRR training.

What did we find?

Students with disabilities were less likely than students without disabilities to say they had been taught in school about HRR. Experiences of sexual abuse happened more often for all students who did not receive HRR training.

What did we learn?

Students with all types of disabilities are less likely to get HRR education at school than students without disabilities. Students with more complex disabilities were even less likely to get HHR education than other disabled students.

Why is this important?

Offering HHR education to all students is a good way to lower the risk of sexual abuse. This is an important way to improve health outcomes for young people with disabilities.

Who are the authors of the study?

Abigail Newby-Kew, MPH, and Willi Horner-Johnson, PhD 

Authors are from Oregon Health & Science University and Portland State University School of Public Health, Institute on Development and Disability, School of Medicine

Who participated in the study?

Key Words:

Healthy and respectful relationship (HRR) education: teaches people how to set personal boundaries in different types of relationships.  

Sexual abuse: sexual acts or sexual behavior forced on a person without their permission. 

Article Citation

Newby-Kew, A., & Horner-Johnson, W. (2023). Healthy and respectful relationship education: Differences by disability status and associations with sexual abuse. Journal of School Health, 93(7)565-572. https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.13317

Note: Percentages are based on a sample and may not add to 100%. For complete demographic data, please see the original article.

Gender No Disability (5,473 people) Disability (2,838 people)
Male 51.9% 34.2%
Female 46.5% 61.8%
Nonbinary 1.5% 4.0%

All racial groups are non-Hispanic; the Hispanic ethnicity group includes Hispanics of any race.
Race/Ethnicity No Disability (5,473 people) Disability (2,838 people)
American Indian/Alaska Native 2.3% 2.2%
Asian 1.8% 1.7%
Black 1.6% 1.8%
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander 0.8% 0.8%
White 65.8% 62.7%
Multiracial or other 4.4% 4.4%
Hispanic 23.3% 26.3%

Sexual orientation No Disability (5,473 people) Disability (2,838 people)
Heterosexual 91.3% 72.9%
Lesbian, gay, bisexual 7.1% 23.4%
Questioning 1.6% 3.8%

Family Affluence Scale-II No Disability (5,473 people) Disability (2,838 people)
Low 9.6% 13.9%
Middle 36.9% 40.7%
High 53.5% 45.4%