For Immediate Release
Contact:
Dan Cassino / Executive Director, FDU Poll
973.896.7072/ dcassino@fdu.edu
Young People: New Jersey sex ed better than other states, still needs work
Those who went to high school in New Jersey less likely to report “woke” indoctrination
Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ, December 21, 2022 – Young people who went to high school in New Jersey give high marks to the sex education that they got in school, but there are striking differences in how men and women rate the content. Also, according to the latest results from the FDU survey of people ages 18 to 30, people who went to high school in New Jersey recently are less likely than young people nationwide to say that their teachers pressured them to hold liberal or “woke” views.
The online survey of 1,678 young adults was designed to look at the views of young people in New Jersey, with separate samples of young men nationwide, and a smaller sample of young women nationwide included for comparison purposes. Women were less happy with the quality of the sex education they received in New Jersey, being more likely to say that there was too much content designed to scare them and that there was inaccurate information presented. Still, New Jersey’s sex education seems to be outpacing programs nationally, with young people in the Garden State being more likely to say that they got information about birth control.
“Politicians have been fighting over New Jersey’s sex ed curriculum for years now,” said Dan Cassino, a professor of Government and Politics at FDU, and the Executive Director of the Poll. “But people who actually went to high school here recently seem pretty happy with it.”
Forty-seven percent of young men and 38 percent of young women who went to high school in New Jersey say that they got “about the right amount” of information about birth control from their sex ed classes, compared to 40 percent of young men and women nationally. Comparable numbers of young people in New Jersey and nationally said that they didn’t get enough information about birth control, with women being much more likely to say that they would have wanted more. Forty-eight percent of women who went to school in New Jersey, and 42 percent of those who went to school elsewhere say that they didn’t get enough information about birth control, compared with 34 percent of men in New Jersey and 32 percent of men who went to high school elsewhere.
Those who went to high school in New Jersey were also less likely to say that they didn’t get any information about birth control at all: outside of the Garden State, 15 percent said that they didn’t get any information, compared to just 11 percent in New Jersey.
“Reducing the rates of teen pregnancy has generally been one of the major goals of sex ed,” said Cassino. “There are more options for women than there are for men, so it makes sense that young women are looking for more information.”
Interestingly, while New Jersey’s sex education curriculums have recently been reformed to increase the discussion of topics like birth control, the youngest people in the survey are less likely to say that they got information about birth control. Seventeen percent of 18- to 21-year-olds say that they got no information on the subject, compared to just 4 percent of those in the 26- to 30-year-old group.
One criticism of sex education is that it can focus on trying to scare students, rather than providing information. Young people who went to high school in New Jersey are about as likely as those outside of the state to say that they got “too much” information that was supposed to scare them, with 14 percent of respondents saying that they got too much of it. There is a substantial sex gap in these responses: 17 percent of women in the state say that they got too much information that was supposed to scare them, compared with 8 percent of men.
The survey also asked young people about the quality of the information that they received in sex ed: whether it was accurate, inaccurate, or outdated.
Young people who went to high school in New Jersey were more likely than those outside of the state to say that they got accurate information from their sex ed classes. Eighty percent of young people who went to school in New Jersey agree that they got accurate information, compared with 70 percent of people who went to school elsewhere. There is no real difference, however, in the amount of inaccurate information those who went to high school in New Jersey and elsewhere say that they got in sex ed. Men – both in New Jersey and nationally – were more likely to agree that their sex ed included inaccurate information.
“If students don’t trust the information they’re getting in sex ed, there’s no point in doing it,” said Cassino. “These students are saying that they got a mix of accurate and inaccurate information, and that looks like a real problem.”
Young people in New Jersey and nationwide were about equally likely to say that they got outdated information from their sex ed classes. Twenty percent of men who went to school in New Jersey, and 19 percent of women “strongly agree” that they got outdated information, no different than the figures for those who went to high school elsewhere. Women in New Jersey, though, were more likely to think that information they got was at least somewhat outdated, with 70 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” agreeing that it was outdated, compared with 56 percent of men in the state.
Young people who went to high school in New Jersey are less likely than young people nationally to say that their high school teachers tried to push them to hold liberal or “woke” views about topics like sex, sexuality, race and US history. Just 25 percent of young people in the Garden State say that their teachers tried to indoctrinate them, less than the 36 percent of young men and 30 percent of young women nationwide who say the same. Most young people who went to school in New Jersey (62 percent of young men and 57 percent of young women) say that their teachers didn’t try to indoctrinate them.
“Results like this are a Rorschach test,” said Cassino. “You can look at this and say that students in New Jersey are less likely to say that they’re getting indoctrinated; but you can just as easily look at that 25 percent who say that they are, and raise the alarm.”
While the specter of liberal teachers pushing their political views on students is highly politicized, this difference in perceptions can’t be explained just by partisanship. People who went to high school in New Jersey are less likely to be Republicans than young people nationwide, but New Jersey Republicans and Democrats are both less likely to say that their teachers tried to push these kinds of views. In New Jersey, 25 percent of Democratic young people say that their teachers tried to push views on them, alongside 36 percent of Republicans. For young people outside of New Jersey, those figures are 35 percent and 44 percent.
Interestingly, those young people who went to public high schools were less likely to report pressure to hold liberal views than those who attended private, religious, or other forms of high school (the exact form of the alternate schooling was not specified in the survey). While the number of young people who attended non-public high schools are relatively small, they’re still significantly more likely to say that their teachers wanted to indoctrinate them with liberal views: 24 percent of people who went to public high schools in New Jersey say so, compared with 35 percent of those who had other arrangements for high school. This is mirrored in the national data, where 34 percent of public school attenders said that they saw pressure to hold these views, compared with 47 percent of other respondents.
“It’s possible that people outside the public school system are more sensitive to perceived pressure, or maybe they’re getting more of it,” said Cassino. “Either way, this doesn’t seem to be an issue that’s limited to the public school system.”
People who went to high school in New Jersey more recently are more likely to say that they faced some degree of indoctrination. One-third (33 percent) of 18-21-year-olds in the state say that they felt pressure from teachers, compared with just 15 percent of those between the ages of 26 and 30. This could reflect a change in the classroom experience, a change in perceptions of that experience, or a change in the views of the youngest adults in the survey.
“Whether indoctrination is happening or not, the perception that it’s happening has a real impact,” said Cassino. “No one is monitoring what’s going on in the classrooms, so lawmakers and the public are going to make up their minds based on these kinds of perceptions.”
Methodology
The survey was conducted between December 1 and 4, 2022, using a multi-stream non-probability online stratified sample collected by CINT. Respondents were solicited to be part of the survey via online ads or membership in existing online panels. This multi-stream approach is used to maximize the diversity of the sample, but the online nature of the data collection means that some groups, such as those who do not use the internet, are necessarily excluded from the data. This means that the respondents, like respondents in all online surveys, cannot be said to be representative of the public as a whole, and the results, while weighted to approximate the characteristics of the population as a whole, may differ from that population in ways that are difficult to ascertain from within the dataset. However, the other characteristics of the sample (especially age) limit the bias resulting from these exclusions in the results presented here.
The sample was primarily designed to measure the attitudes of men ages 18 to 30 in New Jersey and across the United States, with samples in New Jersey including both men and women in that age group, and the national sample strongly oversampling men, with women used as a control/contrast group. The final sample included 534 respondents who reported going to high school in New Jersey (regardless of their current residence; 589 currently reside in New Jersey) and 1,144 respondents who went to high school in other states (1,089 who reside elsewhere). Surveys were conducted only in English.
Data for the New Jersey sample was weighted by age, reported sex and race to 2021 Census estimates for those categories.
If this were a simple random survey of the targeted populations, the margin of error for a sample of 589 New Jersey residents 18-30 years old would be +/-4.0 percentage points, at a 95 percent confidence interval. The margin of error for a sample of 1,089 US residents 18-30 years old would be +/-3.1 percentage points, at a 95 percent confidence interval. The non-probability nature of the data collection means that the use of such figures is controversial within the survey research community
This error calculation does not take into account other sources of variation inherent in public opinion studies, such as non-response, question-wording, differences in translated forms, or context effects. While such errors are known to exist, they are often unquantifiable within a particular survey, and all efforts, such as randomization and extensive pre-testing of items, have been used to minimize them.
Respondents were randomly assigned to be asked some, but not all, of the survey segments. As such, samples that draw from items across different survey segments may have slightly different characteristics.
Weighted Sample Characteristics
589 New Jersey Residents and 1,089 US residents ages 18-30
NJ Sample, Weighted
Man
47% N = 281
Woman
45% N = 269
Something Else
5% N = 29
18-21
36% N = 215
22-25
33% N = 197
26-30
31% N = 186
White
48% N = 288
Black
20% N = 117
Hispanic/Latino/a
26% N = 154
Asian
10% N = 59
Other/Multi-racial
12% N = 71
National (non-NJ) Sample, unweighted
Man
87% N = 942
Woman
8% N = 88
Something Else
4% N = 46
18-21, Other State
33% N = 376
22-25, Other State
35% N = 403
26-30, Other State
32% N = 366
White
43% N = 822
Black
28% N = 540
Hispanic/Latino/a
17% N = 332
Asian
7% N = 140
Other/Multi-racial
5% N = 90
Question Wording and Order
[Earlier and later items in the survey held for future release]
E7. Did you spend most of your time in high school at a public high school, a private high school, or some other arrangement, like homeschooling?
- Public high school
- Private high school
- Something else
- Still in high school
- Prefer not to say
[E8 and E9 held for later release]
E10. Some people say that teachers in high school indoctrinate students to hold liberal, or “woke” views about topics like sex, sexuality, race, and American history. Do you feel that your teachers in high school tried to push you to hold such views?
- Yes
- No
- Don’t Know
- Prefer not to say
[E11 Held for later release]
E12. Most middle and high schools today provide some form of sex education. For each of the categories below, tell us whether the sex education you received had none of it, not enough of it, about the right amount of it, or too much of it.
- Information that was supposed to scare me
- Information about birth control
- None
- Not Enough
- About the Right Amount
- Too Much
E13. How much do you agree or disagree that the information you received in your middle school or high school sex education classes were…?
- Accurate
- Inaccurate
- Outdated
- Agree strongly
- Agree somewhat
- Disagree somewhat
- Disagree strongly
Release Tables
|
Some people say that teachers in high school indoctrinate students to hold liberal, or ‘woke’ views about topics like sex, sexuality, race, and American history. Do you feel that your teachers in high school tried to push you to hold such views? |
|||
|
|
NJ |
Men |
Women |
|
Yes |
25% |
26% |
25% |
|
No |
58% |
62% |
57% |
|
Don’t Know |
14% |
11% |
15% |
|
Prefer not to say |
3% |
1% |
3% |
|
Some people say that teachers in high school indoctrinate students to hold liberal, or ‘woke’ views about topics like sex, sexuality, race, and American history. Do you feel that your teachers in high school tried to push you to hold such views? |
|||
|
|
NJ |
Non-NJ Men |
Non-NJ Women |
|
Yes |
25% |
36% |
30% |
|
No |
58% |
48% |
56% |
|
Don’t Know |
14% |
13% |
10% |
|
Prefer not to say |
3% |
3% |
4% |
|
Some people say that teachers in high school indoctrinate students to hold liberal, or ‘woke’ views about topics like sex, sexuality, race, and American history. Do you feel that your teachers in high school tried to push you to hold such views? |
|||
|
|
NJ |
Public |
Other |
|
Yes |
25% |
24% |
35% |
|
No |
58% |
64% |
47% |
|
Don’t Know |
14% |
12% |
18% |
|
Prefer not to say |
3% |
0% |
0% |
|
Some people say that teachers in high school indoctrinate students to hold liberal, or ‘woke’ views about topics like sex, sexuality, race, and American history. Do you feel that your teachers in high school tried to push you to hold such views? |
||||
|
|
NJ |
Dem |
Indp |
Rep |
|
Yes |
25% |
25% |
25% |
36% |
|
No |
58% |
64% |
48% |
56% |
|
Don’t Know |
14% |
8% |
26% |
6% |
|
Prefer not to say |
3% |
3% |
2% |
2% |
|
Some people say that teachers in high school indoctrinate students to hold liberal, or ‘woke’ views about topics like sex, sexuality, race, and American history. Do you feel that your teachers in high school tried to push you to hold such views? |
|||
|
|
NJ |
Non-NJ Dem |
Non-NJ Rep |
|
Yes |
25% |
35% |
44% |
|
No |
58% |
54% |
41% |
|
Don’t Know |
14% |
10% |
13% |
|
Prefer not to say |
3% |
1% |
2% |
|
Some people say that teachers in high school indoctrinate students to hold liberal, or ‘woke’ views about topics like sex, sexuality, race, and American history. Do you feel that your teachers in high school tried to push you to hold such views? |
||||
|
|
All |
18-21 |
22-25 |
26-30 |
|
Yes |
25% |
33% |
26% |
15% |
|
No |
58% |
50% |
59% |
66% |
|
Don’t Know |
14% |
14% |
13% |
16% |
|
Prefer not to say |
3% |
3% |
2% |
3% |
|
Sex Ed: Information on Birth Control |
|||||
|
|
NJ |
NJ Men |
NJ Women |
Non-NJ Men |
Non-NJ Women |
|
None |
11% |
11% |
8% |
16% |
14% |
|
Not Enough |
39% |
34% |
48% |
32% |
42% |
|
About the Right Amount |
43% |
47% |
38% |
40% |
40% |
|
Too Much |
7% |
8% |
6% |
12% |
4% |
|
Sex Ed: Information on Birth Control |
||||
|
|
All |
18-21 |
22-25 |
26-30 |
|
None |
11% |
17% |
10% |
4% |
|
Not Enough |
39% |
41% |
40% |
37% |
|
About the Right Amount |
43% |
39% |
43% |
47% |
|
Too Much |
7% |
3% |
7% |
12% |
|
Sex Ed: Information that was supposed to scare me |
|||||
|
|
NJ |
NJ Men |
NJ Women |
Non-NJ Men |
Non-NJ Women |
|
None |
25% |
29% |
22% |
18% |
21% |
|
Not Enough |
21% |
18% |
23% |
24% |
22% |
|
About the Right Amount |
40% |
45% |
38% |
43% |
43% |
|
Too Much |
14% |
8% |
17% |
15% |
14% |
|
Sex Ed: Information that was supposed to scare me |
||||
|
|
All |
18-21 |
22-25 |
26-30 |
|
None |
25% |
35% |
21% |
18% |
|
Not Enough |
21% |
19% |
21% |
23% |
|
About the Right Amount |
40% |
32% |
45% |
45% |
|
Too Much |
14% |
14% |
13% |
14% |
|
Sex Ed: Accurate Information |
|||||
|
|
NJ |
NJ Men |
NJ Women |
Non-NJ Men |
Non-NJ Women |
|
Strongly Agree |
24% |
26% |
21% |
24% |
18% |
|
Somewhat Agree |
56% |
52% |
63% |
47% |
51% |
|
Somewhat Disagree |
13% |
14% |
12% |
21% |
23% |
|
Strongly Disagree |
7% |
8% |
4% |
8% |
8% |
|
Sex Ed: Inaccurate Information |
||||||||||
|
|
NJ |
NJ Men |
NJ Women |
Non-NJ Men |
Non-NJ Women |
|||||
|
Strongly Agree |
12% |
15% |
8% |
17% |
11% |
|||||
|
Somewhat Agree |
29% |
30% |
30% |
29% |
31% |
|||||
|
Somewhat Disagree |
40% |
38% |
43% |
39% |
38% |
|||||
|
Strongly Disagree |
19% |
17% |
19% |
15% |
20% |
|||||
|
Sex Ed: Outdated Information |
|
|||||||||
|
|
NJ |
NJ Men |
NJ Women |
Non-NJ Men |
Non-NJ Women |
|
||||
|
Strongly Agree |
20% |
20% |
19% |
21% |
18% |
|
||||
|
Somewhat Agree |
42% |
36% |
51% |
42% |
40% |
|
||||
|
Somewhat Disagree |
22% |
25% |
21% |
26% |
32% |
|
||||
|
Strongly Disagree |
16% |
19% |
9% |
11% |
10% |
|
||||
|
Sex Ed: Outdated Information |
||||
|
|
All |
18-21 |
22-25 |
26-30 |
|
Strongly Agree |
20% |
25% |
18% |
15% |
|
Somewhat Agree |
42% |
35% |
44% |
50% |
|
Somewhat Disagree |
22% |
21% |
21% |
24% |
|
Strongly Disagree |
16% |
19% |
17% |
11% |