Victorian Young People and Sexual Health 2018: Findings from the 6th National Survey of Australian Secondary Students and Sexual Health

The National Survey of Australian Secondary Students and Sexual Health began in 1992 and focuses on the HIV and STI knowledge, sexual behaviour and sexual health education of young Australians approximately every five years. In 2018, we used online recruitment rather than school-based recruitment, a reflection of changing times, and we received an overwhelming number of responses throughout Australia. This has given us the opportunity to present statewide data for the first time that focuses solely on the HIV and STI knowledge, sexual behaviour, and sexual health education of young Victorians. A total of 2,294 young Victorians aged from 14 to 18 years (referred to throughout much of this report as ‘young people’) responded to the survey. This cohort included young people who were not in school (10.8% of the sample) and were not surveyed in previous iterations.