Graduate Studies, UNL

 

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

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First Advisor

Kathryn Holland

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Department

Psychology

Date of this Version

6-23-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Citation

A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Graduate College at the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy

Major: Psychology

Under the supervision of Professor Kathryn Holland

Lincoln, Nebraska, May 2026

Comments

Copyright 2026, Alex Diede. Used by permission

Abstract

Sexual education comes from many sources and is important for sexual wellbeing. Much of the research on relationships between sexual education and sexual wellbeing has examined specific sources (e.g., schools or parents) and outcomes related to sexual risk-reduction, such as contraceptive use (e.g., Lameiras-Fernández et al., 2021; Widman et al., 2016). Less is known about the relationships between sexual education and positive sexual wellbeing outcomes. This study used a sample of college women to examine the relationships between the perceived quality of sexual education before college from four sources (i.e., caregivers, school, peers, self) and sexual wellbeing outcomes, including ego-focused sexual satisfaction, partner/activity-focused sexual satisfaction, internal consent, and external consent. Additionally, this study examined whether sexual minority status (i.e., sexual minority vs. heterosexual), sexual assertiveness, and sexual consent attitudes moderated the relationships between perceived quality of sexual education and relevant sexual wellbeing outcomes. Results found that perceived high-quality self sexual education was most consistently correlated with sexual wellbeing outcomes across models—associated with greater ego-focused sexual satisfaction, internal consent, and external consent (even when accounting for variance from other education sources and moderators). Sexual minority status did not moderate the relationships between sexual education from any source and sexual wellbeing outcomes. Sexual assertiveness was positively associated with ego- and partner/activity-focused sexual satisfaction but did not moderate relationships between educational sources and sexual satisfaction outcomes. There were significant interactions between attitudes towards consent and perceived education from peers and schools for external consent behaviors. As perceived quality of education increased, women with more positive attitudes towards consent reported fewer external consent behaviors. These results suggest a nuanced relationship between sexual consent education, attitudes, and behaviors. In addition to primary model findings, descriptive results found that sexual minority women rated their self sexual educational experiences to be of higher quality than heterosexual women. Significant bivariate correlations among perceived quality of sexual education for all sources suggested that high quality experiences from one source may be related to better quality learning experiences from others. Together, findings suggest autonomy may play an important role in women’s sexual wellbeing (e.g., self education, sexual assertiveness).

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