Research

Research provides information about inequity and causes of inequity and enables government and service providers to develop evidence-based policies and practices. 

At Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa, we carry out our own research and surveys and support collaborative work to enhance our understanding of sexual and reproductive health and rights in Aotearoa. Examples of this work include:

• Wāhine Māori experience of contraception services
• Changes in clients' contraceptive use over a decade
• 2023 survey on Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) Prevention 
• NZ secondary school teacher's perspectives on teaching RSE 2022
• Why Us Survey 2021 
• Contraception Use Survey 2020
• Parents’ and Caregivers’ views of Relationships and Sexuality Education 2020
• Young People’s Experiences of Sexuality Education 2019

We hold a regular webinar series where we showcase sexual and reproductive health and rights research.

Visit our webinar signup page to find out more about our next webinar and sign up to hear about future events.

Sign up for a webinar

The following video is a recording from the first webinar in the series, which focused on Wāhine Māori and contraception.

There is a large body of research produced overseas about sexual and reproductive health issues. For example, a US-based study published in the Lancet examines the safety and effectiveness of self-managed early medical abortion.  
  
There has been some good research done about sexual and reproductive health and rights in Aotearoa, including a study on the disparities in use of combined oral contraceptives by ethnicity. However, extensive research has never been prioritised and we still have big gaps in our understanding.

We aim to fill some research gaps with our own research and annual surveys which provide us with useful information about certain sexual health and wellbeing issues.