Perceptions on Sex and Gender in rural elementary school students

Despite rapid economic and social development, children living in rural communities in China remain the most vulnerable in sexually related abuses. In the spring of 2019, Rural Women Development Foundation of Guangdong (Foundation) invited my team to conduct research on the perceptions of sex and gender in rural elementary students. The Foundation has built an impressive national network of rural women leaders in the past 10 years, and is planning to distribute effective tools for sex education for children via this network. Therefore this research project is not only focused on the current conditions of the children, but also opportunities for subsequent interventions.

When I started doing desk research on this topic, I was struck by the lack of first hand data on the level of understanding and perception on sex and gender issues in rural children. And the few research I could find only contained superficial quantitative assessments, mostly on the recognition of vocabulary. For example, one study conducted a survey that included asking children if they knew the meaning of word 阴茎 （a formal way of saying penis), and had concluded that a majority lacked the concept. I found these types of studies missing the real perspectives of the children and therefore are underestimations in their understandings of related ideas.

Without much useful data and research methods to build on, I decided to design a new qualitative ethnographic-based research scheme. It consisted of 3 major parts, observations through playing together, home visits, and a research workshop disguised as a fun game event.

For the workshop, I designed a package of activity props, with which children could express their understanding and attitude towards sex related topics through connecting , ranking and selecting pictures. For example, one activity provides a series of drawings featuring people at different live stages (eg. young adult) performing different activities (eg. traveling or getting married), and ask the children to pick what they feel represent their future lives. I believed from this activity we could gain insight into their thoughts on family planing and perceived male vs female differences in career choices.

Together with our partners in the Rural Women Development Foundation and the researchers on my team, we set out to conduct field research in two villages, one Northern China and one in Southern China.

Upon arrival, we quickly discovered the positive effects of recent government efforts in sex education. All children above first grade were aware that they should "run away from inappropriate touching" and those above fourth grade, had basic systemic understandings of the mechanisms of reproduction and contraception.

It did not surprise me that the children under fourth grade have developed their own subculture of exploring and sharing topics related to sex and gender. However, their understandings at are best patchy and curiosity not fully satisfied. For example, a second grader described the prerequisite for pregnancy involved two people who are married and taking an extra long nap together.

A potentially worrisome finding was the unwillingness of reporting abuse to authorities even when abuse is perceived. When I asked a boy from second grade whether he reported repeated incidents of violations from an older boy to his teachers, he responded with no, and the reason was because his teachers were not members of his village.

 One thing that did struck me was how harshly gender identity is shaped by peer pressure in young children, and how quickly children join in on perpetuating gender biases once exposed to such pressure. For example, a boy in second grade shared a story on being ridiculed for wearing a pinkish shirt when he was a new student, but he says he is now "smart enough to know" that boys should not wear certain colours.

After analyzing our findings from spending time with the children, we concluded that comprehensive sex education programs were needed for children from grades 1-3, programs that would satisfy their broader curiosities aside from those related to personal safety. The programs should not view children only as potential victim of sexual abuse but keen and active observers on sex related topics, and provide them explanation for their experiences and observations. More specifically, we suggested the programs focus on the "why and how questions" related to the following four aspects:

1. broader role of reproduction in biological species, eg. why is there the phenomenon of reproduction at all?

2. biological mechanism of reproduction and pregnancy, eg. why are some babies boys and other girls

3. understanding and coping with social expectation of "gender appropriate behaviours", eg. why do people tend to ridicule boys with pink shirts? And what are the consequences of that?

4. abuse and personal protection, eg. what to do if my cousin makes me feel uncomfortable?

We published a full report of our findings in June of 2019 and it received attention public attention. And the results from this research project provided foundations for a design project for effective intervention.