Western Australian Catholic Teacher’s understanding of Problematic Sexual Behaviour and their Training Needs

This research project aims to inform the training needs for Catholic educators in relation to identifying and responding to PSB in schools, ongoing support for all children involved in sexual behaviour incidents and the education needs for children and young people and parents. The second component of this research aims to inform training needs for principals and wellbeing officers/ counsellors and resource needs for schools to effectively respond to children engaging in PSB and those affected by PSB.

The project will:

Identify teachers’ experiences with PSB (what they have observed), their current understanding and confidence in identifying PSB, to effectively respond to and support the child displaying the behaviour and those affected by the behaviour. It will then seek teacher’s perspectives on what further training they would like to enable them to identify and respond effectively to children displaying and those affected by PSB.
Identify teacher’s current approaches to educate children about sexual development and PSB, their perceptions of the success of these approaches and their perceived resource and training needs to better educate children.
Identify teachers’ or schools’ current approaches to educate parent communities about children’s sexual development and PSB and teacher’s perceived resource and training needs in this area.
Identify principal’s and wellbeing officer’s/ counsellor’s knowledge and confidence to effectively respond to and support children displaying and those affected by PSB. It will then seek the perspectives of principals, wellbeing officers/ counsellors and case management staff in Catholic education on what further training they would like to enable them to respond effectively to children displaying and those affected by PSB.
Identify current resources school have to respond effectively to children displaying and those affected by PSB.