Peer-reviewed article
A curriculum-integrated sun safety intervention to improve adolescent skin health knowledge in an independent girls' secondary school.
Jefferson RS, Bentley-Spuur KM, Chinkwo K, Singh CL, Board S et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study tested a sun safety education program integrated into the curriculum of an Australian secondary girls' school with 13-15 year-olds. Students' knowledge about sun protection increased significantly after the program and remained higher six months later. The intervention also reduced students' belief that tanned skin looks attractive and increased self-reported sun protective behaviours like sunscreen use. However, the study was limited to one girls' school, which restricts how broadly the findings can be applied to other school settings.
Key points
- Post-intervention sun safety knowledge increased significantly (p < 0.001) and was retained at 6 months
- Students reported more frequent sunscreen use and protective behaviours after the program
- Fewer students agreed that 'a suntan looks good' after participating in the intervention
- All ethnic groups (Caucasian, Asian, Other) showed knowledge gains, though students from historically underserved backgrounds started with lower baseline knowledge
- The single-site design in one girls' school limits generalisability to mixed-gender and other school settings
Limitations
The study was conducted in only one independent girls' secondary school, which limits the ability to generalise findings to mixed-gender schools, public schools, or other educational contexts. The self-reported nature of behavioural outcomes and lack of comparison group mean we cannot determine if observed changes would have occurred naturally or if the curriculum integration specifically drove the results.
Abstract
Australia has one of the world's highest melanoma incidences among youth. Adolescents often under-prioritise sun protection due to sociocultural factors, for example, the perceived attractiveness of tanned skin and a sense of invulnerability. This study reports on a curriculum-integrated sun safety intervention implemented in a single independent girls' secondary school, a context that provides important insights but also limits generalisability to mixed-gender and other school settings. High school students (aged 13-15) participated in sun safety workshops integrated into their Personal Development, Health, and Physical Education (PDHPE) curriculum. Sun protection knowledge, attitudes toward tanning, and self-reported protective behaviours were assessed via surveys administered pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and five months later. Students' sun safety knowledge increased significantly post-intervention (p < 0.001), and remained higher than baseline knowledge at 6 months, indicating substantial knowledge retention. Participants reported more frequent sunscreen use and protective behaviours after the program. The intervention also reduced the appeal of tanning, fewer students agreed that "a suntan looks good" after participating. Notably, all students regardless of ethnicity (Caucasian, Asian, Other), showed knowledge gains, but variations were observed. Students from historically underserved ethnic backgrounds started with lower baseline knowledge and exhibited slightly smaller improvements aligning with prior findings that sun awareness has differed across racial/ethnic group. These findings suggest that an engaging, curriculum-integrated sun safety program can produce immediate and sustained improvements in adolescents' sun protection knowledge and attitudes within a girls' secondary school context. While the single-site design limits broader generalisation, the results highlight the potential value of embedding sun safety education within school curricula. Future research should examine the effectiveness of this intervention across multiple school sites, including co-educational and diverse educational settings, to strengthen evidence for scalability and policy implementation aimed at long-term skin cancer prevention.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Curriculum-integrated sun safety workshops delivered within Personal Development, Health, and Physical Education (PDHPE) classes
- Population
- High school girls aged 13-15 in one independent secondary school in Australia
Key finding
Sun safety knowledge increased significantly post-intervention (p < 0.001) and remained higher than baseline at 6 months