What do Adolescents think about Sexual Education?
Sexuality, education, adolescents
Ansleigh Barras
You may find yourself wondering if the adolescents in your life need or want sexual education? As adults, we understand the importance of sexual education for our adolescents health, safety, and sanity. The idea of sexual education is uncomfortable for some, yet we know that the transition from childhood to adulthood will naturally come with questions. Sexual education will not only teach one about safe sex, but also about their reproductive health. One ought to assess what patterns are found among adolescents concerning their perception of the best time and place for sexual education. The empirical article I found polled a total of 250 students, and found that only 4% of the girls and 4% of the boys had received sexual education from their parents (2018). This left the majority of the group to rely on their schools, communities, or else where to teach them the basics of sexual education. From the small percent of girls and boys whose parents taught them about sexual education, 50% of the girls found it helpful, and 33% of the boys found it helpful; both 14% of the boys and girls claimed that their parents' training was embarrassing (2018). We can begin to conclude here that the parents do have an impact on their adolescents in regards to sexual education.
Moving from the household to the schools, 41% of the girls claimed that sexual education ought to be given in a school setting and 26% of girls voted that sexual education be taught in college specifically; turning to the boys, 35% voted that sexual education should be taught in schools, whereas 45% voted that sexual education be reserved for college (2018). Sexual education includes more than just preaching abstinence-only. A well rounded education involves (but is not limited to) information about STDs, contraception, and pregnancy.
From these statistics, one can conclude that many of the 250 adolescents seem to want sexual education in some classroom setting, and for those whose parents braved themselves into sharing some education of sex and sexuality, about half of the boys and girls found it helpful. All in all, we know that adolescent’s reproductive and sexual health ought not to be overlooked, for their choices in adolescence impact their future.
References
Rupali, Chhina, A. K., Gupta, S., Grover, S., Shivani, & Chhabra, S. (2018). Study To Assess Perception And Need Assessment Of Sex Education Among School Going Adolescents. International Journal of Community Health & Medical Research, 4(4), 43–46. doi: 10.21276/ijchmr
