Sexual
education programs have been part of U.S. public school curriculum for many
years. They have and still are highly debated in the public. Up until recently,
abstinence only programs were the only federally supported types of sex
education programs, due to these conflicting sentiments.
Ironically,
these types of programs and lack of programs have quite possibly spurred the
current “hook-up culture” that is rampant among colleges and high schools.
Casual sex is more prominent then ever, yet the current generation of young
adults that engage in it were highly encouraged to abstain from sex until
marriage. There are many possibilities to this occurrence but it seems possible
that if sexual education programs were only telling teens not to have sex, they
probably were not also telling them how to do it safely. So herein the problem lies so many are “doing it” but they aren’t informed about it, and everyone is paying for it.
Studies have found that there are significantly increasing rates of STIs among
college students. Why are we not talking to young people about sex?
A
recent study in 2011 by Walcott, Chenneville and Tarquini, confirms the failure
of the public school systems. The study explores the perception that current
college students have of previous sexual education. These students are in their
prime years when the information they should have been getting through sex
education is the most relevant to them. The study, surprisingly found that, a
majority of the students received sexual education in school. A majority of
these students were taught comprehensive sexual education, which promotes safer
sex but also emphasizes the importance of abstinence. Although students reported that they received sex education it was taught only “occasionally” and
was usually part of a health or physical education class. The information was
either not being taught enough, or not well enough. Of the students that
participated in the survey, 45% of them reported having sex with a non-steady
partner and 36% of those that did inconsistently use a condom.
The
current generation of college students were given some form of sexual education
but as a result, there is higher prevalence of STIs, probably due to the
alarming percentage of students that inconsistently use a condom. So this
obviously seems to be a problem. Not to mention there is a major AIDs epidemic
currently. The Center for Disease Control reports that, each year approximately
50,000 people are infected with HIV and one and five of people that are
infected are unaware.
Sex
has been a tabooed topic for far to long and we need to educated kids and teens
about it more effectively. The two elements that the study found to be
associated with safer sex practices were, perceived helpfulness of sex
education and instruction on how to handle peer pressure. These two elements
highlight how sex education needs to be delivered in a more comprehensive,
consistent, and interesting way. The social make up of a friend group also has
an impact on sex practices. Sex education also needs to incorporate the social pressures
that are involved with sex, such as pressure from friends or a partner. Sex
education can not only address risks such as STIs but also needs to address
negative attitudes about sex and empower young adults and teens that they do
have a choice. Most likely sex education is not going to stop young adults and
teens from having sex because the culture of sex has changed completely over
the recent years, but it can empower them to make positive choices about sex. Start talking now!
- Allison Rooney
Walcott, C. M., Chenneville, T., &
Tarquini, S. (2011). Relationship between recall of sex education and college
students' sexual attitudes and behavior. Psychology In The Schools, 48(8),
828-842.
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