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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Lets Talk About Sex! … But Seriously Why Aren’t We?



            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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