Sex is natural a occurrence. None of us would exist here without it. However, talking about the issue is embarrassing, and considered a taboo in many cultures. Parents and educators have always struggled to discuss it with children. Likewise, children do not know how to talk about sex with their elders.
Our project is to develop a sex education program to help teach teenagers about sexuality. The first part of our project was to gain insight through current published research on how sexuality is discussed among teenagers, parents and educators. The research we looked at included articles about how our value systems conflict, communication obstacles, and negative outcomes of sexually active teenagers.
Statement of Need
Current literature suggests there are conflicts between educators and parents about who should be responsible for sex education. Many parents believe that sex education should be the schools responsibility, because it is the only way most children can get information that is increasingly crucial to their health. A lot of parents come from a generation who did not talk about sex at all. However, schools insist that parents should take responsibility for teaching their children.
Teens, who are not very knowledgeable, face negative consequences from sexual activities. According to speck hard, each year, almost one million teenagers in the United State. This figure includes eight percent of 14 year-olds and 11 percent of all girls aged 15-19 become pregnant. Nearly 40 percent of these abort their pregnancies. A pilot study following up abortion clinic attendees found approximately a 20 percent post-traumatic response to abortion (Speckhard, 1997). According to Beach et al (1994), sexually active teens have the highest rates of Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD). Nearly half of all adolescents are sexually active by age of seventeen, and are therefore at risk for STDs. It has been estimated that as many as twenty five percent of adolescents may develop a STD before graduating from high school (Beach et al, 1994).
Description of the Intervention
Liability is an issue that comes up when facilitating a group on an issue such as this, which could be considered taboo. We have acknowledged this piece of information and are planning on discussing liability with the group leader before facilitating the group.
On May 4th, 2000 we were guest speakers for a teen group and we educated them about sex. Those present were the facilitator and six teenagers, all of were under the age of sixteen, except the facilitator. We opened the group with instructions and passed a bag of candy around to get everyone comfortable and ready to share and learn. We also made sure to state our purpose, why we were there, and to discuss confidentiality. After the introduction, we asked the teens to share information pertaining to three questions. These were as follows: where do you get your information about sex? Are you comfortable talking about sex? and do you feel like this information is accurate? We discussed with them the importance of correct information, how to ask questions about sex, the importance of knowing and the vest people to ask when they have questions. We also handed out pamphlets we got from women's center about birth control methods as well. Finally, we provided the teens with information on STD's. We handed out flyers regarding the different types and discussed primarily chlamydia since we found out that this was the most common STD among teenagers their age. At the end, we asked if there were any questions. There were no specific questions but we have them the address and phone number of a good resource in the Chico area if they had any questions later.
Evaluation of the Intervention
Throughout this entire semester we have been gathering information and preparing to hold a group focusing in on this topic. We decided to educate youth about sex for the intervention part of our project. Through our social work studies completed thus far, we have found educating others is a very successful intervention.
However, we encountered some obstacles when we intervened. Due to time constraints between the group and our class schedules, we were only able to intervene one time. It would have been more effective if we could have educated more teens. In addition, the group was half an hour long, we could not get into much details in each area. We also found it was difficult not to be judgmental because each of us had different opinion about the issue. We tried our hardest not to say what we thought was right or wrong.
Overall, the facilitator was very cooperative. Thanks to the facilitator, she was very enthusiastic and she made it easier for us to talk about the taboo issues even though it was our first time meeting with the group.
Reflections on the Project
The process of setting up a support group was frustrating for us. We wanted to set up this support group in a high school campus. However, we found it difficult to obtain the school's support on this project. We even had problems finding some one to discuss this proposal with. This was disappointing because we think that a support group would be beneficial for students.
However, we appreciated the fact that local youth club gave us the opportunity to facilitate a group on May 4, 2000. We are looking forward to making this plan become a reality.
As for recommendations for future action, we would like future students to intervene with a specific age group to provide more appropriate education. We found that the youth club is open to a wide range of age groups. We found that younger teens age 11-13 are not ready to discuss complicated sexual issues in the group form. We also would like to see the support group continues as an ongoing project rather than one time action.
References
Beach, R., et al, (1994). Sexually transmitted diseases-committee on adolescence. Pediatrics, 94 (4), 568-573.
Etzioni, A. (1997). Education for Intimacy. Educational Leadership, 54 (8), 20-23
Heckerling, A. (producer), & Linson, A., Azoff, I. (Directors). (1984). Fast Time at Ridgemont High [Film]. Hollywood, Ca.: Universal.
Krigsis, C. (1995, March). Janet’s Secret Pain. Campus Life, 530 (8), 32-34.
Speckhard, M. (1997). For Some Teens, Abortion as A Means of Coping Can Becom a Stressor. Brown University Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter,13 1-3.
Treutler, S. (1998, March). What Parents Are Doing About Sex Education. Michigan Live. (online), 10(24), 30 paragraphs. Available: http://mu.mulivecom/teensex/stories/momdad.html, 99.10.24
Interviews
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