Sexuality in Childhood/Adolescence and Sexuality Education

Sexuality in Childhood/Adolescence and Sexuality Education

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Sexuality in Childhood/Adolescence and Sexuality Education

According Levesque (2003), sexuality education refers to the process of attaining information and coming up with beliefs, attitudes, and values concerning human sexuality. It comprises of sexual and reproductive health, sexual development, affection, body image, gender role and interpersonal relationships.

Types of sexuality education

                There are five types of sexuality education namely abstinence sexuality education, abstinence plus sex education, comprehensive sexual education, and holistic sexual education. Abstinence sexuality education states that one should not engage in sex until marriage. Abstinence-plus education does not only focus on abstinence, but also includes the use of protective measures such as condoms. Condoms are used to protect an individual against sexually transmitted diseases. On the other hand, contraceptives are used to prevent pregnancy. Comprehensive sexuality education explains the consequence of engaging in sex and various method of protection against sexually transmitted diseases.  In holistic-sex education, students are taught subjects such as physical health, employment, self-esteem and mental health. This form of sexuality education focuses on sexual based decision-making (Crooks & Baur, 2014).

The recommended type of sexuality education program

In my view, sexuality education should be taught in school. This is because students are at a risk of being infected in sexually transmitted diseases. In the same way, young girls may also have unwanted pregnancies. In this regard, there is a great need to provide comprehensive training on sexuality education. This helps to reduce the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases as well as teenage pregnancy.

Conclusively, I would recommend the use of comprehensive sexuality. This is because many students find it difficult to abstain. In addition, this method allows students to be cautious of the risks of engaging in sexual activity. It is worth mentioning that comprehensive sexuality program increases student understanding on the use of contraceptive condoms. Consequently, cases of pregnancy and STDs are also reduced.

References

Crooks, R. & Baur, K. (2014). Our Sexuality.Wadsworth, Cengage Learning: Jon-David Hague.

Levesque, R. J. R. (2003). Sexuality education: What adolescents' rights require. New York: Nova Science Publishers.