The teenage years are a very important and influential time in a person’s life. It is during these years that an adolescent’s perception of sex, sexuality, and what is considered ‘normal’ is often times influenced by the sexual education they receive. The sexual education program commonly taught to students is abstinence, occasionally coupled with education about safe, heteronormative sex. However, the information provided is often incomplete, not presenting students with all aspects of sexuality and the realities of sex. The way sex is perceived can be determined by the way we talk to children about sex.
I was interested in examining how the sexual education people were given as adolescents and how the education affected their understanding of sexuality both …show more content…
When I originally started my research, I thought different ethnicities would provide significantly different results, but I was wrong. The ethnicities of the participants are as follows: 8 White, 23 Asian, 1 Middle Eastern, and 3 Latinos. Despite the varying backgrounds, ethnicities, and upbringings of the participants, most had received the same type of sexual education and held similar understandings about sex as adolescents.
A popular and frequently used sexual education program used in schools is abstinence. Teenagers are taught that they should not engage in sex before marriage and should instead wait until their wedding night to lose their virginity. Advocates of abstinence believe that only abstinence education allows youth to avoid problems and risks associated with sexual activity (Kirby 2008). These advocates often times believe teaching adolescents about sex will encourage them to have sex. However, “the proportions of adolescent women who initiate premarital intercourse […] do not differ greatly with exposure to sexual education” (Dawson, 1986). The problem with only teaching children abstinence is they are left uneducated and uninformed about sex, what to expect when they
I was interested in examining how the sexual education people were given as adolescents and how the education affected their understanding of sexuality both …show more content…
When I originally started my research, I thought different ethnicities would provide significantly different results, but I was wrong. The ethnicities of the participants are as follows: 8 White, 23 Asian, 1 Middle Eastern, and 3 Latinos. Despite the varying backgrounds, ethnicities, and upbringings of the participants, most had received the same type of sexual education and held similar understandings about sex as adolescents.
A popular and frequently used sexual education program used in schools is abstinence. Teenagers are taught that they should not engage in sex before marriage and should instead wait until their wedding night to lose their virginity. Advocates of abstinence believe that only abstinence education allows youth to avoid problems and risks associated with sexual activity (Kirby 2008). These advocates often times believe teaching adolescents about sex will encourage them to have sex. However, “the proportions of adolescent women who initiate premarital intercourse […] do not differ greatly with exposure to sexual education” (Dawson, 1986). The problem with only teaching children abstinence is they are left uneducated and uninformed about sex, what to expect when they