Comprehensive Sex Education - Literature review Example

Comprehensive sex education Comprehensive sex education (CSE) can be defined as “the provision of accurate, factual and developmentally appropriate information and training on human sexuality topics” (Teenwise Minnesota, 2011). Sexuality in CSE is interpreted in terms of a healthy and optimistic behavior that promotes respect, peace and responsibility. Comprehensive sex education should be made a part of curriculum in the schools so that children have an appropriate understanding of the underlying concepts and issues at the right age. In the past, sex education has been imparted in schools through abstinence-only programs that have proved quite ineffective in inculcating the right sense of judgment about sexual issues in the adolescents. More than $1.5 million dollars have been invested by the federal government in the implementation of programs based on abstinence-only education since the year 1997, most of which have proven ineffective and are exclusive of the information that young people need to develop and display healthy sexual behavior (Advocates for Youth, 2009). Until recently, schools were not able to acquire funding for comprehensive sex education. All funds were reserved for the abstinence-only programs that did not provide the young learners with any information regarding condoms or methods of contraception. Their ineffectiveness in generating useful results called for a need to make the sex education comprehensive. Having realized this need, the budget proposed by the Obama administration for FY10 released funds for implementation of comprehensive sex education because they have conventionally proved effective in delaying sexual intercourse, reducing the number of teen pregnancy cases, and promoting the use of contraceptive techniques during sex among young individuals. A lot of research done in the past suggests the usefulness of comprehensive sex education in improving the sexual behavior of young people. A team of researchers studied the effect of comprehensive sex education upon the risk-taking behaviors of children aged between 15 and 19 years in the National Survey of Family Growth. The results of their research showed a 50 per cent reduction in the likelihood of teenagers who gained comprehensive sex education of becoming pregnant as compared to the teenagers who were imparted only abstinence-only education (Kohler, Manhart, and Lafferty, 2008). Douglas (2007) conducted an analysis of the programs directed at sex prevention among youth which had robust experimental design for the National Campaign to End Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. According to the results of his research, 32 of a total of 48 programs of comprehensive sex education were found to have generated the desired results. These comprehensive sex education programs delayed the commencement of sexual activity, increased the use of contraceptive methods or condom and reduced sex partners in 40 per cent cases. Unprotected sex was reduced in 60 percent cases while in 30 per cent cases, frequency of sex was reduced along with a return to abstinence from sex. Thus, many of the recently conducted researches have generated results that advocate the deliverance of comprehensive sex education in schools. By delivering comprehensive sex education in schools in US, government and the involved agencies can make a holistic approach towards inculcating the right sense related to every aspect of sex in the young people. “It is a developmentally appropriate sexuality education that covers but is not limited to educating people about anatomy, sexual behaviors, pregnancy prevention strategies and gender roles” (Healthy Teen Network, n.d.). As a result of lack of deliverance of comprehensive sex education in schools in the past, risky sexual behaviors among young people and their consequences have reached their apogee nowadays. Advocates for Youth (2009) has conducted a comprehensive research to determine the increase in sex related diseases and risky behaviors. Of all the 19 million new cases of STI that surface every years in US, about 50 per cent cases are attributed to young people aged between 15 and 24 years. According to the estimates of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2006), 25 per cent of the young women in US in the present age that are aged between 15 and 19 years are suffering from STI. Every hour, one young individual in US is getting infected with HIV. (CDC, 2006). In the year 2006, young people including teenagers aged between 13 and 24 years accounted for up to 15 per cent of the total new HIV cases in US which summed up to 56000. African American and Hispanic youth are disproportionately affected by the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Although only 17 percent of the adolescent population in the United States is African American, these teens experienced 69 percent of new AIDS cases among teens in 2006. Latinos ages 20 – 24 experienced 23 percent of new AIDS cases in 2006 but represented only18 percent of U.S. young adults. (Advocates for Youth, 2009). These statistics are alarming enough to call for an immediate change in the curriculum of sex education in schools in US. What makes deliverance of comprehensive sex education all the more important is the fact that 56 per cent of teenagers and 73 per cent of adults in US are eager to know more about the protection in schools or birth control and abstinence (Albert, 2007). Sex education is a very controversial and emotional subject (Dorn, 2011), so comprehensive sex education has been conventionally avoided in US schools. From the results of years of deliverance of abstinence-only programs in the schools, it can be easily estimated that they are not sufficient to inculcate the required sensibility and knowledge in the young people that would keep them from indulging in risky sexual activities or avoiding teen pregnancies. On the other hand, past research has shown a number of times that deliverance of information about contraception and comprehensive sex education is vital for achieving the desired results in the youth in America. Comprehensive sex education, as the name indicates, is inclusive of all essential elements of knowledge about the subject of sex that young people need to know in order to delay sexual intercourse, make sex safer, and avoid teen pregnancy. Therefore, comprehensive sex education should be made a necessary part of the curriculum in the schools in US. References: Advocates for Youth. (2009, September). Comprehensive S ex Education: Research and Results. Retrieved from http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/1487?task=view. Albert, B. (2007). With one voice 2007: America’s adults and teens sound off about teen pregnancy. Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. CDC. (2006). Slide set: HIV/AIDS surveillance in adolescents and young adults (through 2006). Retrieved from www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/slides/adolescents/index.htm. Dorn, B. V. (2011). Comprehensive Sex Education. Retrieved from http://school.familyeducation.com/curriculum-planning/sexuality/37524.html. Healthy Teen Network. (2001). Comprehensive Sexuality Education. Retrieved from http://www.healthyteennetwork.org/vertical/Sites/%7BB4D0CC76-CF78-4784-BA7C-5D0436F6040C%7D/uploads/%7B4C5F842E-E67A-4AC2-921B-287950431BD7%7D.PDF. Kirby D. (2007). Sex and HIV Programs: Their Impact on Sexual Behaviors of Young People throughout the World. Journal of Adolescent Health. 40: 206-217. Kohler, P. K., Manhart, L. E., and Lafferty, W. E. (2008). Abstinence-Only and Comprehensive Sex Education and the Initiation of Sexual Activity and Teen Pregnancy. Journal of Adolescent Health. 42(4): 344-351. Teenwise Minnesota. (2011). Definition of Comprehensive Sexuality Education that Guides MSERRP reviews. 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