Teen Sex Prevention - Research Paper Example

Teen Sex Prevention Conclusion A review of the literature suggests that a number of programs intended to modify teen sexual behavior and to reduce teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases have been implements. The literature also informs that a number of these progams have been tested and compared for effectiveness. Research findings indicate that thus far, no teen sex prevention program is 100% effective. Research findings also indicate that no program is more or less effective than the other, although some types of programs have proven to be more successful than other types. For example, a nationwide survey of federally funded programs was able to conclude that one type of program was more effective than other types of programs ( Boonstra, 2010). In this study it was found that federally funded sex prevention programs were one of three types: teaching abstinence; teaching the use of contraceptives; or teaching both abstinence and the use of contraceptives. Of the three programs, it was found that programs that taught both the use of contraceptives and abstinence proved more effective than the other two programs (Boonstra, 2010). What we take from Boonstra’s (2010) study is that teen sex prevention programs need to be realistic and responsive to the reality of teen sexual behaviour. Teaching teens to abstain today is unrealistic and teaching teens to use contraceptives may be counterproductive to the goal of preventing teens freely engaging in sexual activities. We are afraid that emphasizing the use of contraceptives sends teens the wrong message: it is alright to be sexually active provided you use contraceptives. Although Sellers, et. al. (1994) found that providing young people with liberal access to condoms did not make them more promiscuous, the study involved a particular ethnic group and does not lend much in the way of proof. The results of the study may very well only mean that Latino youth with liberal access to contraceptives do not become sexually active as a result of access to contraceptives. For all we may know, the group studied by Sellers, et. al., (1994) may have been following cultural norms. At the same time, it is unrealistic to expect that teens taught to abstain would actually abstain from sexual activity. Teens are exposed to sexual activity and sexual stimuli on a daily basis, particularly with advanced technology and the high use of the internet and access to multi-media applications and videos with sexually explicit material. Our study also shows that children can also be exposed to sex by force. Our study revealed that 16% of the respondents had been exposed to sex via sexual assault or inappropriate touching. Indeed it appears that our youth are becoming sexually active at an early age. Our study involved teens between the ages of 13 and 15 and one third of the girls in our sample reported in our pretests that they were sexually active. 45 % of the boys in our study reported being sexually active. It therefore follows that programs need to take account that for a large number of teens in today’s world are already sexually active and thus programs cannot realistically expect to be effective if they focus only on abstinence. At the same time, it does not appear to be appropriate to simply teach teens to use contraceptives. The more balanced approach would therefore be to teach teens that abstinence is the best way to safeguard against the contraction and spread of disease and unwanted pregnancies. However, if they do make the decision to engage in sexual intercourse, it is highly recommended that they use protection to reduce the risks of disease and pregnancies. This approach appears to be more responsive to the reality of teen life today. Our program seeks to intervene at a time when teens are approaching puberty or have just matured and are not quite out of adolescence and have engaged in sexual activities or are sexually active. Our program also seeks to prevent sexual promiscuity or activities, or unsafe sexual activity among young teens who are not sexually active or have not yet experimented with sex. We believe that it is at this time (between ages 13 and 15) that teens are more vulnerable to peer pressure and are more curious about sex and their changing bodies. We do not expect that our program will teach teens to abstain altogether. Instead we hope to satisfy their curiosity at a time when the temptation to experiment with sex is taking shape. We also hope that with sex education, we can alter the behavior of teens who have become sexually active or have at least had a sexual encounter in the past. The prevention paradigm of our program arises because we hope to reach teens who have not yet given into temptation and hope that our educational values will change their perceptions so that they look at outcomes and the price of curiosity and pleasure seeking behavior. The intervention paradigm of our program arises because we intend to shape and influence attitudes toward sexual promiscuity, sexual contact generally and the importance of abstaining and/or using contraceptives. We want to emphasize that while some contraceptives may reduce the risk of pregnancy, they may not safeguard against the risk of contracting diseases. For example the use of birth control pills and patches may certainly reduce the risk of pregnancy, it does not safeguard against the risk of contracting and spreading disease. Our program intends to help teens make responsible decisions about sex and to take responsibility for their sexual health. This means educating our teens and understanding that teens do not live in a world where they are shielded from sexual material and their own informal sex education. For example our study revealed that 45% of the girls participating know or have known at least one friend that was or had been pregnant. Moreover, 15% of the boys participating in our study knew of or caused a pregnancy. The reality is therefore that, the youngest of teens have had some informal, direct and/or indirect education about sex. Our program is aimed at clarifying and helping our teens to understand the types of behavior that brings about undesirable outcomes. We want to help our students not only identify risky behavior, but to know how to avoid risky sexual behavior. We believe that the best way forward is to encourage students to safeguard against risky sexual behavior by providing education that highlights discouraging outcomes. Thus far, our program is producing positive results. For example, although our posttest reveals that 6% of the girls participating in our study were not sexually active at the pretest, but subsequently became sexually active. However, the 6% who became sexually active reported using contraceptives. Although we cannot say with any degree of certainty that the girls were influenced by our program to use contraceptives, we also cannot say with any degree of certainty that they were not influenced by our program. What is more telling however, is the fact that 94% of the girls who had not been sexually active at the pretests were not sexually active at the posttests. Given the rate of teen sex and teen age pregnancies, we can assume that our program was instrumental in altering behavior among our female participants and influenced the decision to use contraceptives and not to become sexually active. The results relative the boys at posttests were a bit more encouraging. Our results indicate that 100% of the boys who were sexually active at the pretests used contraceptives at the posttests. While these results indicate that we were unable to get the boys who were already sexually active to abstain, we were able to encourage them to practice safe sex. However, as stated earlier and as revealed in the literature (Boonstra, 2010), it is unrealistic to expect teens who have been or are sexually active to abstain after participating in a teen sex prevention program. Therefore, the use of contraceptives is an encouraging outcome, particularly when one takes into account that our program had a 100% success rate in terms of the use of contraceptives among sexually active boys. The long-term success of our program is manifested by the results of the follow-up survey. The results of the follow-up survey indicate that there was no changes in the sexual behavior of the subjects since the posttests in terms of the use of contraceptives. In other words, those participants reporting using contraceptives at the posttests had not stopped using contraceptives at the follow-up surveys. Although we were discouraged to find that 20% of the females who had not been sexually active at the posttests were sexually active at the follow-up surveys, we had reason to be optimistic about the success of our programs. The females reporting to be sexually active at the follow-up surveys and were not sexually active at the posttests, also reported using contraceptives. We interpret these results to mean that the females learned responsible sexual behavior and put that knowledge into practice. We also took into account that the females were a little older at the follow-up survey than they were at the posttests and would have been exposed to more temptation and sexual curiosity as a natural part of the teen aging process. The results of this study together with a review of the literature indicate that any sexual program can be helpful and can have long-term outcomes with respect to altering teen sexual behavior. However, our program offers a realistically effective method for teaching responsible sexual behavior and reducing risky sexual behavior in the long-term. The results of our study indicate that out study not only encourages responsible sexual behavior, but does so in a way that influences teems after they leave the program or graduate from school. Read More