Changing Emphases in Sexuality Education in U.S. Public Secondary Schools, 1988-1999

Abstract

Sexuality education in secondary public schools is increasingly focused on abstinence and is less likely to present students with comprehensive teaching that includes necessary information on topics such as birth control, abortion and sexual orientation. Because of this, and in spite of some abstinence instruction that also covers birth control and condoms as effective methods of prevention, many students are not receiving accurate information on topics their teachers feel they need.

The impact of schools and school programs upon adolescent sexual behavior

“…Despite the fact that most adolescents receive at least a minimum amount of sexuality or HIV education, it is widely believed by professionals in the field that most programs are short, are not comprehensive, fail to cover some important topics, and are less effective than they could be (Britton, deMauro, & Gambrell, 1992;Darroch, Landry, & Singh, 2000;Gambrell & Haffner, 1993;Hoff, et al, 2000). For example, both surveys of teachers discussed above found that only half to two thirds of the teachers covered how to use condoms or how to get and use birth control.…”

“…According to a 1999 national survey of school teachers in grades 7 to 12, about 93% of their schools offered sexuality or HIV education (Darroch, Landry, & Singh, 2000). Of those schools teaching any topics in sexuality education, between 85% and 100% included instruction on consequences of teenage parenthood, STD, HIV/AIDS, abstinence, and ways to resist peer pressure to have sex.…”

TeenSTAR: una opción de madurez y libertad: Programa de educación integral de la sexualidad, orientado a adolescentes

“…Los programas de educación sexual tendientes a retrasar el inicio de la actividad sexual muestran ser efectivos 4,23,[25][26][27] . De acuerdo a estos estudios, los programas que desarrollan la valoración por la persona, así como la decisión libre e informada, tendrían mayor impacto en los adolescentes.…”

The Limits of Heteronormative Sexual Scripting: College Student Development of Individual Sexual Scripts and Descriptions of Lesbian Sexual Behavior

“…Sex, as a gender complementary act, is communicated to young adults from multiple sources. In schools, this is found in the formal curriculum (Darroch et al, 2000;Hartley and Drew, 2001) as well as in informal policing of gendered and sexual behavior by staff and students alike (Pascoe, 2012). Heteronormative messages are also prevalent in media; a content analysis of 25 television programs most watched by adolescents found the predominance of a heterosexual script marked by gendered behaviors in which male characters treated women as sexual objects and women willingly sexually objectified themselves (Kim et al, 2007).…”