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Adolescents Sexuality Education

ADOLESCENTS SEXUALITY EDUCATION

Adolescence, transitional phase of growth and development between childhood and adulthood. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines an adolescent as any person between ages 10 and 19.

The adolescence stage is often regarded as the time when life is at its peak. It’s also a stage when life is at its fullest, it is equally a period of intense love affair. In many societies, however, adolescence is narrowly equated with puberty and the cycle of physical changes leading to reproductive maturity. Adolescence typically refers to the period between ages 12 and 20 and is roughly equivalent to the word teens.

In our society today, parents and teachers often fear to expose the teaching of sexuality education to adolescents which is attributed to 80% problems adolescents have today. To this regard, it is important adolescents need to be aware of sexuality education and marital guidance, maybe not in full detail.

WHY ADOLESCENTS NEED TO BE AWARE OF SEXUALITY EDUCATION

  • To avoid teenage pregnancy

A lot of female teens are being raped and sexually abused even by close friends and family. This happens due to their lack of sexuality education. When adolescents lack sex education and they are been sexually abused, they lack the knowledge of what is happening to them. Therefore they see no need to cry for help. And in most cases it result to teenage pregnancy. It is widely believed that you cannot give, what you don’t have. A 16 years-old teenage mother has no experience to be a mother and she is not fully mature and ready for motherhood. Being a young teenage mother happens in most cases when teenagers lack sex education. Also, underage mothers have run the risk of losing their lives during childbirth. Maternal mortality has swelled the motherless homes where babies receive unnatural fonding and bonding from the surrogate mothers and care givers. This has an implication on the personality development of such babies.

  • To reduce cases of teenage abortion

Abortion is not only condemned, I am also strongly against the repercussion on adolescent mothers and their future marital life. The implications of abortion includes, damage to the womb and murder because it results to the termination of life of one or more in-coming human being. Not only is it a criminal offence, it is also image denting. Abortion can also make one bleed to death due. In most cases the teenage mother might have taken some abortion drugs that did not work out but could cause pernicious damage to the foetus, the result of which may terminate the life of the baby within a short while after birth. Examples of such damage include congenital malformation outwardly or inwardly.

  • To avoid sexually transmitted diseases/ infections

Sexually transmitted diseases (STD) includes Syphilis, Staphylococcus, Gonorrhoea, HIV and AIDS all of which can cause a broken marriage and in some cases death. Adolescent are too young for any kind of diseases which is why all this should be prevented so as to live a healthy life till old age.

  • To enlighten the adolescents about the right socio-personal space

Some adolescents are so careless about maintaining a socio-personal distance. There should be a distance of not less than 3-4 feet between two adolescents or youths of the opposite sex whenever they are sitting or standing together to discuss, so that they “would not be tempted to extend handshake beyond the elbow”. In addition, adolescents should strongly beware of body language, questionable dressing, sexual bribery and free rides to maintain the right social-personal space.

  • Peer-Group

Adolescents are very committed to their peers and would want to do anything to maintain loyalty and strict adherence in most situations including slangs, dressing, outings and zonal activities. They shun the teaching of the adults which they label as “Out –of- fashion” but imbibe the peer culture religiously and fanatically.

Exposure to sexual gratification is top on the list of what peer-culture endorsed hence the majority of the adolescents likely to be influenced. If all the adolescents are well sex educated there will be no need to be influenced in a bad way.

In addition parents should monitor their adolescent’s movement, the peers they keep and their dress sense, some parents see some improper dressing style as “being in vogue” and some of these dress styles lead to adolescents’ sexual harassment and cause irresistible distraction. Dress the way you want to be addressed, no exposure of the sensitive part of the body or in transparent attires.

Also teachers have a role to play in schools, and should make use of subjects like biology, social studies and health science to teach students about sexuality education, anatomy and physiology which aspects of body chemistry are taught.

 

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Article written by Titilayo Adewunmi

(Content developer at Edufirst.ng)

 

 

Posted On: 29 November, 2018