Sexual education in school context: the efficience of a training intervention

Abstract

Background: Teenagers are a priority intervention group in sexual education.

Objectives: To promote a model of training intervention based on the debate and critical reflection about sexuality in the context of the classroom, to test its efficiency and characterize teenagers in the sexual context.

Methods: It is a field experimental study with a non probabilistic sample of 56 teenagers (28 in the control and experimental group, respectively) with an average of 15 years of age (sd = 1.191). The evaluation protocol is the questionnaire which allows characterizing social demographic and sexual. It includes the scale of attitudes concerning sexuality,(1) attitudes concerning the birth control pill and condom,(2) scale of knowledge about family planning,(3) scale of knowledge about sexual transmitted infections(4) and scale of motivation to have or not to have sex.(5)

Results: Teenagers are an older experimental group, mostly of the male gender and live in a town. They have a dating relationship 39.3% mostly lasting between six months and one year, 35.7% has had sexual intercourse, 21.4% has sexual intercourse in their current dating relationship, 44.4% uses the birth control pill and 55.6% the condom, 67,9% has done emergency contraception and 92.9% considers to be important the use of condom. The training intervention was effective in the attitudes concerning the condom (p=0.045).

Conclusion: Educating to a conscious sexual life is the responsibility of everyone. The reflexive methodologies must be privileged, allowing the integration of knowledge and the change of attitudes, where the students' part is of maximum importance, being up to them, under supervision of the trainer, to post their doubts and collaborate in the pursuit of answers.