ERIC Number: EJ831021
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-May
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1468-1811
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
"When You Come to It You Feel like a Dork Asking a Guy to Put a Condom on": Is Sex Education Addressing Young People's Understandings of Risk?
Abel, Gillian; Fitzgerald, Lisa
Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, v6 n2 p105-119 May 2006
Traditionally, school-based sex education has provided information-based programmes, with the assumption that young people make rational decisions with regard to the use of condoms. However, these programmes fail to take into account contextual issues and developing subjectivities. This paper presents the talk of 42 young people from a New Zealand secondary school who were questioned in-depth about the sex education programme they had received. They discussed a programme that concentrated on the "dangers" and "risks" of sexual intercourse and that failed to enhance negotiation skills or take into account the contexts in which sex occurred for many young people. Although participants were well aware of the public health discourses of the importance of condom use, the implications of putting these discourses into practice held the potential for "risks" of a greater magnitude in the reality of their everyday life. The "risk" to reputation and subjectivity overrode any "risks" that may have occurred through non-use of condoms. This highlights the need for sex education programmes to put greater effort into developing skills of assertiveness, communication and empowerment. (Contains 2 notes.)
Descriptors: Sex Education, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Public Health, At Risk Persons, Assertiveness, Young Adults, Foreign Countries, Prevention, Health Behavior, Sexuality, Secondary School Students, Comprehensive School Health Education, Program Effectiveness, Interpersonal Communication, Communication Skills, Grade 10
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Grade 10; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New Zealand
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A