RATIONALE OF USING SEX AND STD EDUCATION

Evidence-Based Intervention Rationale of Using Sex and STD Education Programs

Evidence-Based Intervention Rationale of Using Sex and STD Education Programs

Rationales for Sex Education Programs

Sex and HIV education programs have multiple goals: to decrease unintended pregnancy, to decrease STDs including HIV and to improve sexual health among youth. In 2005, almost two-thirds (63%) of all high school seniors in the US had engaged in sex, yet only 21% of all female students used birth control pills before their last sex and only 70% of males used a condom during their last sexual intercourse. In 2000, 8.4% of 15-19 year old girls became pregnant, producing one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the western industrial world. Persons aged 15-24 had 9.1 million new cases of STDs in 2000 and made up almost half of all new STD cases in the US. To effectively prevent and treat STDs is an enormous challenge. Unlike other communicable diseases, prevention and treatment of STDs naturally involves a discussion of human sexual behaviors. This is a sensitive issue in the public or private arena. Yet, these discussions are necessary because the long-term consequences of contracting an STD can be very serious. For instance, some STDs can be passed from mother to baby during childbirth and certain STDs put individuals at greater risk for sterility, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), and cervical cancer.

There are numerous factors affecting adolescent sexual behavior and use of protection. Some of these factors have little to do with sex, such as growing up in disadvantaged communities, having little attachment to parents or failing at school. Other factors are sexual in nature, such as beliefs, values, perceptions of peer norms, attitudes and skills involving sexual behavior and using condoms or contraception. It is these sexual factors that sex/HIV education programs can potentially affect, thereby impacting behavior. Sex/HIV education programs alone cannot totally reduce sexual risk-taking, but they can be an effective part of a more comprehensive initiative.

Search Strategy

This research focused on the collection of secondary data. The extraction of data has been done from a number of sources like articles, journals, internet publications and books. Secondary research aims at gathering information through different mediums like broadcast media, literature, publications and other kinds of sources that are categorized as non-human. This particular genre of research doesn't involve any kind of human subjects. There is more subjectivity involved with the qualitative research pattern in comparison to the quantitative research methods.

Literature Search

The relevance of the research topic and the publication year has been the criteria for the selection of appropriate literature. The usage of public, private and the online libraries has been made for the collection of the most valid available information. A few online databases for the gathering of data accessed are: Questia, Proquest, Pheonix, Ebsco and so on.

Research Method

Quantitative research and data collection uses different, mainly personal, in-depth interviews and focus group methods. The quality of this type of research is to research and acquire ...