ASSESSING THE KNOWLEDGE OF PARENTS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF SEX EDUCATION TO THEIR CHILDREN AGE 11 TO 22 YEARS

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1. Introduction

Sexuality is part of human life and development. It develops during childhood and accelerates through adolescence. Internationally, young people are a key vulnerable group for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and are more likely than any other age group to be diagnosed with STI (CDC, 2016).

During adolescence, young people strengthen their gender identities and begin clarifying their sexual orientations and identities as they experiment further with sexual development. When sexuality is discussed with adolescences, it is observed that they have countless ideas, troubles, expectations and doubts which they manifest in this stage of life. However, it is exactly at this moment in life that sex education should take place, not superficially and full of confusion, but rather in a harmonic and healthy way. (Tupper, Kenneth, 2013).

In this stage, there is a search to set values, ideologies and life styles and vulnerability towards certain illness related to drug and alcohol abuse and having unsafe sex. Parents become unable both intellectually and emotionally, to counsel, encourage, inform and guide them about sexuality in its many dimensions.

It is necessary for parents and their children to understand and experience this stage in life, valuing their knowledge, their history and beliefs, so they can become aware of the family being an essential place for their development, (Sari Locker, 2001).

When parents realize that their children have entered puberty, it is important for them to try and understand their children so as to facilitate the affective attachment between them. This closeness will avoid that adolescents feels lonely or lost and this will help them to understand and live this stage, valuing their knowledge and history, because it is within the family that they will find the support and safety they need to deal with the conflicts common to their age. Hence it is important to talk about sexuality as early as possible since it is a subject that usually causes much controversy and conflicting ideas, (Oringanje, Chioma; et al, 2016).

1.1 Background of Studies

According to Arnette, (2003) adolescence is a period of healthy life including sexual life, but many adolescence are less informed about their sexual and reproductive health by their parents. Weaver, (2002) says several studies indicate that sex education should not be left to parents alone, but should also involve schools, community, media and even the churches education in Africa is seen as a sort of Public Health strategy recommended by multilateral development organization.

The high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Eastern and Southern African countries has resulted in sexuality education being more developed, standard and accepted by countries like Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, and South Africa (UNESCO, 2012).

These were among those targeted for the 2011 – 2015 UNAIDS strategy which aim at achieving national comprehensive knowledge about HIV amongst at least 80% in and out of school including the provision of good quality sexual education (UNESCO, 2012).

Cameroon with a population of about 21,700,000 rank fifteenth worldwide  in terms of HIV/AIDS (UNESCO, 2012) with adult percentage of 53 while that for those aged 15 – 34 stands 33% (Tarkang, 2013). The country is also know to face problems of adolescent pregnancy, (Centre for Reproductive Right, 2013), abortion (Engen, 2013), transactional sex (Meekers and Kleien, 2002), and breast ironing (Tapscott, 2012).

However, the institutionalization of comprehensive sex education has not been seen as an option which is grave oversight (Endeley, 2001). In Cameroon like other African countries sex education is restricted only to HIV/AIDS sensitization and family planning, except in Muslim communities which teaches some of its ideas strongly linked to religious values (Centre for Reproductive Health, 2013).

Sex education may be taught informally, such as when someone receives information from a conversation with a parent, friend, religious leader, or through the media.(Philliber, SG, ML Tatum Vol.17). It may also be delivered through sex self-help authors, magazine advice columnists, sex columnists, or sex education web sites. Formal sex education occurs when schools or health care providers offer sex education.

Slyer, (2000) stated that sex education teaches the young person what he or she should know for his or her personal conduct and relationship with others. Gruenberg, (2000) also stated that sex education is necessary to prepare the young for the task ahead. According to him, officials generally agree that some kind of planned sex education is necessary.

Janofsky and Michael, (2013)says sometimes formal sex education is taught as a full course as part of the curriculum in junior high school or high school. Other times it is only one unit within a more broad biology, health, home economics, or physical education class.

Some schools offer no sex education, since it remains a controversial issue in several countries, particularly the United States (especially with regard to the age at which children should start receiving such education, the amount of detail that is revealed, including LGBT sex education, and topics dealing with human sexual behavior, e.g. safe sex practices, masturbation, premarital sex, and sexual ethics).

Wilhelm, (2006) commented that sex education of his time was a work of deception, focusing on biology while concealing excitement-arousal, which is what a pubescent individual is mostly interested in. He added that this emphasis obscures what he believed to be a basic psychological principle: that all worries and difficulties originate from unsatisfied sexual impulses.

Leepson asserted that the majority of people favour some sort of sex instruction in public schools, and this has become an intensely controversial issue because, unlike most subjects, sex education is concerned with an especially sensitive and highly personal part of human life. He suggested that sex education should be taught in the classroom. Another viewpoint on sex education, historically inspired by sexologists such as Wilhelm Reich and psychologists such as Sigmund Freud and James W. Prescott, holds that what is at stake in sex education is control over the body and liberation from social control.

The problem of pregnancy in adolescents is delicate and difficult to assess using sex education. (Jeanette, 2011). Calderone believed otherwise, stating that the answer to adolescents’ sexual woes and pregnancy cannot lie primarily in school programs which at best can only be remedial; what is needed is prevention education and as such parents should be involved.

When sex education is contentiously debated, the chief controversial points are whether covering child sexuality is valuable or detrimental; whether LGBT sex education should be integrated into the curriculum; the use of birth control such as condoms and hormonal contraception; and the impact of such use on pregnancy outside marriage, teenage pregnancy, and the transmission of STIs. Increasing support for abstinence-only sex education by conservative groups has been one of the primary causes of this controversy.

Countries with conservative attitudes towards sex education (including the UK and the U.S.) have a higher incidence of STIs and teenage pregnancy. (George, 2004).The outbreak of AIDS has given a new sense of urgency to sex education. In many African countries, where AIDS is at epidemic levels, sex education is seen by most scientists as a vital public health strategy.

Some international organizations such as Planned Parenthood consider that broad sex education programs have global benefits, such as controlling the risk of overpopulation and the advancement of women’s rights. The use of mass media campaigns has sometimes resulted in high levels of “awareness” coupled with essentially superficial knowledge of HIV transmission. (Piya, Sorcar, 2010).

According to SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, 93% of adults they surveyed support sexuality education in high school and 84% support it in junior high school.

In fact, 88% of parents of junior high school students and 80% of parents of secondary school students believe that sex education in school makes it easier for them to talk to their adolescents about sex. Also, 92% of adolescents report that they want both to talk to their parents about sex and to have comprehensive in-school sex education. Furthermore, a “study, conducted by Mathematical Policy Research on behalf of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are ineffective.”

1.2 Problem of Statement

Sex education is a very important aspect of sexual health in a child’s life which is supposed to be taught in schools, churches, hospitals, and most especially at home by their parents. But it has been noticed that the rate of STIs and teenage pregnancy has increased drastically in our country especially now that we have political instability, where young adolescence gets pregnant without even knowing what child-bearing is all about.

According to Jazet E and Dzossa A. (2004), Cameroon has one of the highest adolescent fertility rates in West and Central Africa with 22.7 % of adolescents under 20years were mothers of at least one child.

Cameroon has adolescent fertility rate of 138 births per 1000 women aged less than 19 is the highest in Central Africa and also,  Statistics from the Social Welfare Centre in Buea, South West Region (SWR), Cameroon indicate that 5 % of girls in Buea terminate schooling every academic year because of pregnancy. (Fomenky, 2008). Hence, the reason for this research is to assess parents’ knowledge on the importance of sex education to their children.

1.3 Research Goals

To create awareness amongst parents on the importance of early sex education to their children.

1.4 Research Questions

1. Do parents have knowledge on sex education?
2. Do fathers engage in sex education?
3. What method do parents use in communicating sex education to their children?
4. What are the Importance of sex education

1.5 Objectives

1.5.1 General Objective

To assess parents knowledge on the importance of sex education to their children.

1.5.2 Specific Objectives

1. To assess parents knowledge of sex education
2. To assess if fathers engage in sex education
3. To assess how parents carry out sex education
4. To assess the importance of sex education