AFFILIATE INSTITUTION
Abstract
Sex education has been a controversial issue in the country. With some groups proposing while others opposing the education citing that, it creates issues when it comes to students of a young age when it comes to how they make decisions regarding sex. This study hypothesized that exposure of preadolescent students to sex education would in turn cause them to have an increased desire and eventually engage more in sexual behavior by the time they are in mid or late adolescence. A comprehensive quantitative analysis was carried out on 200 students in total. 100 of which belonged to two groups, the experimental, and the control group. The results of the study supported the hypothesis that children who acquire special education on sexual issues tend to engage in sexual activities. However, extensive research ought to be done in consideration to the implications of the study to make it more applicable in a general population as well as enhance the validity of the study.
Methodology
This study is explorative, it therefore seeks to analyze a sample which will be surveyed in order to acquire knowledge about the impact the sex education given to them prior to the study had any influence on matters concerning sexual practices at their adolescent age. The sample will be selected by use of a random selection method in order to avoid confounding or misguided results by choosing friends or students affiliated with a particular belief and or practice. The survey will observe anonymity in order to promote honesty and truthfulness among the participants to get an actual picture of what the study is out to prove.
The randomly chosen consisted of an equal number of male and female students in both the control and the experimental group i.e. 50 students of each gender for purposes of statistical data analysis. In the survey, the participants were required to provide demographic data which showed information related to their ethnicity, the number of siblings, the family income, the number of schools attended, location of their school the neighborhoods they come from, and religious affiliations. i.e. this means that the control will be students from a different school but of the same age. The survey administered included questionnaires. These tools required the participants to check off from specific questions and write down answers to others they included: Whether or not they had prior knowledge of sex education, the number of sexual partners they had, where they first learnt about sex and at what age they had their first sexual encounter. During the data collection process, there were forms given to the students that participated in the study. There was also the signing of non-disclosure forms since part ort of the study included data collection through interviews, which meant seeing the individuals and hearing them respond face to face. A likert scale was used which also showed to what extent these participants had been aware about issues regarding sex, the extent to which they had been involved in sexual behaviors, and the extent to which they discussed or talked about these issues at home or in any other environments.
Results
The sample chosen in the survey, consisted of 100 students in both the experimental and the control group, 50 male students and 50 female students. It was found that in the experimental group 80 % of the students had Christian affiliated religions i.e. Catholic, Pentecostal, Protestant, and Evangelical. 20% of the students in both groups were from other religious affiliations i.e. Hindu, Buddhist or had none at all. In the control group 60% were of Christian affiliation, while 20% were Muslim and 20 % other.
In the experimental group (A), prior to the sex education administered in middle school, 50% of the students reported to have gotten the information about sex both from their different religious backgrounds. 35% of the students reported to have learned about sex from home e.g. older siblings, friends and parents and from the media as well. The other 15 % reported to have heard about sex from their peers. However 100% of the students agreed that the little sex education they had heard in school was in the during Biology class as they covered the reproduction unit. However, not much was explored beyond this. In the control group (B), 100% claimed to have learnt about sex in Biology class. 55% said to have heard about sex for the first time from their different religious affiliations, 30 % of the students also reported to have learnt about this from friends and parents as well as peers but had not had any kind of formal sex education in school. Results showed that 55% of those who were affiliated to Christian religion during the study had been involved in some sexual activity while 10% of the Muslim students from the control group had been involved in sex by 10th grade the students in the “other” religious affiliation category also had 60 % report to have engaged in some kind of sexual activity. However, 75% of those in the experimental group had engaged in some sexual activity, while 55 % of those in the control group, (who had not received the sex education) reported to have had sexual encounters.
Discussion
The results of his survey support the hypothesis that students who have been exposed to sex education while in middle school went on to have more sexual encounters during the period between middle school and High school. While those who had not been exposed to such had a relatively lower sexual drive by nearly 20 %, difference. Questions like, Do you believe that sex education has any impact on your sexual choices and how? Were employed when comparing the mean scores using the independent T-test, those who had engaged in sexual activities because of receiving special sexual education had an average of 4 sexual experiences in comparison to those who had engaged in sex for other reasons like acquisition of information from the media, who had an average of 2 sexual encounters. This supports findings by Bragg, Buckingham, Russell and Wallet (2011) who said that children participating in social media for example Facebook without any parental consent exposes children to sex at an early age. In the control group which was the same number of students as those in the experimental group, the students had an average of 2 sexual encounters clearly showing the difference between them and those who had been involved in the sexual education. These findings in the control group, are consistent with research from (Bragg et al. 2011) that indicate that many young people are engaging in sexual activities
Limitations
Even though the results confirm the hypothesis, there are various limitations to this study. These include the fact that sex is an uncomfortable topic and because the control group had not yet had any formal special type of sex education, the chances of them being uncomfortable and willing to share truthful information was quite likely and this could have interfered with the validity of this study. Another limitation that may have affected the validity of this study include extraneous variables such as religious affiliation and cultural issues. The control group had a higher number of Muslim students compared to the experimental group. Most Muslims are known to be conventional and more strict in their “Sheria Law” in comparison to Christian affiliated groups or those belonging to other groups. This is because of the punishments that might be involved.
Implications of the study
The results of this study, clearly support the hypothesis that students who have been exposed to sexual education are likely to experience an increased desire in sex and eventually engage in sexual behavior. However, it is important to note that because of the limitations, the research cannot be applied to a general population. Effects of race, ethnicity, and social background could come into play and this may be an issue to consider for other researchers in this line of study. This would help in clearly narrowing down the factors that might lead to discrepancies in the results of the research by limiting the extraneous variables that might bring about confounding. This research can aid in policy making across the nation and even in other countries by allowing the government to decide on whether sex education is necessary at this age in schools, and if so, what the curriculum should contain therein.
REFERENCE
Bragg, Sara, David Buckingham, Rachel Russell, and Rebekah Willett. 2011. “Too Much, Too Soon? Children, ‘sexualization’ and Consumer Culture.” Sex Education 11(3): 279–92.
