Definition of Population
In this intervention, the population will be urban middle school students in Tennessee. Each of the students will be in the age bracket that coincides with 8th grade, ages generally ranging from 12 to 14, and will be racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse. It can be assumed that there will be different sexual orientations within the populations, but this information will not be identifiable prior to questionnaire.
Justification/Rationale for Intervention
The justification or rationale for this middle school sexual education intervention comes out of the significantly higher rates of pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, abortions, and unhealthy relationships that American students have in comparison to similar First World Countries across the globe. The following statistics were developed for every 1,000 females ages 15-to-19 years old on pregnancy rates, live birth rates, and abortion rates. The country that was directly compared with the United States in a study was the Netherlands. In the United States, there is 85 pregnancies, 48 live births, and 24 abortions per 1000 female teens ages 15-19. In the Netherlands there is 14 pregnancies, five live births, and nine abortions per 1000 female teens ages 15-19 (Ferguson, Vanwesenbeeck & Knijn, 2008). Though it is possible to point out that the Netherland population is dramatically smaller than that of the United States, because it was sampled per capita it enabled the researchers to make a fair comparison. In order to show the disproportion of pregnancies rates in the United States compared to the rates of pregnancy across other First World Countries is another comparison made by Kathrin Stanger Hall in her 2011 study of first world countries and abstinence only programs. The numbers revealed per 1000 female teens ages 15-19 on average that the United States of America had 72.2 pregnancies per capita, France had 25.7 per capita, Germany had 18.8 per capita, Netherlands again had 11.8 per capita, Canada had 29.2 per capita, and the United Kingdom had 41.3 per capita (Stanger-Hall & Hall, 2011). What is the difference between all these first world countries and the United States of America? The American education system and families have continually provided limited support to adolescence through their K-12 sexual and relational educational experience.
The Netherlands has an approach—that to some may consider to be significantly more liberal than the abstinence only approach—called Long Live Love. The idea is that the students would go through their secondary education receiving age appropriate, comprehensive, sexual education. This conversation would range from Relationships, Sexuality, and Safe Sex. Within the program, there are four core takeaways that they have each of their students leave their K-12 experience with. They are: Knowledge, Attitudes, Social Norms, and Skills. Within knowledge they want students to know how to describe safe and unsafe sex in relation to sexually transmitted infections and pregnancies, student would be able to describe the different types of contraception, and that the students would have the ability to name places where they could receive contraception. The attitudes they wish to develop within the students is one of being able to understand that pleasurable sex is more important than just sexual intercourse, that both guys and girls are responsible to buying condoms, and that students need to respect those who wish to abstain from sex until marriage. The social norms for the Long Live Love program is that students are able to voice three critical points that the media have coverage of on sex. The skills are that the girls and boys can describe and discuss what they think is nice/what will be nice, that students would know how to use a condom or pills, and that girls and homosexual boys would be able to communicate with potential partners about using a condom (Ferguson, 2008).
The goal of this intervention is to take the success of other countries and apply it to the current reality of the Tennessee educational approach to sexual education, abstinence only. A study on how to communicate healthy sexual relationships and sexuality with middle and high school students suggest that the sexual education of adolescence should primarily be student led, be as interactive as possible, and focus on problem solving and real life scenarios (Rojas-Brinez, Galvis-Panqueva & Flores-Hinojos, 2019). Keep in mind that Tennessee requires educators to teach an abstinence only program. This, however, does not mean that healthy relationships and consent for other non-sexual topics cannot be covered. Research shows that in abstinence only education, pregnancy rates tend to be higher but are never lower. Grossman, a prominent researcher in the sexual education field, found that the conversation needs to be facilitated at home. Grossman identified that in homes where sex and sexuality are discussed less, and in unhealthy ways, tended to have higher rates of sexual activity, and specifically unprotected sexual activity (Grossman, Frye & Erkut, 2013).
This intervention's rationale and justification for the intervention stems from the lack of resources to school counselors, educators, administration, parents, and community partners on how to communicate healthy sexuality and relationships in abstinence only areas. This intervention—in tandem with parental involvement—will hopefully create a safe place for students to explore sexuality in a way where they can discover this part of who they are in development.
Objectives
This intervention proposal is for four weeks of sexual education. It is meant to be the beginning of a larger program. The three topics to be covered will be puberty, reproduction/anatomy, healthy relationships, and empathy in regards to LGBTQIA+.
The students in this program in the puberty lessons will learn to recognize and accept that individuals experience different rates of physical, emotional, sexual, and social development. They will also learn to develop personal strategies to deal with pressures to have a certain look and lifestyles (Going Through Puberty, 2018). The students in the reproduction/anatomy lessons will learn to identify and describe the stages and factors that can affect human development from conception through birth. They will also learn the function and location of human sexual anatomy (Reproduction Review, 2018). The students in the healthy relationship lessons will demonstrate understanding of the characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships and discuss factors that might influence their development. They will also demonstrate understanding of effective communication within a relationship and the potential impact of technology on communication within a relationship (Healthy Relationships, 2018). For the empathy for LGBTQIA+ community, the students will learn to describe aspects of the coming out process, discuss the feelings associated with identifying LGBTQIA+, and explain how this lesson will impact their relationships with their LGBTQIA+ peers (Pierce, 2015).
Reference
Ferguson, R. M., Vanwesenbeeck, I., & Knijn, T. (2008). A matter OF FACTS… and more: An exploratory analysis of the content of sexuality education in The Netherlands. Sex Education, 8(1), 93–106. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681810701811878
Going Through Puberty . Teaching Sexual Health . (2018).
Grossman, J. M., Frye, A., Charmaraman, L., & Erkut, S. (2013). Family homework and school-based sex education: Delaying early adolescents' sexual behavior. Journal of School Health, 83(11), 810–817. https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12098
Healthy Relationships. Sexual Education Resource Center . (2018).
Pierce , J. (2015). Empathy and Awareness: Coming Out Stars Activity . The Trevor Project . https://www.thetrevorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/75ea657f061737b608_6pm6ivozp.pdf.
Reproduction Review . Teaching Sexual Health. (2018).
Rojas-Brinez, D. K., Galvis-Panqueva, A. H., & Flores-Hinojos, I. A. (2019). How Should I Teach Sex Education in Middle School? An Action Research Study on an ICT-Based Intervention . The Qualitative Report , 24(2), 405–428.
Stanger-Hall, K. F., & Hall, D. W. (2011). Abstinence-Only education and teen PREGNANCY rates: Why we need comprehensive sex education in the U.S. PLoS ONE, 6(10). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0024658
YouTube. (2015). Tea Consent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQbei5JGiT8.
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