Defining Rights-Based Sexuality Education
Author: Guttmacher Institute
Defining Rights-Based Sexuality Education. 2014 https://www.guttmacher.org/perspectives50/defining-rights-based-sexuality-education
Abstinence-only and abstinence-plus sex education have been the mainstay of American school-based sex education programs for decades. However, these approaches don’t have much in the way of evidence to suggest that they reduce the risk of STDs or unintended pregnancy, which is their purported aim. Given this lack of evidence, some sex education advocates have been calling for a new paradigm, one that takes a broader view of sex education and emphasizes healthy sexual development. Nancy F. Berglas and colleagues examined a potential new approach—rights-based sexuality education. In an attempt to create a definition of the concept, the researchers interviewed 21 U.S. and international sex education experts and described their findings in a 2014 Perspectives article.
In general, the experts agreed to four core elements of rights-based sexuality education: that young people’s sexual rights, which are rooted in their human rights, should be supported; that programmatic goals should go beyond the prevention of pregnancy and STDs to helping individuals create healthier lives overall; that program content should address contextual issues related to youths’ sexual decision making; and that the teaching should be interactive and youth-centered. Interestingly, the experts also agreed that such programming might be a hard sell in the U.S., where parents’ rights tend to take priority over youths’ rights.
The researchers acknowledged that many questions regarding the implementation and impact of a rights-based approach to sexuality education remain to be answered, but suggested that the creation of a clearly articulated definition points the way for future research and begins the process by which this approach can be measured and evaluated.
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There is little evidence that supports the effectiveness of abstinence-based sex education programs
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There is a lack of evidence supporting the effectiveness of abstinence-based sex education
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The core elements of rights-based sex education are very interesting and reasonable
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The four core elements of rights-based sex education are extremely interesting. I personally agree with these requirements because they are scientifically accurate.
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I think this prediction is interesting because parent’s are reluctant to give up control over the education their children receive
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I find this prediction extremely interesting because it has to deal with parental consent. This phenomena of parent’s wanting more control and less freedoms in regard to their children’s education was to me.
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