Sexual Attitudes of Adolescent Girls after an Interactive Seminar on Sexuality

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of an interactive seminar in sex education on the sexual attitude of adolescent girls in the 9th grade in an all-girl school near Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand. Sexual activities in Thai teenagers have emerged as a popular subject of interest in the news media. Government officials, together with schools have been promoting sex education in schools as the means of reducing the adolescents’ tendency to experiment with sex prematurely and inappropriately. As part of an adolescent outreach program at Siriraj Hospital, pediatricians were asked to participate in an interactive sex-education seminar with teenage girls from an all-girl school in the community.
Methods: All girls attending the 9th grade were recruited for the one-day interactive seminar. The attendees were divided among the two identical seminar sessions. The seminar took an average of 50 minutes per group. During the didactic portion of the seminar, students were encouraged to participate actively by asking as many questions as possible. Afterwards, the students were asked to fill out an anonymous questionnaire regarding their own sexual attitudes, beliefs and practices.
Results: There were 350 attendees; all were between the ages of 12-14 years. Over all, 70.7% of girls had attitudes that promote the practice of abstinence; 13.8% viewed that sex was an acceptable part of a loving relationship; and 23.9% of the girls had mixed feelings and attitudes towards becoming sexually active at their age. The greatest area of uncertainty was in the area of using sex to maintain a loving relationship, while 8.6% of girls felt that withholding sex from their partners would result in a break up and 30.9% were uncertain whether sex would help intensify love in a relationship. In addition, 3.4% of girls felt they had no right to reject sexual advances while 5.1% did not recognize that being alone with a boy could lead to unplanned sexual intercourse.
Conclusion: While the prevalence of attitude leading to abstinence in our study was encouraging, the large proportion of students who remained uncertain and undecided about their practice and believed to uphold in the face of increasing pressure to have sex was alarming. As pediatricians who work primarily with teenagers, our challenge is to convert those who are undecided as to which path to take into those who are adamant about maintaining celibacy and abstaining from a sexual relationship until they are older and more equipped to handle its complications and consequences.