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Sexual health policies explicitly aim to encourage young people to take responsibility for their sexuality to prevent adverse outcomes such as unintended pregnancies, STIs and sexual assault. In Europe and North America, ‘choice’ has become a central concept in sexual and reproductive health policy making. However, the concept of choice is not unproblematic, not least because the cultural emphasis on individual responsibility obscures structural limitations and inequalities, and mutual responsibility between partners. …
The ‘Check It, Beat It’ Booklet aims to ensure that young people have the right information about practices that can harm them. It is a straightforward booklet with direct language (rather than using euphemisms) to ensure the messages get through. The booklet encourages young people to “check it” out or understand the risk of HIV and STI infection in relation to multiple concurrent partners, transactional sex (sex for money), intergeneration sex (sugar daddies) and alcohol use.
A seven-year randomized evaluation suggests education subsidies reduce adolescent girls’ dropout, pregnancy, and marriage but not sexually transmitted infection (STI). The government’s HIV curriculum, which stresses abstinence until marriage, does not reduce pregnancy or STI. Both programs combined reduce STI more, but cut dropout and pregnancy less, than education subsidies alone. …
Sex has regularly proven to be a polarising issue for the UN Member States, and the 2016 High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS on June 8–10 was no exception. The Political Declaration adopted at the meeting addresses the sexual health needs of young people (15–24 years), including adolescents (11–19 years). 2000 new HIV infections occur among young people every day. HIV is the leading cause of death among adolescents in Africa, and the second-highest cause of death worldwide in this age group. …
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, are prevalent among adolescents and can have lasting adverse health consequences. The objective of this review is to identify high-quality interventions and evaluations to decrease STI transmission and related risky behaviors among young people in low- and middle-income countries. PubMed, Embase, PsycInfo, Cinahl Plus, Popline, and the Cochrane Databases were searched without language limitations for articles published through November 2015. Gray literature was searched by hand. …
Most states today have a policy requiring HIV education, usually in conjunction with broader sex education. Meanwhile, as debate over the relative merits of abstinence-only-until marriage versus more comprehensive approaches has intensified, states have enacted a number of specific content requirements. This brief summarizes state-level sex and HIV education policies, as well as specific content requirements, based on a review of state laws, regulations and other legally binding policies.
What programs delay sexual initiation, improve contraceptive use among sexually active teens, and/or prevent teen pregnancy? Over the years, The National Campaign has produced and disseminated a number of detailed reports and publications designed to answer this question. Here, in shorthand form, is an overview of what is known about carefully evaluated interventions that help delay sex, improve contraceptive use, and/or prevent teen pregnancy.
More than ever, adolescents need help, guidance, and empowerment. This is the main purpose for which the Department of Health invested in the project: “Development of Behavior Change Communication (BCC) Strategy for Adolescent Pregnancy.” This initiative essentially aims to contribute to the promotion of positive and healthy behaviors that enable adolescents to avoid too early and unintended pregnancy. This initiative is an integral part of the Adolescent and Youth Health and Development (AYHD) Program of the Department of Health. …
Scientific research has made major contributions to adolescent health by providing insights into factors that influence it and by defining ways to improve it. However, US adolescent sexual and reproductive health policies-particularly sexuality health education policies and programs-have not benefited from the full scope of scientific understanding. From 1998 to 2009, federal funding for sexuality education focused almost exclusively on ineffective and scientifically inaccurate abstinence-only-until-marriage (AOUM) programs. …
This study was aimed at assessing the perception of students, teachers and perception in Calabar south local government area of Cross River State, Nigeria. A cross sectional survey was employed and a structured questionnaire was used to generate both qualitative and quantitative data from 850 respondents using the multi-stage stratified sampling technique. Most students were within the age bracket of 13-18 476 (95.2%), teachers were mostly within 25-29 years 54 (27.0%) and parents were mostly 40-44 years of age 22 (22.0%). …
Introduction: HIV epidemics are sustained and propagated by new cases of infection which result from transmission from infected persons to uninfected susceptible individuals. People living with HIV (PLHIV) play a critical role in prevention if they adopt safer sexual behaviors. This study estimated the prevalence of and factors associated with safer sexual behaviors among PLHIV seeking care from civil society organizations (CSOs). …
Masculinity studies are fairly new and young churchgoers are an under-researched group in the current Congolese church context. In response to this knowledge gap, this paper attempts to explore discourses of young churchgoers from deprived areas of Kinshasa regarding masculinity and sexuality in the era of HIV. A series of 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with unmarried young churchgoers from the Salvation Army, Protestant and Revival churches. The interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using discourse analysis. …
We adapted a U.S. HIV prevention program to address knowledge gaps and cultural pressures that increase the risk of infection in adolescent Ghanaian girls. The theory-based nine-module HIV prevention program combines didactics and games, an interactive computer program about sugar daddies, and tie-and-dye training to demonstrate an economic alternative to transactional sex. The abstinence-based study was conducted in a church-affiliated junior secondary school in Nsawam, Ghana. Of 61 subjects aged 10-14 in the prevention program, over two thirds were very worried about becoming HIV infected. …
The goal of this policy is to improve the prevention and management of learner pregnancy in Namibia, with the ultimate aim of decreasing the number of learner pregnancies and increasing the number of learner-parents who complete their education. Education is both a human right in itself and an indispensable means of realising other human rights. In order to meet Vision 2030, it is essential that a policy is put in place to address learner pregnancy that will make a real and sustainable difference in the lives of children and their children. …
The second National HIV and AIDS Advocacy and Communication Strategy (NHACAS) for Tanzania has been developed to enhance cross-cutting communication support to the priority strategies identified in the National Multisectoral Framework for HIV response in Tanzania. The first chapter of NHACAS provides an overview of situation analysis and HIV response in Tanzania. The Strategic Objective section illustrates a framework and recommends approaches for addressing the context of HIV response highlighting lessons learnt and successful global interventions. …