Transcript A GREATER MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY

“Playing Games: the Culture of Sex
and Relationships Education in the
UK”
Barbara Hastings-Asatourian
19 May 2003
A quick quiz
What did NATSAL 2000 survey find was the
average age for first sexual intercourse?
Which country in the world has the highest
teenage pregnancy rate?
Which country in Western Europe has the highest
teenage pregnancy rate?
Which country in Europe has the lowest teenage
pregnancy rate?
What is the overall risk of a young woman
becoming pregnant after one episode of
unprotected sexual intercourse
“Need”
In my experience of participating in Sex
Education, suitable “off the shelf”
materials were in short supply.
“Response”
The development of Contraception
Education
Extract from BMA et al
“What does effectiveness mean?
Before investigating whether a sex education
programme is effective, need to consider what it
could realistically be expected to achieve, and how to
measure this. The aims of sex education are
ambitious, and include:
•Enabling people to form and maintain relationships
•Promoting self-esteem
•Enabling control of fertility
•Enabling prevention of HIV and STDs. “
Evidence from PHLS
All diagnoses and workload at GUM clinics, by country:
1995-2000*
6 0 ,0 0 0
1 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0
5 0 ,0 0 0
8 0 0 ,0 0 0
4 0 ,0 0 0
6 0 0 ,0 0 0
3 0 ,0 0 0
4 0 0 ,0 0 0
2 0 ,0 0 0
2 0 0 ,0 0 0
1 0 ,0 0 0
0
0
1990
1992
E n g la n d
1994
S c o tla n d
1996
W ale s
1998
2 000
N .Irela n d
N um ber of ne w e pi so des (S co tl an d, W al es &
1 ,2 0 0 ,0 0 0
N .I rel an d)
N um ber of ne w e pi so des (E ng la nd )
*Data are currently unavailable from Scotland for 2000 and from N.Ireland for 1990,1996 & 1997
Evidence from Teenage
Pregnancy Unit
TPU continued..
Teenage Pregnancy – Live Births –
International comparisons
Median Age at first intercourse
Changes in behaviour
Let’s look at Sweden as an
example
• Play video of Swedish teenas talking
• Read “There’s more to Sweden than Abba” SEM
What are the risks?
• The overall risk of pregnancy from one occasion of
unprotected sex is 2-4%
• Increasing to 20-30% around ovulation (Kubba’s work)
• The risk of aquiring an infection through unprotected sex
is higher in people with lowered resistance to infection,
• Bacterial infections are largely treatable if found early
enough. Viral infections are particularly hard to eradicate
in some groups of people (esp stressful lifestyle)
• Sex with a condom used consistently and carefully is a
very effective way of preventing both infection and
pregnancy (Mindel’s work)
• Values of “virginity” and “abstinence until monogamous
marriage” are usually promoted with exaggerations about
unsubstantiated myths about sex and contraception
Evidence from the Sex Education
Forum about abstinence
programmes
Read: “Just Say No to Abstinence
Education”
Contraception Education
An attempt to introduce resources which can be used
in small groups,
which do not demand disclosure of personal behaviour
and which promote “sex” in its many forms as good
and healthy, which people can choose
Without fear, without guilt and without pressure
Through hands on resources and resources on
www.contraceptioneducation.co.uk
E.G Condoms and Femidoms: the UK approach
What teachers think…
“...very well received indeed by the students in year
10 and 11….Our local health visitors have also
been much impressed by them. The game is by
far and away the best material I have ever used
with young people” (SRE teacher in BFPO
school)
“ The general consensus.. praise, at last a fun,
relaxed and interesting tool for teaching PSD”
(SRE teacher mainstream)
Letter to national press
“ It is based on the premise that under-age
children will indulge in sex. The makers
seem oblivious of the fact that this
assumption will encourage youngsters to
believe under-age sex is fine - or at worst
morally neutral”
Mass Media Response
The anti-Sex Education Lobby
“this week saw a watershed of perversion
and child abuse ...more suitable to an
Anne Summers Sex Party than a class full
of children”
“This game is just corrupting. The idea is for
children to work their way around a board using
counters in the shape of different contraceptives.
In any other setting an adult who asked a child to
play a game like this would be arrested”
Radical Parents Groups
“I was saddened to see your board game
which will not help our youngsters at all as
it promotes the same “safe sex” myth
which has dismally failed for the past 30
years resulting in this countries depressive
state of high teen pregnancy and abortion
rates and spiralling STI’s”
Radical Parents Groups
Complained that the game encouraged dangerous
behaviour likely to result in death, breast cancer,
strokes and DVT’s (e.g. the Pill)
I highlighted the need for all young people to
learn how to assert themselves sexually to
prevent pressure, bullying and abuse
One representative suggested I was “Using extreme
examples” to further my cause
The Children Act
and
Fraser Guidelines (after
Gillick)
Some groups do not believe that children
should have a say even in their medical
treatments until they reach 18.
Thanks for listening.
Let’s discuss it.