Different approaches to AIDS education for young people

Different approaches to AIDS education for young people

Most countries in the world offer teens some sort of sexual health and HIV education in their schools at some stage. AIDS education can also be targeted at young people in non-school environments – through their peers, through the media, and through doctors or their parents. In some countries, individual schools are allowed to determine what AIDS education they will offer. In other countries, this is determined by legislation passed by central government. And in other countries – especially poor ones that are severely affected by HIV – AIDS education is imported by foreign governments, charities and NGOs, that come in to the country and deliver AIDS education as part of a larger package of HIV prevention work.

AIDS education for young people today falls generally into one of two categories: either 'abstinence-only', or 'comprehensive'. These are actually types of sex education, rather than AIDS education specifically - AIDS education in many schools comes as a part of a sex education program, if it occurs at all. The type of AIDS education program that is offered usually depends on the attitudes of those who determine the syllabus content. Right-wing organisations, some religious organisations, and the family-values lobby tend to prefer abstinence-only education, while those who feel that preventing young people from becoming infected with HIV is more important than keeping them ignorant about sexual behaviour prefer comprehensive AIDS education.

A report found that over 80% of abstinence-only curricula contained false or misleading information

Abstinence-only education teaches students that they must say no to sexual activity until they are married. This approach does not teach students anything about how to protect themselves from STDs or HIV, how pregnancy occurs or how to prevent it, and teaches about homosexuality and masturbation only as far as to say that they are wrong. Those who favour this method of education claim that teaching young people about sex will make them want to try it, thus increasing their risk of contracting HIV, amongst other things.

Abstinence-only education is popular in America, especially so now that it has a Republican President. A House of Representatives report at the end of 2004 found that over 80% of abstinence-only curricula contained false or misleading information. ² This is not only a concern for those living in America, but increasingly for the rest of the world, as America exports its HIV-prevention and education attitudes to countries with much higher levels of HIV infection. This is particularly worrying in that abstinence-only programmes have been shown not only to fail to reduce the numbers of sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies seen in pupils, but recent studies indicate that they might actually be related to an increase in these problems.

Comprehensive AIDS education teaches about sexual abstinence until marriage, and teaches that it is one way of protecting yourself from HIV transmission, STIs and unwanted pregnancy. It also teaches that there are other ways of preventing these things, such as condom use. People who favour this approach take the perspective that, while abstaining from sex until marriage is a good idea and should possibly be encouraged, there will always be some young people that do not choose to abstain – and these people must be provided with information that enables them to protect themselves. This type of education also teaches not only about the dangers of drug use, but also about methods of HIV-prevention that drug users can employ – the use of clean needles, for example.

Abstinence-only and comprehensive AIDS education have been combined to produce abstinence-plus education. This type of education focuses on sexual abstinence until marriage as the preferred method of protection, but also provides information about contraception, sexuality and disease prevention. Many abstinence-only campaigners complain that abstinence-plus and comprehensive education are the same thing, although abstinence-plus educators claim that this type of course contains more focus on sexual abstinence until marriage.

There has been debate for many years over which form of sex education is most effective in terms of preventing underage sex, unwanted pregnancy and STD and HIV transmission, although most studies seem to show that comprehensive sex and AIDS education is at least as effective as abstinence-only – and probably more so. However, currently the trend in America – and which is being exported to much of the developing world – is towards abstinence-only education. If it is as unsuccessful as studies indicate it to be, then we can expect this morality-induced type of education to become responsible for an increase in HIV figures amongst the young, especially in high-prevalence parts of the world to which America has taken its methods.

Fifteen percent of Americans believe that schools should teach only about abstinence from sexual intercourse and should not provide information on how to obtain and use condoms and other contraception. Forty-six percent believe that the most appropriate approach is abstinence-plus ³. Almost half of those surveyed felt that the word ‘abstinence’ included not only sexual intercourse, but ‘passionate kissing’ and ‘masturbation’, too.