Adolescents are a key target group for HIV and pregnancy prevention efforts, yet very little is known about the youngest adolescents: those under age 15. New survey data from 12-14 year olds in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi and Uganda are used to describe their sexual activity, knowledge about HIV, STIs and pregnancy prevention, and sources of sexual and reproductive health information, including...

This paper is an ethnography of a four-year, multi-disciplinary adolescent sexual and reproductive health intervention in Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador. An important goal of the intervention--and of the larger global field of adolescent sexual and reproductive health--is to create more open parent-to-teen communication. This paper analyzes the project's efforts to foster such communication and...

This qualitative study was conducted to learn adolescents' opinions about sexual health services and strategies to improve their delivery. Sixteen 1.5-hour, same-sex focus groups were conducted in one rural and one urban high school in each of two Ontario regions. In total, 83 students (49 females and 34 males) participated in the study. Topics were: sources and quality of sexual health informa...

Since the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, the need for sexuality education for youth has been articulated, and numerous activities in Indonesia, especially Java, have been directed at young people. However, many parents, teachers and religious leaders have considered it essential that such education should suppress youth sexuality. This article reflects upon current...

Fertility education needs to be at the top of the agenda if we want to make a major impact in preventing infertility. We have been successful in reducing teenage pregnancies through Sex and Relationship education (SRE) and education on contraception. Sex and relationship education is for now and fertility education is for the future. Conception and contraception are two sides of the same coin. ...

An ethnographic picture of certain aspects of maternal and child care among the Tagalogs who inhabit the municipality of Bay, Laguna, Philippines is presented. The objective is to illustrate empirically that traditional practices associated with maternal and child care are not guesswork. Maternal and child care is an important aspect of folk medicine in Bay. Measures to prevent miscarrage, t...

Previous studies of the sources of sex education are reviewed and critically analyzed. Most previous studies have examined the limited issue of which source of sex education is most important, examined the sources of only a few sexual topics, or used inadequate methodology. In the present study, more adequate data regarding the relative contributions of parents, schools, reading, and peers to...

BACKGROUND In recent years, more adolescents are engaging in premarital sex in China. However, only a limited number of studies have explored out-of-school youth's sexual attitudes and behaviors, critical for prevention intervention development. METHODS Using data from the baseline survey of a comprehensive sex education program that was conducted in a suburb of Shanghai in 2000-2002, this st...

BACKGROUND Peer-led sex education is widely believed to be an effective approach to reducing unsafe sex among young people, but reliable evidence from long-term studies is lacking. To assess the effectiveness of one form of school-based peer-led sex education in reducing unintended teenage pregnancy, we did a cluster (school) randomised trial with 7 y of follow-up. METHODS AND FINDINGS Twenty...