Sex Education and Its Influence on Sexual Behavior in the West African Senior High School in the Greater Accra Region

Abstract

Comprehensive sex education is an important tool that enables adolescents to make informed choices concerning sex and sexual behavior and gives them the tools needed to grow up into sexually healthy adults. Sex education is non-existent in most Ghanaian schools and homes. Despite the silence that exists concerning sex and reproductive health issues a lot of adolescents are engaging in sexual behavior out of curiosity and the need to conform to peer norms. A school based cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2015 to identify the influence sex education has on the sexual behavior of senior high school students in the West African Senior High School in the Greater Accra Region. It was also to identify the main sex education programs available to students. A total of 449 adolescents between the ages of 13-20 years in the senior high school were selected. A self- administered questionnaire was used to obtain data on sexual education sources and the sexual behavior of the students. Quantitative data were obtained on their socio-demographic status, family structures, parental communication and source of sex education, history of romantic relationships and sexual behavior as well as sexual reproductive health programs in their schools. The data were processed and analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2013 and STATA software version 12. The median age at sexual debut was 13.0 years. The prevalence of sexual activity was 27% of the total population, of which 14% of them were recently engaging in sexual activity. Significant association was not observed for parental discussion, sex education and sexual behavior. However, peer pressure was observed to increase sexual behavior among adolescents. Social media use was positively associated with entering into romantic relationships but not sexual behavior. The main sources of information on sex was teachers and the media. Sexual education programs in the school were few and did not meet the need of students in the school. 93% of students thus called for more sex education programs to be implemented in the school to enable them meet the needs of their sexual and reproductive health. Appropriate interventions are needed to curb the high proportion of sexual behavior among the students. These findings suggest that sex education both in school and homes is necessary to help adolescents make informed choices concerning sex and reproductive health. Keywords: Adolescents, Sex education, Sexual behavior, Parental communication.