Percepciones de las necesidades de educación sexual de los adolescentes del cantón Cañar

Abstract

It is widely documented that the sexuality education programsneed to consider the perspectives of the involved people to guarantee its effectivity. In the case of sexuality education in the Ecuadorian context, there is little up-to- date information that considers adolescents’ interests and needs. The present research is aimed to determine adolescents´ perceptions about their needs of sexuality education and to establish its differences according to their gender and geographical location of their schools. The study was quantitative and descriptive type with a sample of 503 adolescents from public schools belonging to rural and urban areas of Cañar Canton. A questionnaire based on the seven dimensions of integral sexuality education proposed by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (2006): gender roles, sexual and reproductive health, sexual citizenship, pleasure, violence, diversity and relationships was applied. The analysis based on Mann Whitney and Anova tests showed that teenagers expressed high needs of sexuality education, especially in the areas of violence and sexual health. Regarding gender differences, it is generally observed that women are more interested than men in sexuality education. There were no significant differences in the needs of sexual education among urban and rural participants. The results of this investigation provide updated and relevant information on sexuality education in the Austro of Ecuador, which contributes to reform proposals within the existing sexuality education programs and even to revise proposals for teacher training.