Community-Based Interventions for Adolescent Psychosexual Health: The Use of Life Skills Training Approaches in Sexuality Education

Abstract

In recent years, with increasing awareness and reports of child sexual abuse, government and nongovernment agencies working in the areas of child and adolescent health, education, welfare, and protection are increasingly looking to implement initiatives on child safety and psychosocial health, both from preventive and curative perspectives. It is critical, however, to recognize that the child sexual abuse programming needs to take into consideration the age and the developmental stage of children. Childhood encompasses the period from 0 to 18 years; however, sexuality-related issues of adolescents are vastly different from younger children. While the adolescent sexual rights’ debates (for adolescents) to engage in physical intimacy and sexual behavior or not may continue, most childcare workers unanimously agree on adolescents’ need for sexuality awareness and education. Adolescent sexual issues range from sexual abuse to mutually consenting romantic and sexual relationships and engagement in sexually inappropriate behaviors with young children; for the last-mentioned point, adolescents also come into conflict with the law. This article discusses the need for public health and community-based approaches to address this range and complexity in adolescent sexuality, also sharing concrete field-based, pilot-tested methodologies and resources to work on this issue.