The Church, the School and the Family as Powerful Primary Teen Sex Educators

Abstract

Human beings are sexual beings throughout their entire lives. The stages of sexual development are a human developmental process involving biological and behavioral components. It does not take much insight or cultural awareness to realize that we need to be concerned about the culture in which our children are growing in. The patterns of behavior among the youth reveal morality level is at an all-time low; long regarded as a consequent factor of modernization. The philosophies of materialism, autonomy, entitlement, and hedonism beckon them at every turn. Moral values such as honesty, obedience, kindness, respect, hard work, self-discipline, humility and fear of God have significantly been affected by modernization. Lack of self-control, dishonesty and careless attitude is the character of modern youth. Sexual risk behavior among Kenyan youths is a major public health concern. Nearly 400,000 young women aged between 12 and 19 years become pregnant in Kenya each year, most of them unintentionally, and half of the roughly 200,000 new sexually transmitted infections (STIs) diagnosed each year are among 15 to 24 years old. Sexuality is God’s life-giving and life-fulfilling gift. Our culture needs a sexual ethic focused on personal relationships and social justice rather than particular sexual acts. All persons have the right and responsibility to lead sexual lives that express love, justice, mutuality, commitment, consent, and pleasure. Grounded in respect for the body and for the vulnerability that intimacy brings, this sexual ethic fosters physical, emotional, and spiritual health. A great deal of research attention has been and remain devoted to understanding what puts adolescents at risk to these outcomes, given their enormous social, economic, and public health consequences. More effort is required to address these risky sexual activities among youths. One of the ways is through the identification of additional contributors to this behavior that have been understudied factors that put teens at risk and levers that can be used in preventive interventions.