[Comprehensive sexual education in Mexico: an analysis of coverage, comprehensiveness and continuity of contents in Mexican public and private schools]

Insights from a Qualitative Exploration of Adolescents' Opinions on Sex Education

BACKGROUND

Adolescence is a crucial time in the development of young people's identity, and sexuality is a key issue. Comprehensive sex education provides the knowledge and skills to help adolescents protect their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Policies on sex education in secondary schools are highly influential in the development of quality programmes that support comprehensive sex education. The aim of this study was to explore, describe and understand adolescents' experiences of sex education.

METHODS

A qualitative study based on Gadamer's phenomenology was used. Two focus groups and four in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 private school students, followed by inductive data analysis using ATLAS.ti software 9.0.

RESULTS

Two main themes were identified in the analysis: (1) sex education is a challenge for secondary schools and (2) student expectations of sex education.

CONCLUSION

It is essential for adolescents to have access to comprehensive sex education that is adapted to the different stages of their development, is provided by specialised teachers, and involves their families in the process.

Sexual and reproductive health among adolescents in vulnerable contexts in Mexico: Needs, knowledge, and rights

Ensuring sexual and reproductive health, and rights for adolescents entails the prevention of early pregnancies, which are widely recognized as a public health problem. Based on the ecological model for early pregnancy, this article identifies the healthcare requirements for preventing unintended adolescent pregnancies in predominantly indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico. Using a convergent parallel mixed-methods study design, we surveyed adolescents (12-15 years old) and health personnel, organized focus groups with adolescents and their parents, and conducted in-depth interviews at the individual, family, school and community levels. Results showed that adolescents recognized their right to receive sexuality education (64.5%) as well as information on contraceptive methods (53.0%), with indigenous language speakers and individuals living in overcrowded households less likely to know about these rights. Parents of adolescents knew little about contraception and pregnancy. School teachers lacked necessary tools for offering comprehensive sexuality education. A traditional, patriarchal perspective predominated among participants, fostering gender inequalities. In conclusion, it is essential to implement multifocal strategies under a human-rights, intercultural, and health-equity approach. Special attention should be directed to the spheres in which adolescents interact, and efforts should focus on improving knowledge, empowering adolescents, and enhancing their access to sexual and reproductive health resources.

"Not just the consequences, but also the pleasurable sex": a review of the content of comprehensive sexuality education for early adolescents in Rwanda

BACKGROUND

Responding to adolescents' educational needs in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) is central to their sexual health and achieved through school-based comprehensive sexuality education (CSE). In 2016, Rwanda introduced CSE through the competence-based curriculum in schools to enhance learners' knowledge about sexuality, gender, and reproductive health issues, including HIV/AIDS. However, globally, the content of CSE is sometimes dissimilar, and little evidence surrounds its scope in many settings, including Rwanda. In addition, the extent to which CSE aligns with international guidelines has yet to be well known. This study assesses major areas of CSE for early adolescents in Rwanda, analyses how CSE correlates with international guidelines and makes recommendations accordingly.

METHODS

We reviewed the Rwandan competence-based curriculum to map CSE competences for early adolescents and conducted semi-structured interviews with key informants (N = 16). Eleven of the 23 curriculum documents met the selection criteria and were included in the final review. We manually extracted data using a standard form in Microsoft Excel and analysed data using frequency tables and charts. Interviews were thematically analysed in NVivo 11 for Windows.

FINDINGS

We found 58 CSE competences for early adolescents across various subjects, increasing with school grades. All recommended CSE areas were addressed but to a variable extent. Most competences fall under four recommended areas: sexual and reproductive health; human body and development; values, rights, and sexuality; and understanding gender. The least represented area is violence and staying safe. Of the 27 expected topics, there are two to six CSE competences for 13 topics, one CSE competence for each of the six others, and none for the eight remaining ones. Qualitative findings support these findings and suggest additional content on locally controversial but recommended areas of sexual pleasure, orientation, desire and modern contraceptive methods.

CONCLUSION

This study explores the CSE content for early adolescents in Rwanda and how they align with sexuality education standards. Ensuring equal coverage of CSE areas and addressing missing topics may improve CSE content for this age group and foster their SRHR.

Construction and validation of a test of knowledge of contraceptive methods for adolescents

Background: Valid and reliable instruments are required to measure the level of information on contraceptive methods in adolescents to promote their correct use. Objective: To construct and validate a test of knowledge of contraceptive methods for adolescents between 15 and 19 years old. Method: A 36-item test was developed that included the different contraceptive methods and information on the characteristics, use, efficacy, advantages and disadvantages of these methods. Once validated by expert judges, a college in Ecatepec was randomly selected as data collection site. Students of the three school grades answered the test. Results: The test was applied to a total of 229 students between 15 and 19 years old (M = 16.22; SD = .978). The majority were women (66%), single (88.5%) and lived with their parents (62.9%). Of the 36 initial items, 31 showed discriminatory power between those who performed well on the test and those who did not. The difficulty index of the questionnaire was .45 and revealed a reliability index value of .739. Around 60% of the participants obtained a percentage below 50% of correct answers in the entire test. Only about 4% of participants got a percentage of correct responses higher than 70%. The categories of characteristics and use were those in which the participants performed best when answering 48% of these questions correctly. The worst was effectiveness, advantages and disadvantages with 33%. Conclusion: The test’s psychometric properties showed that it is a valid and reliable test for its application in Mexican adolescents. The results indicate that most adolescents of the simple do not have complete information about contraceptive methods and that they know the least about their effectiveness and side effects.

Delaying sexual onset: outcome of a comprehensive sexuality education initiative for adolescents in public schools

BACKGROUND

A common risk behavior in adolescence is the early initiation of unprotected sex that exposes adolescents to an unplanned pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections. Schools are an ideal place to strengthen adolescents' sexual knowledge and modify their behavior, guiding them to exercise responsible sexuality. The purpose of this article was to evaluate the knowledge of public secondary school teachers who received training in comprehensive education in sexuality (CES) and estimate the counseling's effect on students' sexual behavior.

METHODS

Seventy-five public school teachers were trained in participatory and innovative techniques for CES. The change in teacher knowledge (n = 75) was assessed before and after the training using t-tests, Wilcoxon ranks tests and a Generalized Estimate Equation model. The students' sexual and reproductive behavior was evaluated in intervention (n = 650) and comparison schools (n = 555). We fit a logistic regression model using the students' sexual debut as a dependent variable.

RESULTS

Teachers increased their knowledge of sexuality after training from 5.3 to 6.1 (p < 0.01). 83.3% of students in the intervention school reported using a contraceptive method in their last sexual relation, while 58.3% did so in the comparison schools. The students in comparison schools were 4.7 (p < 0.01) times more likely to start sexual initiation than students in the intervention schools.

CONCLUSION

Training in CES improved teachers' knowledge about sexual and reproductive health. Students who received counseling from teachers who were trained in participatory and innovative techniques for CES used more contraceptive protection and delayed sexual debut.

Sexuality Education During Adolescence and Use of Modern Contraception at First Sexual Intercourse Among Mexican Women

PURPOSE

Mexico has implemented comprehensive sexuality education. We hypothesized that young women who received sexuality education as adolescents would be more likely to report modern contraceptive use at first sexual intercourse.

METHODS

We used a nationally representative survey of Mexican women aged 20-24 years who were asked about experiences during adolescence. We defined our treatment variable in three mutually exclusive groups: comprehensive sexuality education (receipt of education in nine topics); incomplete sexuality education (receipt of at least one topic in each of three themes); or no sexuality education. Our outcome was use of modern contraception at first sexual intercourse. We included individual- and household-level sociodemographic factors. All presented data used survey weights. We used multivariable logistic regression and predicted probabilities to estimate the association between sexuality education and using modern contraception at first intercourse.

RESULTS

In our sample (n = 2,725; population N = 4,008,722), 60.6% of participants reported receipt of comprehensive, 15.6% of incomplete, and 23.9% of no sexuality education; 62.5% reported utilizing a modern method of contraception at first intercourse. Women who reported receiving comprehensive (adjusted odds ratio: 2.3, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.7, 3.2) or incomplete (adjusted odds ratio: 2.4, 95% CI: 1.3, 4.2) sexuality education had higher odds of using contraception at first intercourse compared with no sexuality education. The absolute multivariable probabilities of using modern contraception at first intercourse were 57.5% (95% CI: 55.2%-59.8%), 60.4% (95% CI: 56.0%-64.9%), and 37.6% (95% CI: 33.9%-41.3%) among comprehensive, incomplete, and no sexuality education, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Sexuality education is associated with contraception use at first intercourse among young women in Mexico.

Factors associated with pregnancy and motherhood among Mexican women aged 15-24

Adolescent pregnancy is associated with poor health and socioeconomic factors. The adolescent pregnancy rate in Mexico is the highest among the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. We aimed to explore the factors associated with pregnancies and births in adolescent and young adult women. Using the 2015 Mexican National Survey of Boys, Girls, and Women (ENIM), we examined two dichotomous outcomes: "ever pregnant" and "being a mother" in women from 15 to 19 years and from 20 to 24 years without pregnancies during adolescence. We conducted bivariate analysis for each age group and used general linear models (GLM) to assess the association between the outcome variables and selected socioeconomic variables. Among adolescents, school attendance and tertiary education significantly decreased the likelihood of ever having been pregnant or being mothers, while being married/cohabiting increased the likelihood. Older age at first intercourse was negatively associated with ever having been pregnant. For adult women, in addition to school attendance, tertiary education, and being married/cohabiting, the region of residence also showed a significant association with ever having been pregnant. Similar socioeconomic factors were associated with pregnancy and motherhood between adolescents and young adults. However, it was found that delaying sexual debut could reduce the adolescent pregnancy rate. Our results highlight the importance of attending school and attaining tertiary education in reducing adolescent fertility rates.

Evolution and Resistance to Sexuality Education in Mexico

Mexico's efforts at sexuality education have progressively evolved, from a biological focus in the socialist era in the 1930s, to adding a demographically concerned family planning component in the 1970s and including a wider reproductive health perspective in the 1990s, and finally shifting to a broader sociological context in the early 21st century. Opposition to sexuality education rose steadily in the time period considered, with a growing range of more organized and well-financed actors. Despite this opposition, alliances between academic, government, civil society, and NGO champions have helped ensure sustainability.

Background:

Since the 1930s, Mexico has made substantial progress in providing adolescents with sexuality education through an evolving national school-based program. As part of a broader effort to document strategies to build support for and deal with resistance to sexuality education, this analysis uses a historical lens to answer 2 key questions: (1) How has the nature of sexuality education in Mexico evolved from the 1930s to the 2010s? (2) How have the drivers, responses, support, and resistance to sexuality education impacted Mexico's experience implementing and sustaining school-based sexuality education?

Methods:

The analysis was informed by a review of peer-reviewed and gray literature as well as the personal experience and documents of one of the authors, who has played a central role in Mexico's sexuality education effort for 50 years. The findings were organized according to 4 time periods—the 1930s, the 1970s, the 1990s, and the first 2 decades of the 21st century—that emerged during the analysis as distinct periods with regard to the social and political context of school-based sexuality education. Within each of these time periods, the following 4 thematic aspects were assessed: drivers, responses, support, and resistance, with a particular focus on the rationales and strategies of resistance over time.

Findings: This analysis identified determined support for school-based sexuality education in the 4 historical time periods from a range of governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders. However, opposition to sexuality education also steadily rose in the time period considered, with a growing range of more organized and well-financed actors. The Mexican government's commitment to delivering school-based sexuality education has driven its inclusion in public schools, along with expansion of its curricula from primarily biological content to a more comprehensive approach.

Conclusion:

Mexico's experience with sexuality education can inform other countries' efforts to consider the drivers, responses, support, and resistance that may be present in their own contexts. This type of analysis can contribute to strategic, well-informed, and well-conceived programmatic design and implementation to build support for sexuality education and deal with resistance.

Sexual and reproductive health outcomes are positively associated with comprehensive sexual education exposure in Mexican high-school students

Objectives

To describe the comprehensive sex education (CSE) coverage and to evaluate a set of indicators related to knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with the seven components of the CSE framework among Mexican high-school students.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional survey of a nationally representative sample of students in public and private high schools in Mexico. Questions about CSE coverage and about knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to sexual health were included. We present descriptive statistics for demographic characteristics, exposure to CSE, and sexual health outcomes. We fitted a series of multivariate logistic regression models to examine the association between each CSE component exposure and sexual health outcomes, adjusting for age and sex.

Results

There were significant associations between being exposed to each CSE components and the related sexual health outcomes. The strongest one was for identifying effective contraceptives among those exposed to the Sexual and Reproductive Health component (SRH) (OR 4.10; 95%CI[2.93,5.75]). Also, students exposed to the relationships component had 20% higher odds of affirming they could convince their partner to use condoms (OR 1.20; 95%CI[1.05,1.36]).

Conclusions

This paper provides evidence of the potential beneficial effects of CSE on attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors regarding sexual and reproductive health among adolescents. In addition, it identifies areas that should be strengthened to increase the positive impact of CSE.

[Knowledge about pregnancy risk and self-efficacy in adolescent males: parental support and school factors]

OBJECTIVE

To identify the association between knowledge about pregnancy risk and self-efficacy in condom use with parental support and school factors in adolescent men.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Cross-sectional study with 448 students in Puebla and Morelos. Two logistic models were adjusted.

RESULTS

Knowledge about pregnancy risk is associated with communication about sexuality between parents and sons (OR = 2.45, 95%CI 1.35-4.47), satisfaction with school (OR=2.18, 95%CI 1.15-4.13), if teachers talk about gender equity frequently/very frequently (OR=1.69, 95%CI 1.06-2.67) and with age (OR=1.77, 95%CI 1.26-2.50). Self-efficacy in condom use is statistical related with communication about sexuality between parents and sons (OR=1.80, 95%CI 1.01-3.20), satisfaction with school (OR=2.60, 95%CI 1.42-4.77), belong to middle socioeconomic level (OR=1.82, 95%CI 1.07-3.11) and live in a community with a high degree of marginalization (OR=0.47, 95%CI 0.30-0.73).

CONCLUSIONS

To study family and school support, considering the influence of the social environment, allows a greater understanding of skills acquisition for a preventive sexual behavior, in males during early adolescence.

[Contraception in Mexican adolescents in upper secondary schools: use and unmet needs]

OBJECTIVE

To describe sexual behavior and contraceptive use in adolescent students.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

National representative survey in upper secondary schools in Mexico 2014. Logistic regressions identify the factors associated with contraceptive use and unmet needs for contraception (UNC).

RESULTS

For male adolescents, non-contraceptive use in the last sexual relation is associated with non-contraceptive use in the sexual debut (OR=11.5; IC95%:5.6,23.4) and not recognizing effective contraceptive methods (OR=2.4;IC95%:1.04,5.5). For female adolescents, non-contraceptive use is associated with non-contraceptive use in sexual debut (OR=4.5;IC95%:2.3,8.4) and low self-efficacy towards condom use and negotiation (OR=3.1; IC95%:1.1,8.2). UNC were associated with insecure attitudes towards condom use and negotiation (OR=3.5;IC95%:1.3,9.4), non-contraceptive use in sexual debut (OR=9.0;IC95%:2.5,32.4) and use of alcohol or drugs during sexual relations (OR=3.0;IC95%:1.1,8.1).

CONCLUSIONS

Strategies to ensure contraceptive use from sexual debut onwards are required, promoting self-efficacy and safe sex practices among adolescents.

Characteristics of Mexican children and adolescents who died by suicide: A study of psychological autopsies

OBJECTIVE

In recent years, suicide in children and adolescents has increased considerably, becoming the second cause of death in this age group. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify characteristics and factors that could precipitate deaths by suicide in children and adolescents.

METHODS

Using the psychological autopsy method, we studied 28 suicide cases of children and adolescents between 10 and 17 years old. Socio-demographic factors, characteristics of the suicide and family history were documented.

RESULTS

The proportion of deaths by suicide was the same in females and males (50% each). Most of the suicides were performed at the child/adolescent's home (78.6%) and no history of previous suicide attempts were registered (85.7%). Also, the majority of suicidal individuals came from a dysfunctional family (60.7%).

CONCLUSIONS

Our results identified characteristics of children and adolescents that had died by suicide, such as dying at their homes and coming from dysfunctional families. Knowing the characteristics of children and adolescents that had ended their lives by suicide should be considered in future studies to help developing preventive programs and strategies for treating suicidal behaviors in Mexican children and adolescents.

Prevalence of functioning difficulties and disability in Mexican adolescent women and their populational characteristics

Objective. Report prevalence of functioning difficulties and disabilities among Mexican adolescent women 15-17 years old and identify differences in characteristics of those with and without a functioning difficulty or disability Materials and methods. Using data from the National Survey of Boys, Girls and Women in Mexico 2015 we estimated prevalence of functioning difficulties and disability and used chi square tests for independence and logistic regression to explore associations between this condition and various character­istics. Results. Of Mexican adolescent women 15-17 years old, 11.1% had a functioning difficulty or disability. The group of domains of functioning difficulty and disability with by far the highest prevalence was socio-emotional and behavioral functioning difficulties or disability with 8.6%. Being employed, rural residence and self-reported depression symptoms were associated with having functioning difficulties or disability. Conclusions. This survey constitutes an important initial step in collecting data on functioning difficulty and disability in Mexico although larger samples should be studied.