Sex Education I

PSY3094 Lecture 8

Dr Eliza Berezina
Psψchology@SUNWAY
Recap: Working Adults Mental Health
• Job & Careers are changing;
– New industries and job opportunities;
– Job roles will require multiple skills;
• Entering Work Environment;
– Reality Shock;
• Job Satisfaction & Passion to work
– Working in teams & interaction with colleagues;
– Gender & Age discrimination;
• Occupational Transitions, Insecurity & Unemployment;
• Work & Family conflict;
– The dependent care dilemma;
– Juggling multiple roles.

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Topics for Today
• Sexual maturity and
development;
• Sex education;
• Sexual attitudes &
behaviour;
• Sexual violence.

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Human Sexuality
• A developmental process manifesting different
characteristics throughout the human lifespan
resulting in stages and milestones comprised of
biological and behavioural components;
– Childhood sexual development;
– Adolescent sexual development;
– Adult sexual development;
– Sex among older adults.

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Sexuality includes…
• sexual and reproductive anatomy and body image;
• biological sex — male, female, or intersex;
• gender identity — being a girl, boy, transgender,
or genderqueer, feelings about it and how you
express your gender;
• sexual orientation — who you're sexually and/or
romantically attracted to;
• values, attitudes, and ideals about life, love,
and sexual relationships;
• sexual behaviours.

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Factors regarding sexual maturity
• Effective communication
between partners engaged in
intimate relationships;
• Making informed decisions
regarding reproduction;
• The prevention of sexually
transmitted infections (such as
HIV);
• Decisions regarding sexual
lifestyles, sexual satisfaction,
and relationship factors.
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Why is Sex Education Important for Youth?
• Age-appropriate, culturally relevant approach to teaching
about sex and relationships by providing scientifically
accurate, realistic, non-judgmental information;
• Provides opportunities to explore one’s own values and
attitudes and to build decision-making, communication and
risk reduction skills about many aspects of sexuality (UNESCO,
2009);

• Puberty and its accompanying developmental changes,

including capacity for sexual and reproductive function are
hallmarks of adolescence;
• Many young people approach adulthood faced with
conflicting and confusing messages about sexuality and
gender.

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The Consequences of Ignorance
• Early pregnancy;
• HIV and other infections;
• Violence and dangerous relationships;
• Ill-prepared adults missing:
– information about sexual and reproductive health;
– opportunities to discuss their doubts about these
matters;
– access to condoms;
– exposure to messages and role models that reinforce
more gender-equitable ways of interacting with
partners.

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What are aims of sex education?
• Children and young people become equipped with
the knowledge, skills and values to make
responsible choices about their sexual and social
relationships;
• Several mutually reinforcing objectives:
• to increase knowledge and understanding;
• to explain and clarify feelings, values and attitudes;
• to develop or strengthen skills;
• to promote and sustain risk-reducing behaviour.

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The sensitivity of sex education
• Ignorance and embarrassment about sexuality are
very present in most societies;
• In many cultures, there is a particular difficulty in
accepting adolescents as sexual beings;
• Initial efforts to promote sex education were focused
on the related dangers of medical and moral decline;
• The role of parents, teachers, religion leaders in
providing education about sexuality was debated in
every country (and still is!);
• The advent of the HIV pandemic strengthened the
position of those supporting sexuality education.

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 The effectiveness of sex education
• Sex education interventions significantly (Kirby et al., 2006; Mark & Wu,
2022; Richmond & Peterson, 2020):
– delayed sex,
– decreased the number of sexual partners,
– increased the use of condoms or contraceptives,
– reduced the incidence of unprotected sex;
• Impact of programmes empowering youth (Ricardo et al., 2010):
– among men: increase in gender equitable attitudes, increase
in condom use, decrease in violence against women;
– among women: increase in gender equitable attitudes,
increase in self-efficacy, increase in communication with
partners, decrease in drug & alcohol use.

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 Barriers for sex education in Malaysia (Khalaf et al., 2014)
• Feasibility:
– National sexuality education program
as a time-consuming project;
• Acceptability:
– Multicultural society as a barrier to
national sexuality education;
• Accountability:
– Curriculum-based sex education is not
easily accomplished in Malaysia;
• Strategies:
Fitzpatrick, K., et al., (2022).
– abstinence-only policy does not work; Relationships and sexuality
• Community Unawareness: education: Key research informing
New Zealand curriculum policy.
– Lack of community involvement in Health Education Journal, 81(2), 134-156.
sexuality education.
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Opinions of Parents on Sex Education in Malaysia
• Key themes related to sexuality education among Malaysian
parents:
– misunderstanding of the meaning of terms:
• sexuality education = sex;
– attitude of parents towards sexuality education:
• positive but lack of confidence;
– accessible structural support in sexuality education:
• family issues vs school support vs government support;
– strategies and approaches:
• stakeholders from multiple levels;
• certified teachers for sexual education.
See more details in: Sham, F., Zaidi, W. N. A. W. M., Zahari, Z. N., Danis, A., &
Razali, S. (2020). Sexuality means" sex": Opinions of parents on sexuality education
in Malaysia. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 13(3), 1818-1825.
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The key concepts of sex education
• Relationships;
• Values, Attitudes and Skills;
• Culture, Society and Human
Rights;
• Human Development;
• Sexual Behaviour;
• Sexual and Reproductive
Health.

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What is acceptable sexual behaviour?
• Go to menti.com
• Social context influences sexual behaviour;
• Sexuality is expressed and understood through
socialized processes;
• Sexual behaviour refers to the manner in which
humans experience and express their sexuality;
• Individuals are taught to use social cues to interpret
sexual intent (flirtation);
• Sexual behaviour is influenced by socialization, what
is deemed "normal" can vary widely across cultures.

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How can media contribute to sexual behaviours?
• Children can learn through media about what is
considered to be acceptable sexual behaviour;
• Difficulties distinguishing between the fictional
pornographic characters and real life sexual
situations;
• Unrealistic views of how bodies should look;
• Insecurities about appearance;
• Anxieties about sexual performance and intimacy.

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For girls
For boys

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Gender Based Violence
• Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or
is likely to result in
– physical,
– sexual,
– psychological harm,
– or suffering to women, including threats of such
acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty,
whether occurring in public or private life.

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 Gender Based Violence
• a violation of women’s human
• Includes rights,
– rape,
• a cause and consequence of
– sexual abuse, gender inequality,
– sexual harassment,
• a major cause of women’s ill
– trafficking in women, health,
– forced prostitution.
• a detriment to women’s well-
being,
• very often a crime,
• and a significant cost to the
resources of the wider society.

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Physical aggression in relationships
•defined as the use of threat of physical force or
restraint carried out with the intent of causing pain
or injury to another;
•Johnson (1995) distinguished between patriarchal
terrorism and couple violence;
•Patriarchal terrorism flows from the patriarchal
tradition.

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Two distinct types
• Common couple violence (CCV)
– mutual, arguments that get out of hand leading
to minor forms of violence and more rarely
escalating into serious forms of violence;
• Intimate terrorism (IT)
– violence is one tactic in a general pattern of
control of one member over the other (2
intimate terrorists battling for control is rare);
– less likely to be mutual, more likely to involve
serious injury and involve emotional abuse.

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 The ecological model of factors associated with GBV
• Individual Perpetrator
– Witnessing marital
violence as a child;
– Absent or rejecting
father;
– Being abused as a child;
– Alcohol use;
• Relationship
– Marital conflict;
– Male control of wealth
and decision-making in
the family;
• Community
– Poverty, low socio-economic
status, unemployment;
– Associating with peers who
condone violence;
– Isolation of women and family;
• Society
– Norms granting men control over
female behavior;
– Acceptance of violence as a way
to resolve conflict;
– Notion of masculinity linked to
dominance, honor and
aggression;
– Rigid gender roles.

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Myth about Gender-based Violence
• The perpetrators of violence are a minority group
of mentally ill men;
• Poverty or war lead to attacks on and abuse of
women;
• Violence against women is caused by substance
abuse, such as drugs and alcohol;
• Violence against women is an inevitable part of
male-female relations;
• Violence against women is an inherent part of
maleness, or a natural expression of male sexual
urges.
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Explanations of Violence
1.Patriarchal perspective
– occurs in the context of men needing to
maintain power and control;
– violence used to power system – men are
dominant, women subordinate;
2 Men’s violence has stronger effects than
women’s violence
– men’s violence instills fear;
– women injured more frequently;
– women’s violence towards men is trivial,
humorous or annoying and has little effect on
men, however, not much evidence.

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 Explanations of Violence
3. Focusing on physical assault is misguided:
– verbal abuse (predicts physical aggression);
– psychological humiliation;
– sexual aggression;
– using or threatening violence against others;
– coercive control;
• These acts are not the sole domain of men;
• Domestic violence is an abuse of power that can
happen in any intimate relationship.
See: Scott-Storey, K., O’Donnell, S., Ford-Gilboe, M., Varcoe, C., Wathen, N.,
Malcolm, J., & Vincent, C. (2023). What about the men? a critical review of
men’s experiences of intimate partner violence. Trauma, Violence, &
Abuse, 24(2), 858-872.

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Abuse in same-sex relationships
• Same as for heterosexual relationships, except for
2 unique features;
– Threat of “outing”, or exposing partner’s sexual
orientation to work colleagues, family and
friends;
– Extreme isolation due to being “in the closet”,
lack of civil rights protections, and lack of access
to legal system.

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What if gender roles are opposite?
• Oppressed Majority:
– Where is the borderline between violent and
not-violent behaviour?
– What is the reaction of social environment on
gender-based violence?
– How can people resist it?

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 The impact on GBV on individual’s health
• Physical • Psychological
– sexual and reproductive – Direct: anxiety, fear,
health problems mistrust of others, inability
– chronic health problems to concentrate, loneliness,
post-traumatic stress
– injury,
disorder, depression,
– disability, suicide, etc.
– death, – Indirect: psychosomatic
illnesses, withdrawal,
alcohol or drug use.

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Social impact of GBV
• Rejection, ostracism and social stigma at
community level;
• Acute fear of future violence;
• Job loss due to absenteeism as a result of violence;
• Divorce, or broken families;
• Increased likelihood of violence against children
growing up in households where there is domestic
violence;
• Collateral effects on children who witness violence
at home (emotional and behavioral disturbances).

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Social Responses to Gender-Based Violence
• health care services; • education;
• victim assistance • legal responses;
services; • community
• working with interventions;
perpetrators; • faith-based programs;
• media information • international
and awareness conferences and
campaigns; conventions.

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Continue next week
• Sex across the life span;
• Responsibility that comes with sex;
• STDs;
• Practicing safe sex;
• How to talk about sex.

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 References
• Grose, R. G., Grabe, S., & Kohfeldt, D. (2014). Sexual education, gender ideology, and
youth sexual empowerment. The Journal of Sex Research, 51(7), 742-753.
• Khalaf, Z. F., Low, W. Y., Merghati-Khoei, E., & Ghorbani, B. (2014). Sexuality education in
Malaysia: perceived issues and barriers by professionals. Asia Pacific Journal of Public
Health, 26(4), 358-366.
• Mark, N. D., & Wu, L. L. (2022). More comprehensive sex education reduced teen births:
Quasi-experimental evidence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(8),
e2113144119.
• Neto, F., & da Conceição Pinto, M. (2013). The Satisfaction with Sex Life Across the Adult
Life Span. Social indicators research, 114(3), 767-784.
• Ricardo, C., Nascimento, M., Fonseca, V., & Segundo, M. (2010). Program H and Program
M: Engaging young men and empowering young women to promote gender equality and
health. PAHO/Best Practices in Gender and Health.
• Richmond, K. P., & Peterson, Z. D. (2020). Perceived sex education and its association
with consent attitudes, intentions, and communication. American Journal of Sexuality
Education, 15(1), 1-24.
• Talib, J., Mamat, M., Ibrahim, M., & Mohamad, Z. (2012). Analysis on sex education in
schools across Malaysia. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 59, 340-348.

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