When it comes to learning about sex, young people do not, on the whole, get this information from their parents. Surveys show that they more often get it from their friends, even though their preferred source is their parents. A study from the Philippines confirms this, and suggests that more should be done to improve parent-child communication in this area.

The research, carried out among 3044 adolescents in 2007, also shows that their desire for information is not limited to biological aspects of sexuality. Around 90 per cent wanted to know more about the emotional aspects: how to manage one’s feelings and sexual drive; the meaning of “falling in love”; how to know whether the person one is dating is dating is the right person; and how to tell the difference between desire, sexual attraction and love.

The authors of the study, led by Professor Jokin De Irala of the University of Navarre, Spain, note that understanding of emotional issues is important in protecting teens from premature sex, although most sex education programmes ignore them:

With sex education programs concentrating on biological information [36], they are in effect highlighting topics that are of relatively lower interest to teens while downplaying education in the affective aspects of human sexuality which could be a powerful means to empower teens to make healthier life choices [56]. To our knowledge, the issue of making emphasis on affective aspects is seldom brought up in sex education policies.

Despite all the biology lessons, however, many teens have incomplete information about some biological facts -- notably, condom effectiveness:

We find that around 40% of respondents (even more among boys) have the wrong belief that condoms are 100% effective or report not knowing their effectiveness. This overconfidence or lack of information can lead teens to underestimate the risks they are taking [62]. Teens who believe condoms can avoid rather than reduce the risk of STIs, underestimate the benefits of abstinence and mutual monogamy, as found in previous studies [37,63,64]; this perspective may negatively affect their decision-making in sexuality.

In other words, they may take even greater risks than they would have without the condoms -- having sex with more people, for example. This is known as “risk compensation” and is thought to be one reason why the incidence of AIDS remains high in some areas. In the Philippines study it was the teens who thought condoms were 100 per cent effective who tended to be sexually experienced.

More might have to be done to improve the content and quality of the information conveyed to teens. While it seems important to give comprehensive information about all preventive measures, programs should be abstinence centered when targeting teens [71,72]. Teens should be clear that it is better to avoid rather than to reduce risks and they should be helped to achieve risk avoidance as it is indeed the only option 100% effective. By focusing on abstinence one can better avoid the slippery slope of risk compensation [62].

The authors concede that some abstinence programmes may not be very effective (although some are), but say “it should not be a surprise that a few hours of sex education programs in school are unable to compensate for the opposite message often conveyed by some parents, media, authorities and society in general [79]. The question is not whether to promote abstinence among teens, but rather how to achieve this.”

The study also found a correlation between sexist attitudes -- mainly among boys -- and sexual experience. In contrast with girls, the majority of boys did not “seem to find anything wrong with the misuse of men or women as sexual objects, or associating masculinity or femininity to having more sexual relationships”.

The Philippines study, which included 4000 students in all, is the first step towards an international study (Project YOUR LIFE) on what youth themselves think about relationships, love and sexuality, so that these can be taken into account when designing education programmes.

This is a refreshing approach, as is also the exploration of attitudes in a developing country where the population is not yet completely westernised and which, incidentally, has one of the lowest levels of HIV infection in the world.