Experiences of adolescent mothers and fathers on sex education in Ecuadorian schools

Abstract

Sexual education in the educational system is a right of adolescents. In Latin America, despite the progress in the implementation of sexual education to prevent adolescent pregnancy, deficiencies are also evident. With the aim of exploring the sexual education experiences of adolescent fathers and mothers in schools, a qualitative study was developed in Cuenca. 19 semi-structured interviews were carried out (10 mothers; 9 adolescent fathers), and a thematic analysis of the information was used. It was found that, despite the established guidelines, sexual education is scarce and biased; Its implementation is unsystematic, with a bio-medical and moralistic approach and; it does not consider sexual development needs of adolescents. This reveals worrying gaps in the educational system that may contribute to the development of life skills.