Greek parents towards sex education
For more than 20 years there has been an ongoing dialogue between the Greek Ministry of Education and other interested parties — schools, parent associations — on the introduction of sexual education into the Greek high school curriculum. But there is still no final decision on sexual education.
Recently the debate about sexual education in high schools in Greece has focused on whether there should be a separate course or whether sex education should be part of a broader curriculum on health education and health behavior. This is the latest stage in an issue which remains unresolved despite long-running discussions and results from several studies.
The appearance of HIV/ AIDS has led to a reconsideration of young people’s sexuality and their awareness of protective measures. Young people, and especially high-school students who start their sexual activity at the age of 15 and 16, are at risk of being infected by HIV as they are not well informed . Their knowledge is often limited to peer information because there is no sexual education in schools at present and any health education courses avoid topics on sexuality. Thus young people usually begin their sexual life without adequate information on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), HIV prevention and contraception.
Many parents, although concerned about the sexual behavior of their children, appear to be hesitant about the introduction of sexual education in schools. Nevertheless, a Parents’ Association in the Athens region wrote a letter addressed to the Ministries of Education and Health, the Greek Family Planning Association, the teachers’ associations of elementary and secondary education, and to SEXTANT, expressing serious concern about the lack of official information being given to their children. They took this initiative after participating in a seminar organized by the Greek FPA, where they had had the chance to hear about the consequences of lack of information on sexual matters. At this time, SEXTANT applied for and received funding from the Ministry of Health’s Centre for Control of Infectious Diseases for a pilot survey in the area of Athens on parental attitudes towards the sexual education of their children.
Parents have distinctive attitudes towards the inclusion or not of sexual education in the school curriculum. Some parents support the idea and consider it extremely important because of the threat of HIV infection. On the other hand, other parents are completely against the idea, their main argument being that such lessons will ‘push’ their children to start their sexual activity much younger than would have ‘normally’ been the case. These extremely opposite attitudes coexist and make it difficult for decision makers to take any steps since they do not wish to cause serious problems to any number of parents.
Research aims and methodology
The research project focuses on five aspects of sexual education:
current attitudes of parents towards informing children about sexual behavior topics that parents do not want to be included in sexual education classes
attitudes concerning the ‘proper’ age that parents believe their children should learn about sexual behavior possible differences in attitudes of parents relating to the gender of the child and what they feel male and female children should learn ideas about the most ‘adequate’ person/ institution to be responsible for provision of sexual education to young people.
Limited financial resources did not allow for national research in a representative sample. Thus the decision was made to carry out a pilot survey in the Athens region, the results of which could be interpreted as only indicative not conclusive. A questionnaire was used containing open and closed questions.
In all, 140 questionnaires were completed by parents in three areas of Athens covering the centre, which includes a mixed population in socio-economic terms, working class areas and provinces with a more upper-middle-class population. The sample was drawn randomly from Parents’ Association lists in the relevant areas. Then the researchers called up parents to inform them about the research and where parents were willing to take part interviewers visited them at home or in the workplace. The parent completed the questionnaire on his or her own. However, in many cases parents preferred the interviewer to read the questions out and record responses.
The only refusals were related to lack of time available and not to the research themes. Interviewers asked for either parent to complete the questionnaire but in the majority of cases the father suggested that the mother was the more appropriate person to answer such a questionnaire. Thus the sample has an over-representation of mothers. After the completion of the questionnaires the open questions were coded and the gathered data analyzed using multiple correspondence analysis as well as cluster analysis.
Demographic characteristics
As mentioned above, most respondents (72 per cent) were women, 21.4 per cent lived in working class areas, 55.7 per cent in the centre of Athens and 22.9 per cent in the northern provinces. Most respondents belonged to the age group 41– 50 and the mean age of respondents’ first child was 16. More than half (51.4 per cent) of the parents had completed secondary education and 34.3 per cent were university graduates. Most parents were either civil servants or freelance professional, and 17.9 per cent of the women were housewives.
Researchers included a question on where respondents had lived most of their lives, in Athens or in the countryside. The aim of this question was to investigate whether parents who had lived most of their lives in urban areas expressed more progressive ideas than those who came from rural areas. Some 62.9 per cent of the parents had lived most of their lives in the countryside, which is not surprising because the majority of citizens in Athens do originally come from the countryside.
A question about the religious beliefs of the parents was also included since it may affect people’s attitudes towards sex and sexuality. In this sample, most of the parents (64.3 per cent) considered themselves a little religious while 26.4 per cent considered themselves very religious.
Most (66.4 per cent) indicated that they were not members of any clubs or associations — the aim of this question being to identify differences in attitudes between socially active parents and those who are less active in the community. (In this study no noticeable differences were established.)
Parents were also asked how often they read newspapers or magazines, with a response of 50.7 per cent indicating that they read a newspaper every day. In the multiple correspondence analysis there were differences between parents who were often informed through the mass media and those who were not. The former express more progressive attitudes in relation to the education of their children in sexual issues.
Health, sexuality, AIDS and other STDs
The majority of parents declared that their primary sources of information on health issues were television (64.3 per cent) and specialized scientists (53.6 per cent). In general, respondents believed that they had enough information on AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (66.4 per cent). This question was aiming to establish parents’ personal evaluation of their knowledge on important issues that their children might need to informed about by them. Only 19.3 per cent of the parents believed that they were very well informed on such issues.
Almost all parents (99.3 per cent) believed that their children should be informed about these issues and 49.3 per cent considered that the best time for such education to be the first three years of high school when students are between 12 and 15 years old. A substantial minority of parents (40.7 per cent) believed that the best time that a child should gain some information on these topics was elementary school ( 6 to 12 year olds). It is noticeable here that parents are split into two groups: those who realize that the earlier someone is informed on these issues the more protected he or she is in the future, and those who believe that their child should get information when he/ she is almost ready to start sexual activity.
As many as 76.4 per cent of parents reported that they were the most appropriate people to inform their children on these issues and only 7.9 per cent mentioned teachers as the right people to give such information. This opinion is related to the fact that 91.4 per cent of parents believe that they are able to discuss issues relating to sexuality with their children. According to these parents, the subjects that their children should be informed on are: methods of family planning (28.6 per cent), AIDS (20 per cent), and relationships and love (19.3 per cent). Another 19.3 per cent consider other subjects more important, subject such as drugs, health problems, condoms as protection from sexually transmitted diseases, etc.
When the parents were asked if they had ever bought a book on sex education for their children, 45.7 per cent said ‘no’ and 40 per cent said that there was no information on AIDS and other STDs in their homes.
Almost all of the parents (98.6 per cent) agreed that sex education should be included in the school curriculum, and it is encouraging that 41.4 per cent of the parents reported that sex education should begin in elementary school. Amongst the subjects that should be included in these lessons, the parents mentioned AIDS and other STDs, family planning and condom use. As for the most appropriate person to teach these subjects, parents believed that a health specialist (40.7 per cent) or a doctor (37.1 per cent) are the best.
Another indicative answer of the parents’ concerns over sex education courses in schools emerged in their belief that health education should include sex education topics and thus there should not necessarily be a separate course concentrating mostly on sexuality. Here it is either fear that a sex education course will lead to early sexual experimentation or that school is not the best place for their children to be informed about sexual matters, but only on health issues.
A considerable number of parents (57.1 per cent) are confident that their child can be protected against AIDS and other STDs and only 13.6 per cent said that they did not know or they were not certain if their child had adequate information in order to protect themselves.
Another subject was one the mass media coverage of health issues. If children do not get information at school, can they at least learn something through the mass media. Many parents (80 per cent) believed that today in Greece the mass media do not adequately cover health issues and suggested that there should be more TV programs about health and related matters.
Parent and child relations
Parents were asked if they discussed issues related to sexual behavior with their sons and their daughters respectively. The questions were asked separately for boys and girls to identify possible differences in subjects parents prefer to discuss or avoid in relation to the gender of their child. From their answers, it is evident that with their sons parents talk often about AIDS and other STDs, condom use and gender relations, while they avoid topics such as masturbation, abortion and orgasm. While parents appear to discuss the same issues with their daughters, they avoid discussing homosexuality. It also appears that abortion is still considered a woman’s issue as parents spend more time talking to their girls about contraception and abortion (53 per cent for both issues with daughters, while for sons these percentages are 44.3 per cent and 25.3 per cent, respectively).
Communication within the family
The mother is usually the one who undertakes to discuss with her children topics concerning sexuality (68.6 per cent) and in some cases (21.4 per cent) both parents do. Subjects that parents do not feel comfortable discussing with their children are masturbation and homosexuality. These subjects are relevant for both genders so parents do not appear to make any distinction between boys and girls.
Two-thirds of the parents declared that they were aware of the fact that their child (12– 18 years of age) had already begun his or her sexual activity. Most of the parents found out this information from their own child, while 14.3 per cent said they had found out in different ways, such as through the child’s friends, their child’s behavior, or just from instinct.
Talking about sex
A significant number of parents claimed that they were aware of the fact that their child was using a contraceptive method (54.4 per cent). This might be related to the parents’ belief that their child trusts them (54.3 per cent) and talks to them about his/ her relationships with the opposite sex. Parents appear to have frequent discussions with their children on these topics and 35.7 per cent of the parents had positive feelings about talking to their children about sexuality. However, 24.3 per cent of parents did admit that they felt uncomfortable and described different negative feelings such as stress, fear, shame, and so on.
Conclusions
The results of this pilot survey are not more than tentative. Taking these limitations into account, the following observations are most striking. Mass media is the main source of information in health issues with TV being the primary source. Most of the parents think that they are well informed about AIDS and STDs and they gain this information mainly from doctors and seminars. Many parents do not consider teachers the most appropriate people to inform their children and to undertake sexual education in schools.
Almost all parents believe that they are able to discuss sexuality with their children. This is in contrast to children who say that they seldom talk to their parents about these subjects (Greek Institute of Sexology, 1997. Agrafiotis et al, 1991.) It is also important to take into consideration that many parents have never bought a book or any other material on sexuality for their children.
Parents believe that the subjects are important for the children and that they should be informed about contraceptive methods, AIDS and sexual relations.
Parents are persuaded that sex education should be included in the school curriculum. However, they do not think that it should be taught as an independent subject but should be integrated in health education. And most felt that is should start in high school.
It is evident that mothers have the task to inform their children about sexuality and they select the issues they discuss with them. Subjects that some consider important for adolescents such as masturbation or orgasm are avoided by parents. It is well known though that ignorance and wrong information in these issues could lead to sexual problems in adult life.
Most of the parents find out from their own child if he/ she has started sexual activity. This is also reinforced by the fact that the majority of parents believe that children trust them and discuss with them their relations with the other sex.
The more informed parents are on health and sexual issues, the more progressive are their attitudes towards informing their children.
In research that was carried out among parents, teachers and adolescents in Greece in relation to sex education (Kakavoulis A., 1995) it appeared that both parents and school are not adequate in providing the proper sex education to young children. Young people feel that they do not have the satisfactory information they should have on these issues. They also believe that sex education should begin very early and not in high school. Most importantly, parents appear to be ready to accept sex education to be included in the school curriculum. This may result from the threat of AIDS and the threat it poses to young people.
Dr Elizabeth Ioannidi-Kapolou