New HHD Curriculum Helps Adults Talk to Teens About Sex

Talking to adolescents about sexuality prepares them for healthy relationships, protects them from unintended pregnancies—and, in a time when sex can transmit the deadly AIDS virus or other dangerous STDs—can help save their lives. Adults and adolescents often find it hard to talk about these issues, however. A Harris poll found 98 percent of parents needed help providing sex education to their children, and a survey of 1,000 teenagers found that 31 percent had never talked to their parents about sex because they were too nervous to raise the subject. A new curriculum from EDC’s Health and Human Development Programs seeks to bridge the communication gap by fostering meaningful discussions about sexuality between teens and their parents or caretakers.

Communicating with Caring: A Program for Early Adolescents and Caregivers of Adolescents, is the newest program in the Teenage Health Teaching Modules school health series. The curriculum provides 20 engaging activities, starting with separate activities for adults and adolescents, followed by joint activities where they can practice what they have learned. Because young people now initiate sexual activity at an earlier age, the program targets youth ages 12 to 15 (or earlier) and the adults who care for them.

The caregiver module begins with “What It Was Like Growing Up”, an exercise to help participants reflect on their own adolescence and the messages they received about sexuality. The curriculum moves into a discussion of modern realities, with an exercise on myths and facts about adolescent sexuality. Activities then focus on enhancing adults’ communication skills and helping them feel better equipped to talk about sexuality and broach the issues in an open, respectful, and non-threatening manner.

The adolescent module helps teens understand that sexuality is a natural and healthy part of life and explores the challenges or barriers youth feel about communicating with adults about sex. With role plays and opportunities for reflection, it helps teens identify questions they might have for caregivers. It also seeks to help adolescents appreciate the important role parents and caregivers play in supporting their development and encouraging healthy sexuality.

The curriculum is rooted in EDC’s work in sex education and school health. It evolved from Seminars for Parents on Adolescent Sexuality, a workshop manual produced by EDC in 1978 with funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the March of Dimes. Seminars for Parents was tremendously successful, reaching over 300,000 families, primarily through the Parent Teachers Association. Communicating with Caring expands on the original concept of Seminars for Parents by including younger teens and a wider range of potential guardians or caregivers.

Communicating with Caring recognizes the changing shape of the American household and the role of extended families and communities in raising youth. While the most likely participants are parents, guardians, and the young adolescents who live with them, the program is adaptable for a broader audience. Adults who are not raising adolescents in their own home (such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends of parents, or mentors) can use the program to help them guide young people with whom they are close. The program also takes into account the special needs of those teens who do not have an adult caregiver with whom they can discuss sexuality but who may have contact with a caring adult with whom they can share their concerns.

For more information on Communicating with Caring or the THTM series, contact Erica Macheca at emacheca@edc.org