Condom use is promoted as an effective method for prevention and contraception for people who practice or are at risk of practicing high-risk sexual behaviors. According to the UNAIDS (2009) report, condoms are the only resource available to prevent the sexual spread of the HI-Virus; and with regard to family planning, the same report proposes that condoms expand the choices, have no medical side effects, and thus provide dual protection against pregnancy and disease. However, in Africa as elsewhere in the world, condom use has been fiercely debated. The debates on the accessibility, availability and distribution of condoms in schools are not new nor are they uncontested. In Namibia, the HIV and AIDS policy in education does not explain how, when and by whom condoms should be made available to learners. This leaves it to schools to decide on how (and whether) to make condoms available to learners. As a result, individual school‘s choices not only vary, but are mediated by different factors that are not always in the best interest of learners who, as the foregoing discussion suggests, continue to participate in behaviour that, amongst other things, puts them at risk of HIV infection and falling pregnant. Relying on Foucault‘s theory of discourses, this study investigated the dominant discourses that shape learner, teacher, parent religious and traditional leader and traditional healer perspectives, responses, and experiences with regard to the accessibility, availability, and distribution of condoms in school. The study was conducted in nine schools in Kavango Region in Namibia using a mixed methods approach. The study used triangulation in the data collection process through the use of questionnaires where 792 learners participated in this component, and focus group discussions and individual interviews targeting four groups namely, learners, teachers, parents and religious leaders, traditional leaders and traditional healers. The quantitative data were analyzed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS), and findings from the focus group discussions and individual interviews were analyzed identifying themes and patterns and then organizing them into coherent categories with sub-categories. The study revealed that the majority of adult participants opposed the idea of making condoms available in schools; advocating abstinence instead. This was despite evidence on the prevalence of sexual activity amongst youth in the community. Reasons had to do with various competing and hierarchized discourses operating to shape participant beliefs, perspectives, and responses in a highly regulated and surveilled social and cultural context. Put differently, the dominant discourses invoked a particular sexual subject; authorized and legitimated who invoked such a subject; who was and was not allowed to speak on sexual matters; as well as how sexual matters were brought into the public space of schools. Such authorization and legitimation regulated the discursive space in which discussions on sexual health, safe sex, and resources such as condoms were permitted; with negative consequences for the sexual well-being of youth in Kavango Region. The study also highlighted the tension between freedom, choice, and rights, showing how complex in fact is decision to make condoms available in school. On the one hand, teenagers positioned themselves as capable subjects who had the right to exercise choice over their sexual lives. Requesting parent consent was thus viewed as a violation of this right to choose. Such a position displayed authority and agency by learners that was pitted against views amongst adults in this study that positioned youth as having no agency. In their view, youth (a) were still children and thus innocent and pure, (b) ought to abstain, and (c) were difficult to control given the modern context. Adults believed that early sexual involvement by learners did not result from lack of vigilance and control on their part, but rather from exposure to modern social mores. The study concluded that (a) schools remain difficult spaces not only for mediating discussions of sex and sexuality, but also for providing resources to mitigate sexual risk amongst leaners, (b) in highly regulated societies, dominant religious discourses are produced and reproduced in and through existing institutions such as family, church, and schools; highlighting how these serve to normalize beliefs and perspectives, (c) the dominant discourses shaping communities in which schools find themselves remain inconsistent with school discourses that are shaped by modernist conceptions of childhood and youth, and (b) adult choices to sanction and obstruct schools from making condoms available (and in the case of teachers, not accessible and distributable) put the very children at risk that they propose to be protecting.

Teenage pregnancy is one of the social and health problems in many communities of South Africa and is escalating (Richter, 2005). Teenage pregnancy is also a global health problem as it affects the whole world and has been a concern to health workers like medical doctors, nurses, community developers, educators and parents (Maholo, 2009). In addition, the risk of dropping out of school due to pregnancy is considerable to teenagers as it results in a lack of qualifications and future unemployment.The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions and experience of teenage fathers who are both learners and fathers and their views on the effects of teenage pregnancy. Furthermore, this investigation was undertaken to investigate the implications of teenage fathers‘ experiences on sex education. This study followed qualitative research approach as it is based on male teenage pregnancy which is a real consequence of teenagers engaging in sexual activities (Silverman, 2006). In this study the data collected through in depth interviews and personal journals were analyzed.This study revealed that all the teenage fathers interviewed were not happy that they were teenage fathers instead they were disappointed, shocked, and regretful and did not believe that they could become fathers at their respective ages. They also regretted themselves for becoming teenage fathers as it delays them in their studies. They have been taught about sex education at school in a learning area called life orientation so they do not blame school but themselves for their actions.

Historically, people with developmental disabilities were denied the right to live in and integrate with the society of individuals without disabilities. Landmark legislation and a societal shift over the past two decades, however, have made it possible for people with developmental disabilities to live and work in the communities in which they live.

MCur / Department of Advanced Nursing Science / Background: Adolescent sexual health is fundamental to the physical and emotional health, and well-being of individuals, couples, and families, as well as the social and economic development of communities and countries. The purpose and the aim of this study was to explore and describe the community’s perceptions of adolescent sexual health in Mutale Municipality, Vhembe District of Limpopo Province. Methodology: The research design of this study was qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual in nature. The population comprised of every adult community member or resident of Tshiungani Village. Both genders were included in the sample. Parents and guardians of adolescents made up the sample. Data were collected by means of in-depth face-to-face interviews. Data were analysed qualitatively using Teschs’ qualitative analysis. Findings: The study involved six themes, six categories and nineteen sub-themes. The community expressed concerns related to degradation of cultural norms and values, change in family structure, effects of media, politics, religion and poverty as affecting adolescent sexual health. Conclusion: The study explored and described the perceptions of community members regarding adolescent sexual health although the findings could not be generalized as it represents only part of the population. Recommendations: The study recommended intense sexual health education and promotion at early primary phase, career guidance to enhance and promote selfesteem, parental and community involvement in assisting and engaging adolescents with life skills within communities.

Existing research suggests that men and women develop differing sexual scripts that influence their behavior, interactions and emotions regarding sex. The objective of this project is to examine the experiences of men and women with formal sex education programs, especially in regards to information about: anatomy and biology, sexual responsibility and risk taking, sexual desire, virginity and abstinence, as well as to explore sources of sex education outside of school. Several studies suggest masculine sexual scripts dictate that men generally construct a more body-focused approach to sex, with an emphasis on competition, aggression and achievement. Conversely, emphasized feminine sexual scripts call for a more emotion-focused approach to sex that stresses self-control, resistance and sexual 'gatekeeping'. One of the explanations for this is adolescents' experience with formal sex education in school. Gendered messages in sex education that reproduce dominant sexual scripts have the potential to reinforce sexual double standards that affirm male desire and regulate female desire. Previous studies have determined school to be a place where individuals develop scripts that guide them through many aspects of social life. While one recent study has pointed to the existence of gendered messages in sex education films, there is little research on how men's and women's experiences with formal sex education influence their interaction with different sexual scripts. Additionally, this research recognizes that interaction with sexual scripts occurs in a multitude of settings over the life course, and although formal sex education is the focus of this analysis because of the explicit messages communicated to adolescents during a very formative stage, other more informal sources of sexual information (i.e. family, peers, and the internet) are explored in comparison with school-based sex education. The findings of this study indicate a gendered patter in access to sexual scripts, drawing from participants' accounts of their sex education experiences in school, as well as important differences in the messages, or scripts communicated to them about sex from friends, family and online. Most notably, men and women generally recount interaction with scripts that reinforce traditional masculine and feminine sexuality in formal, school-based sex education programs. However, sexual learning from more informal sources, like from families and the internet, indicate possible shifts in traditional gendered sexuality, especially for women.

Two competing forms of sex education and the groups supporting them came to head in the 1970s and 1980s. Traditional sex education retained an emphasis on maintaining Christian-based morality through marriage and parenthood preparation that sex education originally held since the beginning of the twentieth century. Liberal sex education developed to openly discuss issues that reflected recent legal and social changes. This form reviewed controversial subjects including abortion, contraception and homosexuality. Though liberal sex education found support from national family planning organizations and Labour politicians, traditional sex education found a more vocal and powerful ally in the New Right. This thesis explores the political emergence of the New Right in Great Britain during the 1970s and 1980s and how the group utilized sex education. The New Right, composed of moral pressure groups and Conservative politicians, focused on the supposed absence of traditional morality from the emergent liberal sex education. Labour (and liberal organizations) held little power in the 1980s due to internal party struggles and an insignificant parliamentary presence. This allowed the New Right to successfully pass multiple national reforms. The New Right latched onto liberal sex education as demonstrative of the moral decline of Britain and utilized its emergence of a prime example of the need to reform education and local government.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Social support has been shown to positively impact various aspects of health across the lifespan, including sexual health and well-being. While past research on sexual well-being has tended to focus on the earlier stages of the life course, notably adolescence and young adulthood, this is a largely ignored area of research past the reproductive stage of life. Current research finds that while social support, from partners, family, and friends alike, has generally positive influences on health in mid to late adulthood, these outcomes are varied in regards to sexual well-being. This thesis aims to (1) assess the role of friend support in the sexual well-being of older adults and (2) to explore if physical and mental health are significant mediators of this relationship, using data from Wave II of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP). This study found that sixty two percent of older adults are not having sex as much as they would like and 61% feel that their sex life is lacking in quality. Increased feelings of openness with friends was associated with satisfaction with sexual frequency (p=.055). However, a significant association could not be established between satisfaction with quality of sex life and friend support. In addition, physical and mental health status were not found to be significant mediators.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Little existing research has examined women’s solo masturbation and vibrator usage in a way that highlights the importance of both sexual agency and the sexual/romantic relationship context. This research evaluates if and how social factors, partnership status and the relationship context, and sexual self-concept impact a woman’s behaviors and attitudes toward masturbation and vibrator use. Using cross-sectional survey data from adult women (N=112), descriptive and bivariate analyses were used to explore a variety of factors. Single and partnered women did not differ significantly on a majority of measures, suggesting that partnership status may play an insignificant role in predicting women’s solo sex attitudes and behaviors. Regarding the relationship context, partner communication and positivity toward masturbation and vibrator use significantly varied together. Finally, greater sexual openness and sexual entitlement were associated with higher masturbation frequency. Results from this study suggest that masturbation and vibrator use are common among adult women, and women are capable of sexual agency in relation to masturbation and vibrator use, whether they are in established partnerships or not.

This qualitative study was done in Livingstone, Zambia, and used focus group discussions to investigate the reasons that youths aged 15 to 24 years see as justifying, or compelling, their non-use of recommended methods for prevention of sexual transmission of HIV. It focused on four methods, namely abstinence, condom use, voluntary counseling and testing, and mutual faithfulness. The study found that non-adherence to HIV preventative methods is linked to variables in the process of adolescent growth and development, to contextual variables in society, to characteristics of products and services associated with these HIV preventative methods, and to disease characteristics of HIV itself. A key conclusion of this study is that to improve the effectiveness of HIV prevention programs among the youths it is essential that factors that hinder adherence to preventative methods are recognized and addressed. / Social Work / M.A.(Social Work)

This study evaluates a sex education programme administered in an Indian high school. To this end, a literature search, empirical study and qualitative data were used to measure the effectiveness of the Education for Living programme. Adolescents are blamed for having pennissive attitudes, or for indulging in amoral sexual behaviour without considering the consequences. The fact is, sexual development of young people is affected in a fundamental sense by what is taking place around them. Many of the taboos, which operated in society years ago, have disappeared. This study looks into the history of the South African Indian community. In particular, this study focuses on the community's values, attitudes and traditional practices toward sexuality, sex and marriage. It further highlights how the processes of westemisation and modernisation have eroded many of these aspects of traditional Indian culture. The study concludes by examining the emergence of new-found patterns of behaviour and attitudes. It is not the intention of this study to provide any conclusive documentation on the subject of the Indian adolescent. However the major findings of this study have been fommlated as recommendations and implications for further research. Since sexuality is an ever-changing, life-long experience, there is a need for continuous acquisition of accurate sexual knowledge. Carefully designed programmes may serve to allay fears, dispel myths, diminish confusion, enhance communication within families and promote health and wellbeing across generations. / Social Work / M.A. (SS) (Mental Health)