Interventions to Promote a Healthy Sexuality among School Adolescents: A Scoping Review

Schools are particularly suitable contexts for the implementation of interventions focused on adolescent sexual behavior. Sexual education and promotion have a multidisciplinary nature. Nurses’ role and the spectrum of the carried-out interventions is not clear. We aimed to identify interventions that promote a healthy sexuality among school adolescents. Our review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews and was registered in the Open Science Framework. Published articles on sexuality in adolescents in school contexts were considered. The research limitations included primary studies; access in full text in English, Spanish, or Portuguese; and no data publication limitation. Research was carried out on the EBSCOhost, PubMed, SciELO, and Web of Science platforms; gray literature and the bibliographies of selected articles were also searched. A total of 56 studies were included in the sample. The studies used a broad range of research methods, and 10 types of interventions were identified. Multi-interventional programs and socio-emotional interventions showed a greater impact on long-term behavioral changes, and continuity seemed to be a key factor. Long-term studies are needed to reach a consensus on the effectiveness of interventions. Nurses’ particular role on the multidisciplinary teams was found to be a gap in the research, and must be further explored.

“Be proactive not reactive”: Understanding gaps in student sexual consent education

A growing number of universities are providing sexual violence prevention programs to students in recognizing the need for this programming. While universities favour programs on singular topics aimed at preventing sexual violence, scholars have argued that comprehensive sexual health education should begin prior to entering university to better ensure safer campus communities. Further, students have expressed unmet needs regarding the sexual health education they received prior to attending university. Therefore, the current study sought to explore gaps in sexual health education as identified by university students. Participants ( N = 444) were asked to describe the consent definition they were taught in high school and from their parents, and how the sexual health education they received could have been improved. An inductive thematic analysis was used to identify six themes from the data: back to consent education basics, you have the power to set boundaries, staying safe in sexual situations, take a sex-positive approach with sex education, wholistic education on consent-based relations, and practical recommendations for providing sex education. Findings highlight that participants desired a more wholistic approach to their sexual health education that included practical components on healthy sexuality. Notably, participants relayed how proper sexual health education may have prevented experiences of sexual violence they had. Thus, it is essential to continue exploring how best to provide comprehensive sexual health education to adolescents.

Indirect Sexuality Education to Adolescent Girls Through Empowering Their Mothers

Background: Sexuality education is one of the most important educational needs for adolescents. Parents play a significant role in shaping healthy sexuality in adolescents. There is little evidence in Iran about sexuality education for empowering adolescences. Objectives: This study aimed at developing, implementing, and evaluating a training program for mothers to educate sexuality matters to their adolescent girls in Mahshahr, Iran. Patients and Methods: This field trial was conducted among 140 mothers with 12- to 18-year-old adolescent girls in Mahshahr during the second half of 2014. The multi-stratified sampling method was performed for determining the study participants. Data was collected by using “Parent-Child Relationship: Mother” and “Knowledge and Attitude About Sexuality Education to Adolescents” questionnaires. Based on the baseline results, an educational intervention for mothers was designed and implemented. Data were collected, analyzed, and compared before and three months after the intervention implementation. Means and standard deviations were calculated, and statistical analysis was performed using a paired t-test. A confidence interval of 95% with significance at P < 0.05 was used. Results: Compared with the pre-intervention phase, mothers’ awareness of sexual issues significantly increased from 30.00 to 36.50 (P < 0.001). While the mean score of attitudes towards sexuality education significantly increased from 46.65 to 48.57 (P < 0.001), no significant difference was observed between mothers’ communication skills before and after the educational intervention (P = 0.98). Conclusions: The designed educational program was an effective tool to improve the knowledge and attitudes toward sexuality matters in mothers. Thus, continuous and regular programs are required to improve communication skills in mothers.

Multicultural Sexuality: Immigrant Seniors’ Attitudes Towards Sexuality Post Settlement

This comprehensive literature review serves as an exploratory overview of previous research conducted on senior sexuality and the effect on immigrant seniors’ sexuality of settlement in Canada. Content analysis was used to systematically uncover similarities and differences among the various sources. The findings show that sexuality and aging are important emerging issues, that healthcare professionals and other care providers need to become more informed about this area and to take a more active role to converse with senior clients about healthy sexuality. Additionally, some cultures and religions, regardless of time of settlement, may be more conservative than Canadian born seniors, with the cautionary note that these cultural differences are not representative of members of immigrant senior populations generally.

Multicultural Sexuality: Immigrant Seniors’ Attitudes Towards Sexuality Post Settlement

This comprehensive literature review serves as an exploratory overview of previous research conducted on senior sexuality and the effect on immigrant seniors’ sexuality of settlement in Canada. Content analysis was used to systematically uncover similarities and differences among the various sources. The findings show that sexuality and aging are important emerging issues, that healthcare professionals and other care providers need to become more informed about this area and to take a more active role to converse with senior clients about healthy sexuality. Additionally, some cultures and religions, regardless of time of settlement, may be more conservative than Canadian born seniors, with the cautionary note that these cultural differences are not representative of members of immigrant senior populations generally.

Prader–Willi Syndrome with Angelman Syndrome in the Offspring

We report the second case, to the best of our knowledge, of a mother with Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) who gave birth to a daughter with Angelman syndrome (AS). The menarche occurred when she was 16, and the following menstrual cycles were irregular, but she never took sexual hormone replacement therapy. At the age of 26, our patient with PWS became pregnant. The diagnosis was confirmed by molecular genetic testing that revealed a ~5.7 Mb deletion in the 15q11.1–15q13 region on the paternal allele in the mother with PWS and the maternal one in the daughter with AS, respectively. Both the mother with PWS and the daughter with AS showed peculiar clinical and genetic features of the two syndromes. Our case report reaffirms the possible fertility in PWS; therefore, it is very important to develop appropriate socio-sexual education programs and fertility assessments in order to guarantee the expression of a healthy sexuality.

Stories of Indigenous sexual health: Promoting community wellness through sexual health education

Indigenous communities and peoples have experienced erosion of their sexual wellness since contact with European peoples. Effective sexual health education is a human right shown to be an important part of overall health and wellness. Little research has been done on how to develop and implement sexual health education for Indigenous populations. This study utilizes an environmental scan to gain a comprehensive understanding of programming available for Indigenous peoples in BC, coupled with conversational style interviews with community storytellers to highlight effective practices. The findings of this research demonstrated that programs focused on promoting healthy sexuality generally or preventing HIV/AIDS and STBBI transmission while promoting safety and access to culture, utilized peer led approaches, and focused primarily on delivering services to youth. Storytellers demonstrated a strong passion for building relationships with participants and communities through engaging, accessible, and relevant sexual health education.