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Candid sex talk helps ignorant teenagers
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-03-02 11:24
Psychologists are advising the self-conscious Chinese to talk more about sex
with their children, who are reaching puberty two years earlier than their
parents' generation.
A survey carried out by a Tianjin hospital in north China has found a lack of
knowledge about sex and reproductive health among adolescents, many of whom seek
help from doctors only after the pregnancy.
Information about puberty and sex are among the most frequently asked
questions at the psychological counseling center of the Tianjin Psychiatric
Hospital, according to a survey of teenagers between 12 and 20 years old.
The survey found teenage boys were mostly attentive to sexual and
reproductive health, whereas girls were more interested in how to avoid unwanted
pregnancy.
Of the 367 teenagers who sought help on the hospital's counseling hot line
over the past two months, about 60 percent were boys who asked questions such as
how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and whether masturbation was
harmful to health.
Over 80 percent of the girls who called the hot line asked about
contraception and abortion, the survey shows.
An 18-year-old girl resorted to the doctors for advice when she realized she
was pregnant, after spending a night with a boy she met on the Internet. The
girl was from the central Hunan Province and was working in Tianjin. She did not
know the boy's name, where he lived, what he did for a living or how old he was.
"Teenagers are still immature in terms of psychological and physiological
development," said Wang Yan, a psychologist with the hospital. "But they are
often interested in the opposite sex and defiant of traditional moral
disciplines at home and school, which may lead to puppy love and even
elopement."
The fact that the teenagers' physical maturity often preceded their emotional
maturity exposed them to dangers, she added.
Most of the girls who got pregnant dared not tell the truth to their parents
or teachers. "To make matters worse, some youngsters turned to posters on
the streets, sometimes put up by illegal practitioners who had not been
authorized to provide medication," said Wang.
A separate survey carried out by the hospital on teenage mothers showed most
of the girls were totally ignorant of their own ovulatory time and emergency
contraception.
The latest census shows 20 million teenagers are reaching puberty each year,
at the average age of 12 to 13 years old.
"Sex education among Chinese middle school students is urgently needed," said
Sun Yunxiao, research fellow with the China Adolescent Development Research
Center.
A survey shows that about one-third of middle school students have never
received any sex education.
Meanwhile, most surveyed students who had engaged in sexual behavior
confessed they were not familiar with contraception.
A sample survey in Jiangsu Province, and Shanghai Municipality, one of
China's most economically-developed regions, shows that only 15 percent of
surveyed high school students had received any sex education from their teachers
or parents.
In April 2002, a textbook on sex was for the first time officially published
on the Chinese mainland.
However, after nearly two years, the textbook is still not usedbecause
schools which had previously agreed to use the book on a trial basis are still
hesitating whether it is "proper" to talk about sex to children after
all.
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