THE IMPORTANCE OF SEXUAL EDUCATION FOR ADOLESCENTS IN ISRAEL
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
Image result for sex education adolescents

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
¡Developing a healthy sexuality is a key developmental milestone for all children and adolescents
(Swartzendruber & Zenilman, 2010).
¡Healthy sexuality (Martino et al, 2008)
¡preserve significant interpersonal relationships
¡Value one’s body and personal health
¡Express affection, love, and intimacy in ways consistent with one’s own values, sexual
preferences, and abilities
¡Awareness of identity, orientation, roles, and personality; thoughts and feelings
¡Unhealthy sexuality (Jackson et al, 2012; Grello, Welsh & Harper, 2006; Ream, 2005)
¡Can cause a variety of physiological issues.
¡Social and psychological issues.

BUT WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO ADOLESCENTS?
¡Adolescence is characterized by (Ross, Godeau & Dias, 2004).
¡physiological changes
¡sexual development
¡psychological and social changes
¡sexual curiosity
¡
¡Adolescents are in risk for these sexual implications because they are experimenting in a variety
of sexual activities without having the maturity, knowledge, skills and experience to deal with
them in a healthy way (Pedlow & Carey, 2004).
¡
¡

SEXUAL MILESTONES AND FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH COITUS INITIATION AMONG ISRAELI HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
¡Norms towards sexual behaviour in adolescence today have become more permissive than other
generations.
¡Today, more adolescents start to experiment in sexual activities at a much younger age and in a
larger variety of activities.
¡The double standards that indicate that boys have more sexual interactions than girls have
narrowed down into nonexistence.
¡
¡
¡
¡
Ronny A. Shtarkshall, Sara Carmel, Dena Jaffe-Hirschfield,  Anna Woloski-Wruble, 2009.

BUT NOT ONLY!
¡Data from the Israeli Ministry of Health indicate that since the end of the 1990s there has been a
real increase in morbidity rates of sexually transmitted diseases and most of the patients are in
the 15-24 age group.
¡
¡According to the World Health Organization 67% of the 333 new sexual transmitted diseases patients
every year are adolescents and emerging adults under the age of 25 (Sinai-Glazer & Glazer-Hudik,
2011).
¡
¡Data from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics on unplanned pregnancies in Israel indicate
that in 2012, 2,166 applications were submitted to committees for termination of pregnancy of
14-19-year-old girls, which is 37% of all miscarriages this year (Michael, 2016).
These factors reflect the broader problem of youth’s lack of access to the psychological, social,
and material resources that support well informed, empowered choices about reproductive and sexual
health (Bay-Cheng, 2012).

A SOLUTION?
¡Sexual education interventions have been found to be an effective way that may prevent or reduce
the risk of adolescent pregnancy, HIV and STIs for children and adolescents in the United States
(Chin et al, 2012).
¡

THE PROBLEM IN ISRAEL
¡According to the Israeli Knesset (parliament) Research and Information Centre, in the post-primary
education in Israel there is no compulsory sex education program.
¡
¡Sexual education in schools is given as an accidental response to a specific event, that it refers
to the sexuality of the youth as threatening, and it does not enable meaningful discussion of the
issues that concern youth (Weisblai, 2010).
I would like to argue that a better sexual education programs are needed in the Israeli education
system.

HOW?
¡Sexual education that is situated in the school environment is a well-suited program because
¡ schools can reach a large number of adolescents
¡ It’s a setting that is already equipped to facilitate educational lessons (Gallant &
Maticka-Tyndale, 2004).
¡
¡I will argue the necessity to focus on 4 aspects:
¡(1) Debut of the sexual education
¡(2) The span of the programs
¡(3) The content
¡(4) The educators
¡

DEBUT AND SPAN OF SEXUAL EDUCATION
¡Sexuality develops and changes over time with different physiological and psychological stages
that bring the person to become a sexual being (Tolman & McClelland, 2011).
¡Sexual education should start early, before adolescents start to experiment, so when they will
start being sexually active they will do it in a safe way (Michael, 2016).
¡Over a third of Israeli adolescents start their sexual intercourse before the age of 15, and some
adolescents even start before the age of 13 (Habron & Habron, 2017)
¡Sexual education should begins at a young age and deals with issues relevant to children.
¡there is a need for sexual education in a long-term program from preschool to the end of high
school, which meets each year for needs that change according to age, gender and sector (Habron &
Habron, 2017).

CONTENT AND EDUCATORS
¡Sexual education that is updated and is taking into account the beliefs and practices of the
adolescents in question, will be the most affective (Moore & Rosenthal, 2007).
¡Critics of abstinence-only education claim that it violates human rights by withholding
potentially life-saving information from people about other means to protect themselves (Ott &
Santelli, 2007).
¡
¡It is important to have skilled teachers who are comfortable with the material and can provide a
classroom climate of safety and trust.
¡It is needed to have a professional development of teachers to increase their knowledge,
competence and comfort with the subject (Moore & Rosenthal, 2007).
¡

Thank you!