Skip to main content

Teenage conception rates go down, lets keep the good work up

Teen pregnancies at 40-year low
This is obviously great news and it is great to have the BBC publish a quote directly crediting this decline to the work of relationship and sex educators.

The article does end with a note of caution. Our rates of teenage conception are still higher then the rest of Western Europe. We still have a significant teenage pregnancy problem that needs consistant funding. Maybe i am too pesermistic but I worry that good news like this will lead to people cutting funding to the area "because we have solved that problem now". It is not solved thousands of young people are still getting pregnant when they didnt want to.

I hope this good news is seen as a validation of the value of good sex and relationship education. Lets hope those government officials involved in the on going PSHE review will hear and preserve the importance of SRE, it needs to be added as a compulsart element of education. The role of outside expert educators should not be forgotten.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A RSE reading list

Sometimes people ask me what reading I recommend around RSE, so I thought I would put together a bit of a list.  Key (free) articles and reports  Young people’s RSE UK poll  Sex Education Forum (2018) RSE outcome variations due to facilitator differences  Young et al (2018) What do young people think about their school-based sex and relationship education? A qualitative synthesis of young people's views and experiences Pound et al. (2016) Review of sexual abuse in schools and college s Ofsted (2021) National and International RSE Guidance  UNESCO international guidance on RSE  UNESCO (2018) England   Department for Education full guidance on statutory relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education  Department for Education (2019) Wales Curriculum for Wales guidance and code for Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE)  (Consultation stage) Welsh Government (2021)  Scotland  Guidance for teachers on the conduct of teaching relationships, sex

US study shows 1 in 10 young people have sent a sext This US study reports that 1 in 10 young people have sent a sext…

US study shows 1 in 10 young people have sent a sext This US study reports that 1 in 10 young people have sent a sext A similar figure to my own study reporting on risky sexual behaviour http://www.esteemresourcenetwork.org/risk-taking-behaviour-sexting . However this study takes a much larger sample and this report goes on to highlight a link between sexting and mental health issues such as depression. The report states that " it shows an association but not a causal relationship" this means that they cannot prove sexting is a cause of mental health issues. The two things may be associated because they have the same or similar causes. For example reckless risk taking (such as sexting) might be linked to issues with self esteem which could also have mental health consequences. Personally I believe that sexting is not a passive consequence but instead I think it is a consequence that feeds back into a young persons complex personal situation often having a negative impact.