Avia Collinder, Sunday Gleaner Writer
Guidance counsellor and family therapist Marcia Clarke says children become sexually active due to economic reasons.
"Parents send their children out to get money," says Clarke, commenting on recent survey findings that adolescents ages nine to 17 are involved sexually with their peers and with older partners, for pleasure, companionship and, in some cases, money.
"I have also seen children who come to school with very little money or none at all. But, they want to spend like their peers ... so they get involved sexually," says Clarke.
Several reasons
Another guidance counsellor, who wishes to remain anonymous, suggests there are several reasons for early sexual involvement including the "environment where they are grown, the cable system and the media. A lot of these students have been viewing movies which contain adult content."
Another reason, she adds, is unsupervised parenting. "On many occasions, students are left on their own or are expected to stay by themselves until the parent comes home. About 75 per cent of students I know are affected in this way," she tells The Sunday Gleaner.
University of the West Indies-based researcher Tazhmoye Crawford found during her survey of 238 sexually active adolescents that they gave the environment as a cause of sexual involvement. This included adolescents who lived in areas where sex was openly and casually practised.
Introduced to sex at age six
"One child started having sex at age 11, and she explained that she was introduced to sex at age six by her mother who told her to watch as she would soon have to do it in order to get money," reported Crawford. Others, she said, see their siblings and guardians having sex "at an early age and all the while ... so they become sexually stimulated very early."
Crawford also found that the minors did not like the use of the word 'abstinence' during sex-education sessions. 'Postponement of sexual intercourse' was found to be more acceptable.
'A normal and natural thing'
Pansy, a 16-year-old 10th-grade student at a high school in St. Catherine, admits that she has been sexually active for over one year. And she currently does not have a boyfriend, she remains on the contraceptive pill which, she says, is just to "stop my period."
It will also prevent her from getting pregnant, her number-one fear at this time in her life.
Sex, the 16-year-old says, is a natural thing. She believes parents and health-care providers "should be supportive, instead of keeping it to themselves, and saying we should not have sex. Sex is a normal and natural thing."
Pansy never talks to her parents about the topic and admits they don't know that she is on the pill or sexually active. The teen asks one of her older friends to purchase the pill for her. She says her former boyfriend, who was 23 years old, used a condom.
Not all her friends, she says, are as careful.
Another 16-year-old, also a user of the contraceptive pill, says other girls do not use the pill because, "they are not sure about it. They are afraid of the pills. They rely more on the condom."
Hide them from parents
This student says she started having sex at age 16 with her steady boyfriend, who always uses a condom. She has no problem purchasing contraceptive pills at the pharmacy, but must hide them from her parents. "When I reach home, I hide it. I don't want my mother to know," relates the student.
She is not as confident as her colleague about the natural goodness of sex and her entitlement to its pleasures. "Yes, it's true that I am too young to have sex. I am not yet 18. Then, I will be on my own as an adult and holding myself accountable," she states.
Name changed.
- A.C.
Recommendations from Tazhmoye Crawford's study
Involve and empower parent/guardians regarding policies on adolescent use of contraceptives. Policymakers should establish a balance between the rights of the minors versus those of their parents/ guardians. The minor's rights should not always outweigh their parent's/ guardian's, bearing in mind that a minor's decision might not always be in his/her best interest. Ensure contraceptive advice/ treatment (prior to contraceptive delivery) so that physical or mental health not be put at risk. Do not encourage contraceptive use for sexual gratification. Maintain the minor's right to confidentiality, except if minor is at risk. Sanction guidance counsellors, health-care providers and care givers who breach confidentiality. Refer minor to another appropriate provider if uncomfortable in delivering contraceptive or counselling. Respect the minor at all times. The laws should also be changed to protect health-care professionals against negative implications when they act in the interest of the minor. Ban violent, degrading music from public transport.
