Abstract:
All adolescents are vulnerable to get involved in risky sexual behavior but the adolescent in a children’s home is more vulnerable due to excessive pressure from the peer group, dysfunctional family involvement and the high occurrence of sexual abuse. A high number of children in children’s homes were exposed to serious trauma before being admitted to a children’s home and this influences their view of the world and the frame of reference through which problems and challenges are approached. In the children’s home sex education form part of lifeskills programmes that are presented by the social workers. Lifeskills programmes are usually presented to groups and sex education includes information on reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases. The sex education programmes presented by the children’s home and schools do not seem to change the adolescent’s attitude and behavior in terms of sexual aspects. It is necessary to take the adolescent’s needs in terms of sex education into consideration since the adolescent’s search for independence also creates a need to be able to have input in decisions that influences her life. The goal of this research project was to determine the needs of adolescent girls in a children’s home regarding sex education. To achieve this goal a thorough literature study was performed with regard to the developmental needs of adolescents and specifically the developmental needs of adolescents in a children’s home. An investigation was also done on the history of sex education in South Africa and the need for sex education today. The current programmes and sources regarding sex education in South Africa were investigated and information was obtained on the sex education of the child in the children’s home. The researcher attempted to fill the gaps in the literature regarding the needs of adolescents regarding sex education by means of an empirical study. Qualitative information collection techniques were used, namely semi-structured interviews. The empirical study took the form of one-on-one interviews with the assistance of a semi-structured interview schedule with 11 adolescent girls in a children’s home. The respondents were selected by using purposive sampling. The collective case study was utilised as the research strategy since the study focused on understanding a specific social issue (sex education) in a specific population (adolescent girls in the Abraham Kriel Maria Kloppers Children’s Home). Through this the researcher came to the conclusion that adolescent girls in a children’s home have many needs regarding sex education and these needs were identified. Recommendations were made with reference to the conclusions formed that would enable professionals to develop programmes on sex education that are based on the needs of adolescent girls in a children’s home.
