During the conference between the administration and Myrna’s parents, her mother revealed that she, too, had to quit college when she got into the same situation. The “shame” she and her own parents felt over the “accident” kept the matter “secret” until the cycle began anew with Myrna’s “fate.” This was the regret Myrna’s mother expressed to the teachers.
Ironically, while media trumpets Westernized liberal attitudes on sexuality, an open discussion of sexuality and its effects on adolescent health and choices has conspicuously lagged or been non-existent in what could have been more responsible and balanced sources: parents, teachers and communities.
Conspicuous consumers
Leaving sex education to the moralistic discretion or silence of parents and guardians shuts out many adolescents, as well as makes them vulnerable to the controversial, often conflicting perspectives of teenage peers and mass media.
According to the 2002 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study (YAFS 3) conducted by the University of the Philippines Population Institute, Central Visayas youths are conspicuous media consumers, frequently visiting these channels, arranged in declining importance: television, radio, newspaper, movies, pornographic movies and videos, sexually explicit print materials, and the Internet.
In Central Visayas, the mean age to be exposed to pornography is 16 years.
Risk behaviors
Balance is disrupted when these media-disseminated messages fail to show the adverse repercussions of teenage risk behaviors.
As a former guidance counselor in an exclusive school observed to Sun.Star Cebu, many girls end with unplanned pregnancies from poor self-control when drinking with boyfriends, first-date acquaintances or even strangers met at bars and weekend “gimmicks.”
She also observed many young girls still believe submitting to the whims of their boyfriends is an effective means of “holding on,” stabilizing rocky relationships, and defeating rivals.
According to the YAFS 3, 80.8 percent of Central Visayas male youths drink alcoholic beverages, compared to 61.4 percent of the females.
There are more males (27.3 percent) engaging in premarital intercourse than females in Central Visayas (18.3 percent).
Taboo thinking
The lack of information is a serious “operational obstacle” to informed decision-making among unmarried young people in the country.
According to a paper on “Adolescent and Youth Reproductive Health in the Asia and the Near East Region” commissioned by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), information of a sexual nature is often general and impersonal because many parents and other adults fear that raising the matter of sex will feed wrong ideas and encourage experimentation and promiscuity.
Aside from the youths’ need for specific information on health and reproduction, guidance and support must be extended to youths marginalized by poverty, broken or dysfunctional families, sexual abuse and alienating communities.
Providing opportunities for education has been established as an effective way of raising life aspirations of youths, especially in encouraging girls to finish college and make a career before settling down and having children. The well-being of children is closely tied to the welfare of their mothers, studies have shown.
The USAID paper also stressed the role of teachers, social workers and community leaders to link with nongovernment organizations and government agencies in involving the youths in programs addressing their authentic needs.
Promoting openness and sensitivity within families though should be a crucial first step in bringing about the long-term well-being of youths and future generations.
