Sexual Literacy of Adolescent in Thai Society

Abstract

This research aimed to find meaning of sexual literacy, to describe the characteristics person on sexual literacy and proposed the guidelines to develop the enhancement of sexual literacy. This research was used qualitative research method. The researcher collected data by the documents study, structured interview for in-depth interview. Key informants were divided into two group: 1) people with knowledge specialization and the operation involved adolescents 2) adolescents. The data were analyzed by content analysis and analytic induction.
The results showed that sexual literacy means perceiving and understanding yourself and others about physical, mental and emotional changes naturally, accepting sexual diversity and sexual relationships, proper learning about sex, selecting appropriate sexual media and information from various sources with judgment, promoting sexual healthcare behavior, preventing from risks of unsafe sex, having self-esteem, making a decision consciously, preparing to take responsibilities for any consequences from their sexual behaviors, including abilities for solving problems and adapting with possible situations. For characteristics of the sexual literacy persons, there are totally four aspects as followed: knowledge, understanding and cognitive, knowledge implementation, adversity and resilience. The proposed guidelines for enhancing sexual literacy will emphasize on adolescent learning participation in two activities, which are thinking processes development activity and creating relationship and interaction skill activity.