Promotion of sexual health for adolescents and phase

Sexuality, like all social behavior, is somehow influenced by the social and cultural elements of the environment. Although there is an undeniable biological basis, sexuality cannot be reduced to this component, since the way and time in which these biological characteristics are expressed will be configured by external forces that mold the behavior of the human being. In the Cuenca society, adolescents are confused in front of two forces, somehow antagonistic, which shape the experience of their sexuality: on the one hand the family, religious and educational factors that contribute to disseminating sexual practices, based on certain norms of behavior and attitudes and, on the other Eroticism, which many times put the teenager in contact with other cultures and other experiences without an adequate orientation or analysis. It is precisely the lack of a correct orientation and sexual education that prevents adolescent from living a healthy and healthy sexuality, based on self -realization, responsibility, freedom and respect for itself and on the other. Among the main problems facing adolescents within their sexual development, it has been considered that violence in general and sexual violence within the couple deserve specific attention, so the study of this component constitutes an important element for the project. The entities responsible for regulating educational processes have focused their efforts on the development of a curriculum for sexual education, however the results of different studies show that educational institutions, for different reasons, have not achieved the objective of providing a timely and relevant sexual education, limiting themselves to the transmission of knowledge, but neglecting the affective and social areas of the sexual development of the adolescent. It is also worrying the lack of human resources trained and prepared to work this theme with adolescents. On the other hand, the lack of research and scientific knowledge about our context implies that sex education programs are built without an objective reference, which allows to respond to the needs and requirements of our social and cultural context, becoming rather mere reproductions or adaptations of programs designed for other contexts and realities. The lack of coherence between sexual education programs and the context in which adolescents develop to the failure of these programs, with important social and economic implications, seeing adolescents facing situations that range from precarious socialization processes to the existence of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. In accordance with the analysis of the context described, the project "Promotion of Sexual Health for Adolescents" aims to develop and improve sexual education for adolescents in the city of Cuenca, for which it is necessary to start from a knowledge and understanding of the different social and cultural elements that shape the experience of sexuality. In order to achieve the objectives set, the project is designed in two phases: a research phase and a proposition phase. In the investigation phase, through a mixed approach: quanticalitative, it is intended to achieve a better understanding about the experience of adolescents' sexuality, including a study that allows an approach to risk factors and factors for the protection of sexual violence. Similarly, more knowledge is sought on the processes of training and sexual education in the formal and informal areas that adolescents receive.

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