Recommendations for sexuality education for early adolescents

Objective: To determine community support and identify appropriate learning methodologies, parameters of delivery, and intervention content. Design: Qualitative descriptive study in which participants were interviewed in a semistructured format. Data were analyzed thematically. Setting: An urban pediatric primary care clinic from which youths and parents were recruited. Participants: Ten youths, 10 parents, and 10 community members. Community members included professional and laypersons who had experience in working with early adolescents or in working with children of any age on sexuality issues. Overall, most participants were female (67%) and African American (67%). Results: Descriptions of early adolescents' knowledge of sexuality, participants' support for sexuality education for early adolescents, recommendations for education content, and preferred methods for education delivery. Conclusion: The participants supported comprehensive sexuality education for early adolescents. They believed that it would help youths to be abstinent, would provide some protection from sexual abuse, and would prepare them to practice safer sex in the future.