rationale

CHAPTER 1

RATIONALE


Introduction

They are humans currently undergoing the transitional phase between childhood and adulthood. They are meeting different instances and experiences which are slowly teaching them a few lessons in life. They are slowly learning about the importance of the people around them. They are starting to build new relationships which they are slowly learning to appreciate and treasure. They get lost along the way. They make mistakes. They are fun. They are stubborn. They are full of life. They are misunderstood. They are teenagers.
Base on Youth Ed (1999), there are almost one billion teenagers in the world. With such a huge number, it is therefore an undeniable fact that people tend to make so many issues about them. One of the most common talked-about problem involving teenagers is pre-marital sex. On Armstrong and Sarfino’s book (1986), it stated that there is an increasing number of teenagers who engage in sexual acts. Teenagers in the Philippines are not excused. On philippinestoday.net, an article entitled “Teenage Pregnancy” stated that almost 25% of the teenagers are already mothers. The most possible reason why many adolescents end up having babies at such a young age is that they lack knowledge about sex. With such poor knowledge on such a great step in life, teenagers end up facing consequences that they never expected. Many solutions are presented to solve this issue, and one of these is that “sex education” be taught in school. Gutierrez (2010) mentioned on his article that “sex education” promotes safe sex and prevent unwanted pregnancies. At speroforum.com, it is said that, “sex education” can lessen the curiosity of the teenagers in doing the act. By informing the teenagers about sex, they will no longer find the meaning by themselves. But debates are still going on, debates on whether to pursue “sex education” in high schools or not.
Regarding to people’s knowledge about sex, it is a common perception among majority of humans that males know more about it than females. This is a very evident case of a minor discrimination. Most people these days only think about how women are treated unequally, how they are abused and the like, but do we ever consider the men’s side? When we think of men and relationships, we always associate them with sexual side. Can this be possibly true for all of them? Are all of them highly knowledgeable about the topic? Can gender really affect a person’s knowledge about sex?

Coleman (1961) and Urquiaga (1997) believe so. They think that gender really affects how much a person knows about sex. Coleman thinks that males know more, while Urquiaga believes the opposite, girls are more knowledgeable. Coleman stated that because men are accepted in society as people who think more often about sex, they know more about it. Urquiaga, on the other hand, believes that females know more because they are more exposed to magazines, which he thinks, give off sexual information. Can people’s reactions toward sex affect how much they know about it? Maybe it can. This distinction between the two gender’s reactions can possibly contribute to how much they know about it. Lahey (2007), in his book Psychology: An Introduction, enumerated a few differences between mature males and females when it comes to having sex. He said that men, in general, compared to women, want more sex than females do. He also found differences in the preferences of males and females in finding their mating partners. With this knowledge, Lahey declares that males and females view sex in very different perspectives.


So what can possibly contribute to the difference in the knowledge between the two genders? Their source of knowledge can be an answer to that. The accuracy a certain source gives a teenager can definitely affect how much the teen knows about sex. Whether it be magazines, television, internet, friends or family, sex can be taken from anywhere. In modern times, knowledge about sex is easier to grasp because it has become such an interesting topic among people, which is the basic reason why these fresh, young minds have to be careful in where they will pick up their facts about the issue. As to which source is the most reliable of all, that is another question.

Capuno (2008), in an article he constructed stated that a lot of teenagers have very false knowledge about sex. He further said that teenagers get most of their information from friends or the internet. He concluded that these sources are not that reliable. Is it possible then that systems handled by adults such as the home, school and church are the best teachers of sex? This is question we hope will be answered as we go along our study.

The purpose of a teenager for acquiring knowledge about sex is also considered to play an important role in his or her amount of knowledge about it. We believe that if the reason for learning about sex is self-interest, there will be a higher possibility of having high knowledge on the subject. If the adolescent was just forced because he needed to know about it, then he might have low knowledge on the topic. We believe that the interest of a teenager plays a vital role to how much he or she would study about sex.


Statement of the Problem


This study is conducted to determine the degree of knowledge certain teenage males and females have about sex. It will be conducted under the following
objectives:

1. To know who between the genders has more knowledge about sex, teenage males
or teenage females

2. To show if gender can affect a teenager’s degree of knowledge about sex

3. To determine the source of knowledge the teenager has about sex.

4. To distinguish if the source of the teenager’s knowledge about sex can influence the amount of information he or she has it.

5. To identify the purpose of the teenager for learning about sex.

6. To tell if the teenager’s purpose of learning about sex can influence the amount of information he or she has about it.


Significance of the Study

This study will help the parents in understanding their teenage children. Many parents are having a hard time relating to their children especially on topics like sex. Hopefully, by reading this study, the parents take notice on where their teenagers are getting information about sex. By knowing the sources, the parents can limit their children’s exposure to these soruces (i.e internet, magazines, television, etc.). The purpose of the teenager will also be identified. The parents can make necessary changes in their children’s view towards the topic. They can correct wrong information and wrong motives of their teenagers which can maybe avoid the possibility of pre-marital sex.

Most teenagers rely on media such as television, poster and print ads, magazines and internet for most of their information on varying aspects in life. The study will consider how teenagers might possibly attain their knowledge about sex from media, and how this can possibly affect the way they act towards sex. Media can definitely control the amount of information they give out to their readers once they read this study. They can realize how much their information affect a normal teenager’s life, and hopefully, they’d avoid any wrong manipulations.


This study will be an intensive help to the government in making solutions to the issue involving the teenagers’ exposure to sex. The Department of Education will have an outlook on how much teenagers really know about sex. From this, they can make some adjustments and conclusions regarding the continuing debates on “Sex Education”. In the issue of “sex education”, DepEd will have a clearer view on what teenagers really know about sex; therefore, they can see whether or not these young adults need help or not. Decisions will be made in accordance to how teenagers’ react to sex based on this study. The decisions will be either: to implement the “sex education” because of the low level of awareness among teenagers or not to implement it because teenagers might interpret the data in a different manner.


This topic will also help gender difference theorists in spotting the difference of degree of knowledge about sex between two genders. They will have an idea on the difference on how the two genders react to the topic about sex. The difference of the source and purpose of the knowledge about sex will also be known, and might possibly affect a teen’s degree of knowledge on the said topic.


Because of the study’s quiz type questionnaire, people who will come across this study will be able to test their knowledge about sex as well. They will also be able to realize themselves whether or not they do know about sex. The study can serve as a source of new information and facts about sex.


The future researchers will not have hard time to understand our study because we made it simple. They may now have a background on the difference of the outlook of the two genders regarding sex. If the researchers want to focus on the source of the knowledge about sex, we made table on the relationship between the degree of knowledge on the source of the teenagers. On the other hand, if they want to concentrate on the purpose of the teenager in acquiring the knowledge about sex, same as the source, it will be easy for them to interpret because we made direct relationship between the degree of knowledge and the purpose.


This can also help men in aspects on how society thinks of them, and treats them. The study that we conducted will start to realize how men are also discriminated.

Methodologies

CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH DESIGN
The study that we conducted used the Qualitative Descriptive Method. Our study’s main purpose was to compare the degree of knowledge about sex between teenage males and females: age thirteen (13) to seventeen (17). We used a qualitative research because we wanted to explore, understand and prove if the myth that boys are more knowledgeable than girls when it comes to sex is actually true. Our study was also a descriptive type of research because the nature of our study focused on social behavior.

Sampling Procedure
We used the non-probability sampling, specifically, the purposive sampling. It’s a study using the non-probability method because we didn’t involve random sampling and the purpose of the study was not about generalizing a population. Our main aim was to compare the degree of knowledge about sex between teenage males and females. We chose the respondents who qualified as our respondents. We made sure we had an equal number of boy and girl respondents. We had fifteen (15) boys and fifteen (15) girls as our respondents.
Respondents

We only had age, gender and year level as the qualifications for our respondents. Their ages ranged from thirteen (13) years old to seventeen (17) years old. The respondents were all high school students coming from different schools.

Research Environment
The questionnaires were handed out in different places. Few questionnaires were handed out in the streets, where the respondents gave some of their time to answer the questionnaire. Some surveys were answered in schools. Some respondents were asked through the internet.

Data Collection
We asked for the respondents’ time to answer the questionnaires. The questionnaires were given to the qualified respondents. We maintained one (1) foot distance away from the respondents to give them privacy and for them to be comfortable in answering the questionnaire. In distributing the questionnaires in schools, we let the qualified respondent sit and answer the questionnaire for eight (8) minutes. We made sure that respondents had enough distance from the other respondents to avoid cheating or copying of answers. The respondents who were asked through the internet were given a copy sent through e-mail. We asked them to answer as honestly as they could, and to avoid searching in the online web. Once answers were sent back to us, we took them down.

Data Analysis
The “sex quiz” part of the surveys, containing thirteen (13) questions was checked. As soon as the scores were calculates, we totaled the sum of the scores of the boys and got their average. Same with the boys, we also added the scores of the girls and got their average. We then compared which group garnered the biggest score.

Data Treatment
The statistical treatment that we used was the chi square test because our sampling procedure is non-probability and it didn’t represent a population. We tested the difference between the degree of knowledge of teenage boys and teenage girls.

X2 = ∑ (f(a) - f(e))2 / f(e)

Where:
X2 = chi square
∑= summation of
f(a) = actual number of the observation cell
f(e) = expected number of the observation cell in a theoretical distribution

Theoretical Framework

CHAPTER 3

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Our research is focused on determining the difference between teenage males and teenage females in the degree of knowledge they have about sex. For this research paper, we decided to use four distinct theories. Each theory played a vital role in explaining the different aspects and parts of our research. One theory, namely Freud’s theory on the Latency Stage of Psychosexual Development gave a reason why we decided to focus our problem on teenagers. Another theory we selected from Armstrong and Sarafino’s book explained a few differences between males and females. Finally, the last two theories, Vygotsky’s social interaction theory and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory told us how social interaction and a person’s surroundings, can affect his or her views and opinions on different aspects of life. All these theories helped in building up our research.

Freud’s Theory on Development

This theory is all about the different stages in a person’s Psychosexual Development. There’s the Oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latency stage and the genital stage. The oral, the phallic and the anal stage take place during childhood while the genital stage takes place after puberty. Latency stage is what teenagers experience. It is during the latency stage when a teenager starts to undergo puberty. This stage usually occurs among humans when they reach the age of six to puberty. During these years, a child begins to shape adult sexual attachments. It is also within this period when the child learns to explore his/her environment and eventually develop important and meaningful relationships with the people around him or her.

Armstrong and Sarafino’s Theory

This theory focuses on an example of gender difference at modern times. Girls and boys have a lot of differences. Armstrong and Sarafino's theory focused on determining the “difference of attitudes and reactions towards sex between male and female”. There was an evident difference in the way males and females thought about sexual intercourse. American girls believe that in sexual relation there has to be love. In the meantime, boys are rather more “permissive” towards sex. Armstrong and Sarafino stated the top five reactions of teenagers when they had their first sexual intercourse. The top five reactions of female teenagers were “afraid, guilty, worried, embarrassed and curious”. On the other hand, the top five reactions of teenage males were “excited, thrilled, satisfied, happy and joyful”.

Vygotsky and Bronfrenbrenner’s Theories

Vygostky and Bronfenbrenner’s theories both talk about how humans, specifically children and teenagers need others around them for them to develop. It is because of their surroundings that they become who they are. These influences greatly affect how they think and act.

Social interaction is important for the cognitive development of a child, that is what Vygostsky's theory stated. This theory declares that cognitive processes such as language, thought and reasoning develop through social interaction. Therefore, development is a product of culture. The theory simply states that a child needs people around him or her to develop his or her skills. The things that surround him or her greatly influence the person that he or she will soon be in the future. Few examples of social interaction include bonding with friends, conversations with parents, discussions of the teachers, exposure to media and contact with other people.

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory somewhat has the same context with that of Vygotsky's theory. This theory explains how varied systems of the environment and the interrelationships among these systems affect a child's development. It believes that while the environment affects the child, a child affects the environment as well. The theory also states the different forms of systems in a society. In an environment, there is a distinction made between the microsystems, the mesosystems, the exosystems and the macrosystems. We think that both Microsystems and Exosystems are the ones that influence the child more among the four. Microsystems are categorized as the child’s immediate surroundings. Parents, school and neighborhood are examples of this. Exosystems are social institutions which indirectly affect the child. Examples of this are mass media and community resources. These systems all help the child in building his or her own ideals and beliefs which he or she will carry out throughout his or her entire life. The theory simply states that the environment has certain distinct systems, and these systems are important in shaping and developing a child.

Theoretical Framework:

Figure 1 in the following page shows our Theoretical Framework. In this diagram, we can see how Freud’s Theory on Development can explain factors which affect how a person thinks. In the meantime, Armstrong and Sarafino’s theory shows how certain things can separate boys and girls in their way of thinking. The diagram also illustrates how Vygotsky and Bronfrenbrenner’s Theory clarifies how other factors can shape the source and purpose of a person for learning about things. All these will have a consequence on a human’s degree of knowledge about certain principles in life.

Conceptual Framework:

Figure 2 below shows the Conceptual Framework of our research. As a child becomes a teenager, he or she starts to undergo the Latency Stage of Psychosexual Development. In this stage, he or she will start to bond with other people around him or her, resulting to more learnings in life. The people around him or her will dictate how much he or she learns about existence. It is only through “social interaction” that he or she discovers new things. Social interaction will play a vital role in how much he or she will know about things.

The child becomes more aware of the things surrounding him or her, and eventually, makes gradual realizations about them. One of the greatest realizations made in this stage of life- a clear distinction between boys and girls. The child will encounter many experiences where he or she will learn that males and females are two different types of people. The child will come to a learning that both genders differ in a lot of ways.

Gender and Social interaction will affect how much a child knows about certain things in life. These factors will play a role in developing a child’s cognitive thinking.

Operational Framework:

Why target teenagers? Freud’s theory says it all. We assume and believe that it is during Latency Period when a child will slowly attain and learn about sex. During childhood and the earlier stages of life, a child doesn’t find any sexual meaning in things and actions around them. As they reach puberty, they slowly experience new sensations in their bodies, resulting to them asking about these stuff. Along with these bodily changes comes their first grasp on the topic sex. For the first time, they hear about sex, and they crave for more information about it. Due to varying reasons, a child’s curiosity and eagerness to learn about sex starts to take over him or her. The beauty of conducting our research with teenagers undergoing this stage is that they’re still at the time when they are very curious about sex, yet they might still not be mature enough to no longer consider this topic a taboo. This assumption leads us to a conclusion that indeed, first year and second year teenage high school students will make the best respondents for our study.

For the difference between the two genders, we decided to use a theory from Armstrong and Sarafino’s book. This theory simply states that the two distinct genders have different reactions and attitudes towards sex. This theory is only one of the many which state differences among males and females. These differences basically make a distinction between the two genders. For our research, we are trying to see if these differences can actually affect how much a teenager knows about sex. These differences, where do teenagers get them?

Social Interaction is the answer to that. As explained by both Vygotsky and Bronfenbrenner, the surroundings are important in shaping a child. This is where the child gets his or her first ideologies and concepts about life. Thus, social interaction is the reason why differences sprout out between the two genders. Social interaction is also responsible for almost everything a person knows and believes: money, faith, love and sex.

Social interaction is responsible for the teenager’s knowledge about sex. Because of social contact, the young adult will have his or her first ideas about sex. It may either be from a friend, from a television show, from the internet, from school or from many other sources. The social interaction is responsible for the source of the teen’s knowledge about sex. From these sources, the adolescent gets a lot of information about sex. Now the reason why the teen wants to know about sex is another case. This can also be obtained through social interaction. Peer pressure and curiosity are just two examples of why a teen wants to know about sex.

It is basically because of social interaction why and how teenagers learn about sex. They first learn about it because of society. They learn more about it because of society and in the near future, they might even influence other people’s knowledge about sex in the society.