Unzipped

This guide provides a picture of the sex education children are currently receiving.

---

Everything teenagers want to know about love and sex. How do kids learn about sex today? From their parents? Apparently not. From health classes at school? Ineffectively not. From each other? Almost certainly! In this guide to adolescent sexual health, renowned writer Bronwyn Donaghy weaves the narrative voices of teenagers with parents and health professionals to give a clearer picture about the sex education of our children at the end of the twentieth century. this is the second book in a series on adolescent health issues written with the support and assistance of the Centre for the Advancement of Adolescent Health at the New Childrens Hospital, Westmead. Like Anna's Story and Leaving Early, this book is about real people. It's about what teenagers do and don't know about sex. It's about how and where they gain their experience, where they get their information and the consequences of their sexual activity. It's about real kids, with real lives that other kids can identify with.
Issues canvassed include information about sexual hygiene, sexual intercourse and all its consequences, teenage pregnancy - the roles of both boys and girls, sexual ambiguity and homosexuality, prevention of disease, and safe sex. All this is explored within the context of the important link between relationships and sexuality and the very different attitudes boys and girls may have to becoming sexually active.