Canada: Parents Urged to Step Up Role in Helping Kids to Practice Sexual Abstinence

An abstinence-based sex education curriculum that has worked in several of New York's roughest urban areas may prove successful for Miramichi, in New Brunswick, according to the noted Bronx educational expert Dr. Nanci Coppola.

Coppola, executive director of Program Reach, Inc., and the Healthy Respect program offered in numerous New York schools, recently addressed New Brunswick data, the interpersonal trials teens confront, and her expertise in working through these issues with families and schools, at the Carrefour Beausoleil Center.

Coppola maintained her program is not religious, but is based on medical, scientific, and public health information. It teaches students how to "build healthy relationships, increase self-esteem, set goals, and develop the skills to set appropriate boundaries" to achieve those goals, she said. It also encourages parents to "instill their own beliefs and values" in their children.

Instruction on avoiding hazardous activities like early sexual activity, drinking, smoking, using drugs, and fighting should begin at about age nine, Coppola said. Numerous social scientists point to that age as a time when children are more receptive to their relatives and friends than outside influences, she said.

Coppola also stressed that positive interactions between fathers and daughters at that age are critical to developing self-esteem. "Daughters are less likely to engage in sexual behavior if their need for love and belonging is fulfilled," she said.

Coppola contended that engendering self-assurance and good judgment in avoiding risky behaviors are rooted in telling "our youth that we believe in them," concepts taught around ages 10-15. She rejected assuming that youths will have sex anyway and focusing on reducing risks. "When we think that way we are selling the kids short," said Coppola.

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