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Abstract:
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In South Africa, the high rate of Sexually Transmitted Infections, Human Immunodeficiency
Virus, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, and unplanned pregnancies are a serious
public health concern among current school youth. Health, the well-being and the quality of
youth are a serious concern for educational practitioners, health promoters, parents, as well
as adolescents themselves. The absence of accurate information about the promotion of sexual
health practices forces youth to patronise fake doctors. This reveals that there is a lack of
knowledge of youth about healthy living skills, risky behaviours of sexual relations and the
inability to reject unstable relationships that they do not want.
This study develops an intervention programme to promote healthy sexual practices among
the youth in Limpopo Province. The convergent parallel mixed method was employed where
exploratory-descriptive qualitative approaches were concurrently run with the quantitative
approach, employing a cross-sectional descriptive design. A non-probability, purposive
sampling was employed to select eligible study participants who include learners registered
for the 2023 academic year, Life orientation teachers and School Governing Body members.
In-depth focus group discussions interviews were conducted with 26 learners, 25 life
orientation teachers and 16 School Governing Body members. Qualitative data was analysed
thematically. Trustworthiness was ensured through Credibility, Confirmability, Transferability
and Dependability. For the quantitative approach, a self-administered questionnaire was used
to collect data where a simple random sampling was used to select learners in each grade to
constitute a sample size of 531 participants. Reliability and validity of the instrument were
ensured through the extensive review of literature from similar studies conducted locally and
internationally. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)
version 28.0. Ethical principles were adhered throughoutthe study. The findings wereconceptualised
using a health promotion model.
The results were integrated, and the interpretation discussed. Six higher-order themes
emerged from the qualitative data analysis. The merged themes from the qualitative research
were confirmed by the findings from the statistical data analysis, thereby integrating both
qualitative and quantitative data. The findings were presented to officials of the Department of
Basic Education in Vhembe district and other stakeholders, Heads of schools, Heads of
department, SGB members, social workers, and circuit managers; their inputs further
confirmed and supports the findings. The findings informed the development of an intervention
programme.
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The intervention comprises the three components personal factors,
community/school/house/church and healthy system paradigms, and health talk focusing on
promoting healthy sexual practices. The developed intervention programme was validated by
stakeholders and results were analysed through simple descriptive statistics where data was
summarised using frequency distributions and tables.
The results revealed that the programme is adaptable and can be practiced. The programme
can reduce the challenges of unhealthy sexual practices with which schools are faced. This
programme also provides the opportunity to close the gap between parents, and teachers,
because parents do not attend school meetings when they are requested. This programme
has addressed a variety of ways that can bring parents and teachers on board, to work
together. Recommendations were made and topics for future research were also addressed. |