Lesson 1: Sexual behaviour and sexual health

Last year in Life Orientation we looked at understanding what sexuality is

compared to sex. This year we are going to look at how to look after your sexual
health. You are a young adult now and some of you might find that you are
experiencing feelings of attraction toward someone else. Remember that all
choices have consequences. They could have a positive impact when making a
healthy choice or a
negative impact by making an unhealthy choice. e.g. choosing to hang out drinking
alcohol with friends lowers inhibitions and you could do something physically with
someone you would normally not do when sober. Then you’ll have to deal with the
embarrassment and possible pregnancy from that choice. You need to develop
standards for yourself by which you will live your life that protects your physical,
emotional and sexual health. These standards are influenced by you physical health,
self-image, quality of the relationships you have with others and your values.

Risk factors are those things that impact you to making poor choices
about your sexual behaviour. These choices could place you at risk
and lead to unhealthy sexual behaviour.

Here are some common beliefs of teenagers:

✔ Believing that nothing bad will happen to you even if you take
risks. E.g. Having sex without contraception and believing that
pregnancy wont happen to them.
✔ Believing you need to do something to be accepted by your peers. E.g.
boys that believe to be accepted and “cool” amongst their peers they
must have sex with a girl. ✔ Believing you have no control or say over
what happens to you. E.g. feeling so insecure in yourself that you can’t
say no to unhealthy sexual attention.

2023
✔ Living in poverty often feels like you have no choice. And choices
are made to survive. ✔ The use of drugs/and alcohol inhibits your
ability to make wise decisions.

Unhealthy sexual behaviour will results in a serious outcome that you

DONT want. These could include:

✔ TEEN PREGNANCY : As you can see teen pregnancy is a huge

problem in South Africa. Young people are sexually active and not
using contraceptives. Some women feel that using the pill will make
them fat or that it will stop them from falling pregnant as an adult.
This is a myth. Some men think that women need to be responsible and
 prevent pregnancy. This is dangerous thinking, as STI’s can still be
transmitted.

✔ SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS (STIs): Many of the STI’s have

similar symptoms. STI symptoms include the following:
• An unusual discharge from the vagina, penis or anus pain
when urinating • lumps or skin growths around the genitals
or bottom (anus)
• a rash
• unusual vaginal bleeding
• itchy genitals or anus
• blisters and sores around your genitals or anus
• warts around your genitals or anus
• warts in your mouth or throat, but this is very rare

Merensky High School

©2023 Teenactiv 45

GRADE 9 – Term 1 Learner Workbook 2023

WEEK 4-7: CONTENT SUMMARY

✔ HIV and AIDS : HIV and AIDS is still very much a problem amongst
teenagers. In the same way that an STI is transmitted, HIV infections are
a result of unprotected sex. If you become infected, your immune system
becomes weak and you cannot be protected by other infections or
diseases.

✔ LOW SELF-IMAGE : It could make you feel bad about yourself and lower
your self image. You could feel disappointed, ashamed, scared and blame
yourself for making poor decisions. Having a low-self esteem could impact
your decision making and be dangerous and damaging to yourself e.g.
cutting or struggling with sever depression.

✔ EMOTIONAL SCARS: An emotional scar is a mental or emotional pain

that you carry for a long time. For many it’s the rest of their lives
without seeking help from counsellors to deal with the pain. Some
teenagers struggle with this pain and find it difficult to go back to normal
life. They pull away from friends and partners, often becoming
depressed.

Maybe you’ve had an experience in your life that has caused you an
emotional scar. Please reach out, either contact a counsellor or ask for
advice from a trusted adult on what to do. You are still young, deal
with your scars while you are young so you can move forward in life.

Lesson 2: Factors that influence personal behaviour

 Our personal behaviour is greatly influenced by the people we spend time with. This
influence could be negative or positive.

Family and Community Norms – (A norm is a standard that is

acceptable to a group of people) The people in our lives impact our
personal behaviour. Lets start by looking at the influence of the family
and community:
When your parents enforce certain rules on you in your early teens for
the sake of health e.g. No smoking – its unhealthy and results in lung

cancer. In many instances you would then

2023
avoid smoking all together. This is an example of a positive influence.

However, a family could also have a negative influence e.g. A father

who is an abusive alcoholic spends money on alcohol rather than
buying food for the family. This results in a home with an absent father
who portrays a negative image of what a father should be like.

Living in a community where learners have absent parents and many

are on the streets rather than in school, we find an increase in crime
and gang violence. The role that community members play affects the
role you play in a community. In these communities we see increased
teen prostitution, drugs and alcohol and more people are at a risk of
contracted STI’s and HIV and AIDS. These are examples of a negative
influence.

BUT a community could also have a positive influence. In some

communities, the neighbours rally around to support and challenge
learners to go to school and get an education because hey believe that
education changes the future. In this community it is the norm to treat
elders with respect regardless of whether they are family or not.

You need to consider these influences around you and as you grow up,
make choices that line up with your own vision for your future.

Merensky High School

©2023 Teenactiv 46

GRADE 9 – Term 1 Learner Workbook 2023

WEEK 4-7: CONTENT SUMMARY
 FRIENDS AND PEERS – One of the greatest influences during your teen
years are your peers and friends. Teenagers are very protective of these
friendships and value their relationships more than those with adults.
Friends and peers can impact you positively to be focused and complete
school work or to abstain from sex until you are married. But on the
other end,
they could have a tremendous impact if the influence is negative with
drugs, drinking and reckless sexual behaviour.

Lesson 3: Developing Healthy Sexual Behaviour

Todays lesson we will focus on the different strategies you can use to change
negative sexual health habits. To address a negative habit we need to replace it
with a positive one.

Abstinence means to refrain from sex completely. This is the safest option.
There is no chance of contracting an STI or getting pregnant if you are not
having sex. When making a decision to be abstinent you need to
communicate that this value is important to you when coming into a
relationship. A person that really cares about you and respects you will
NOT push your boundaries and try to change your mind. You could also
look for online groups that support your ideas. This approach gives you
the opportunity to focus on developing healthier relationships without
the potential baggage of emotional scars.

Another approach to addressing negative sexual behaviour is to change

your behaviour. This means making choices to stay safe. If you choose
not to abstain, then always using a condom when having sex is vital. Be
faithful to one partner. Females should use female contraception.
Remember it is not going to be easy to implement these changes and you
might find some
friends will try to change your mind. Look for people in your
community or join a group where you can be supported in these
new choices you have made.

It is also good to find other forms of enjoyment like playing sport with
a team or joining a cultural society like a choir. These changes will
strengthen you and help with developing healthy relationships that
are not of a sexual nature.

2023
Friends can also have a positive influence and help you make these
changes. This would be a good time to evaluate your friendships and see
if their influence is toxic or helpful.
 There are times that we know we need help. Protective factors refer
to those aspects of yourself, your family or community that need
help to cope with life’s challenges.

They include the following:

✔ Be assertive and believe you could have a good future. Use your
negotiation skills and feel confident saying
NO! Stick to your decisions and beliefs.
✔ Discuss sexual behaviour in your family and talk about
important/sensitive topics. ✔ Friends play a part in providing support
of your decisions and helping you avoid sexual behaviour.
✔ Resists peer pressure by using the skills you have learnt at school to
make wise choices and standing up for yourself.
✔ Choose healthy role models by looking for people in your school or
community that could help you become the kind of adult you would
be proud to be.

Merensky High School

©2023 Teenactiv 47

GRADE 9 – Term 1 Learner Workbook 2023

WEEK 4-7: CONTENT SUMMARY

✔ If you don’t find the help you need in your local community like a clinic,
you can call the national helpline numbers or make contact on their
websites. There is assistance available for teen pregnancy, counselling
for HIV and Aids as well as for Gender Based Violence and abuse.

Change comes when we reach out and partner with those who believe
in us and want the best future for us.
You don’t have to do it alone!

Lesson 4: Teen pregnancy

We have already looked at some of the consequences of unhealthy sexual behaviour.
Today we are going to look at teen pregnancy in South Africa and in schools in a little
bit more detail. As a learner, your approach to this lesson should be NOT to say…”Oh
that will never happen to me so I don’t need to know about teen pregnancy.”
RATHER your attitude should be to listen…. to contribute….. and to learn, so that you
can help by advising in the future – should one of your friends or peers fall pregnant.
Be a part of the solution and not the problem!

The adverse consequences and implications of teenage pregnancy.

 Becoming a parent as a teenager is extremely challenging. Having a child
as a teenager not only affects you as the young parent but also your own
family and that of the father/mother of the child. For a young girl, there
are physical dangers when going through labour at a young age. The
pregnancy could damage her bone structure, she could tear giving birth
causing a lot of pain and she would need an operation.

Both the young mother and father would be affected emotionally with
this new burden. They may suffer depression as they lose friends and
respect from community members. They may feel depressed and
sometimes the young father turns to alcohol or drugs to escape his
reality.

This young couple would be confronted with choices on abortion (the

termination of the
2023
child) or adoption (placing the child in another home). The outcome of
these choices would have a lifelong impact on each of them in different
ways.

Many young mothers drop out of school to have the baby and struggle
to return to school because of the burden of responsibility of being a
young mom.

Should a young mother choose to keep her child there are physical
challenges the young baby will face. Often the baby is underweight when
born due to a mother who did not eat nutritionally, trying to hide the fact
she was pregnant for so long. The baby could experience health problems
and may even be sick. Additionally as the child grows, they often
experience further malnutrition and sometimes abuse as the young
couple/mother struggles to handle the pressures of parenting. Sadly, for
many children of these young teens, they will grow up in poverty and
possibly repeat the cycle of falling pregnant in their teen years. This keeps
these families in a constant cycle of poverty and lack of education.

Merensky High School

©2023 Teenactiv 48