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Abstract
This paper presents data from a study of four projects in which young mothers deliver school sex education sessions, with the aim of giving pupils ‘informed choices’ regarding their sexual behaviour. Eleven focus group discussions were carried out with pupils, and semi‐structured interviews were carried out with 14 young mothers in order to assess the extent to which the sessions were of value in this way. The findings show that pupils perceived the sessions to be beneficial, not necessarily through providing new information as implied by the notion of ‘informed choice’, but because they fostered a deeper level of understanding and acceptance of the potential consequences of their decisions regarding sex and contraception. The main reason for this outcome, that is pupils' beliefs that they were hearing the whole truth from their peers, is demonstrated and critically explored in relation to the young mothers' own perceptions of the sessions. The implications of the somewhat different understandings of the sessions that emerged for the key notion of ‘informed choice’ are considered.
Notes
* Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, 35 Berkeley Square, Bristol BS8 1JA, UK. Email: [email protected]
Where the young mothers working as peer educators are quoted, the quotes are identified by the pseudonyms given to each individual to preserve anonymity.