Mahboubeh Sharifi1, Shahnaz Kohan2, Soroor Arman3*, Amir Hossein Banki Poor fard4, Fatemeh Mohammadi5
Introduction: In spite of the agreement on the necessity of sexual training and education for children and adolescents and its obvious impact on the health of the individuals, it faces many challenges in Iran. Parental resistance against the sexual education of the children and in turn, the information bombarding of kids and teenagers via numerous available media and the environment outside the home has increased the complexity and difficulties of this training dimension. For a successful sexual training of children and the youth, it is necessary to identify and resolve the relevant problems. This study has dealt with exploring challenges of children's sexual training in Iran through a qualitative approach. Materials and methods: This study was designed with a qualitative content analysis method. Forty six eligible participants were selected by purposeful sampling. Data collected through 6 focus group discussions (FGDs) and 9 individual interviews. FGDs and interviews transcripts were analyzed using conventional content analysis with an inductive approach. Results: Data analysis led to the emergence of four main categories; factors associated with parents, factors related to the socio-cultural context, factors related to media, and the unavoidable environmental factors as sexual training challenges. Conclusion: Despite efforts over the recent years in the field of sexual education and training across different strata, the Iranian community still faces numerous challenges in different dimensions in this field, including family, media, environment and socio-cultural context. For a successful sexual training of children, a comprehensive plan for regulating various challenging factors is a necessity.
