Risk Behaviors of Adolescents in the Philippines PDF

Lesson 4: Risky Behaviors and Risk Behaviors of Adolescents in the Adolescents Philippines Majority of the youth mature successfully through adolescence...

Lesson 4: Risky Behaviors and Risk Behaviors of Adolescents in the Adolescents Philippines Majority of the youth mature successfully through adolescence without apparent long Understanding Developmental term problems. All adolescents should be Characteristics of Adolescents considered at risk due to the prevalence of Physical Development risk behaviors, the inherent developmental needs of adolescents, and the various risk There are 3 main physical changes that factors for their initiation and maintenance. come with adolescence: Risk taking is a normal part of adolescent  The growth spurt (an early sign of development. Risk taking is defined as maturation); participation in potentially health  Primary sex characteristics compromising activities with little (changes in the organs directly understanding of, or in spite of an related to reproduction); understanding of, the possible negative  Secondary sex characteristics consequences. (bodily signs of sexual maturity that do not directly involve reproductive Adolescents experiment with new behaviors organs). as they explore their emerging identity and independence. The concept of risk has been Cognitive Development established as a characteristic that exposes  Adolescent thinking is on a higher adolescents to threats to their health and level than that of children. Children wellbeing. Young people may be exposed to are only able to think logically similar risks but respond differently. Some about the concrete, the here and may not sustain any physical or emotional now. Adolescents move beyond damage while others may be affected for the these limits and can think in terms rest of their lives. of what might be true, rather than just what they see is true. They are able to deal with abstractions, test hypotheses and see infinite possibilities. Yet adolescents still often display egocentric behaviors and attitudes. Emotional Development  Adolescents are also developing During adolescence, young people begin to socially and emotionally during this explore alternative health behaviors including: time. The most important task of Smoking, drinking alcohol, drug use, sexual adolescence is the search for intimacy, and violence. The Department of identity. (This is often a lifelong Health, in its Adolescent and Youth Health voyage, launched in adolescence.) Policy (2000), has identified the following Along with the search for identity health risks: substance use, premarital sex, comes the struggle for early childbearing, abortion, HIV/AIDS, independence. violence, accidents, malnutrition and mental health. Adolescents Health Risks Cigarette Smoking Alcohol use Adolescents smoke for the following reasons:  Alcohol is the most frequently used drug by teenagers. Unintentional  social norm (“to be cool”) injuries are the leading cause of  curiosity death among 15 to 24 years old  advertising and many of these injuries are  social pressure related to alcohol use. Young  pleasure people who drink are more likely to  addiction use tobacco and other drugs and What are the health effects of tobacco? engage in risky sexual behavior than those who do not drink.  Cardiovascular: ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, Drinking alcohol may lead to the following peripheral vascular disease effects:  Cancer: lung, head and neck,  decreases ability to pay attention esophageal, gastric, colorectal  the younger a person is when they  Endocrine: menstrual disorders, begin drinking, the more likely they decreased bone mineral density, are to develop a problem with erectile dysfunction alcohol  Pulmonary: COPD  deaths due to car crashes in which  Gastrointestinal: gastroesophageal underage drinking is involved reflux, peptic ulcer disease  alcohol is involved in nearly half of  Dermatologic: premature wrinkling all violent deaths involving teens  Pregnancy complications: low birth  suicide weight, IUGR, SGA, spontaneous  likely to engage in sexual activity, abortion, PROM, SIDS unprotected sex, or have sex with a Identified Sexual Risks that were found stranger among the growing Filipino adolescents  excess alcohol use can mask other emotional problems, like anxiety or  first sex for boys: 17.6 years old while depression first sex for girls: 18.1 years old.  use of other drugs, like marijuana.  One in 50 had sex before age 15 while one in 4 had sex before 18 years old. Substance Abuse  7 in 10 of first premarital sex cases are  Substance abuse is the overuse of a unprotected against unintended drug, with no due regard to accepted pregnancy and sexually transmitted medical practices resulting in the infections including HIV-AIDS. individual’s physical, mental,  Sex and Media have been identified emotional, or behavioral impairment. as key influencers among This results in problems at home (such adolescents engaging in high risk as more arguments with parents), at behaviors. school (such as failing grades), or with  3 in 5 have watched X-rated movies the law (such as driving under the and videos, the 4th highest in the influence or possessing illegal country. substances). The effects cause  3 in 10 have sent or received sex changes in a teen's alertness, videos through cell phones or internet, perceptions, movement, judgment, and the 2nd highest in the country. attention. These make the teen more  6 in 100 have engaged in phone sex, likely to engage in risk-taking higher than the national average. behaviors.   Guidance of family is very important as Module 3: Lesson 1 the adolescent develops into a mature Gender Fair Language adult.  Family arrangement, based on the  is the use of language that does not 2006 McCann Erickson Study, has devalue the members of other sex. noted the 53% of adolescents live with  A language is a potent tool for how both parents. Because of the humans understand and participate in Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) the world phenomenon, 5% live without the  It can shape how we see society. It is mother, 20% live without the father a part of the culture. In this regard, and 23% live without parents. language is not a neutral force; it enforces certain ideas about people, Preventing Multiple Risky Behaviors including gender. among Adolescents Violations of Gender -Fair Language Strategies to prevent risky behaviors among adolescents include school and  Sexist Language extracurricular activity involvement, safe It is a tool that reinforces unequal environments, and positive relationships with gender relations through sex-role caring adults. stereotypes, microaggressions, and sexual harassment. Language can be 1. Support and Strengthen Family used to abuse, such as in the case of Functioning sexual harassment, or to perpetuate 2. Increase Connections between stereotypes. All in all, language is a Students and Their Schools powerful force that plays a significant 3. Make Communities Safe and role in how one perceives the world. Supportive for Children and Youth  Invisibilization of women 4. Promote Involvement in High Quality  is rooted in the assumption that Out-of-School-Time Programs men are dominant and are the 5. Promote the Development of norm of the fulness of Sustained Relationships with Caring humanity, and women do not Adults exist. 6. Provide Children and Youth Opportunities to Build Social and Some obvious example of women Emotional Competence invisibilization in language are: 7. Provide Children and Youth with High Quality Education during Early and  The generic use of masculine Middle Childhood pronouns or the use of a masculine general.  The assumption that certain function or jobs are performed by men instead of both genders.  The use of male job’s title or terms ending in man to refer to function that may be given to both genders.   Trivialization of women Prejudice  Bringing attention to the gender  It is the reflection of our emotional of a person, if that person is a reaction upon learning someone's woman particular category, such as age, skin,  The perception of women as ethnicity, nationality, sexual immature orientation, gender identity, etc.  The objectification, or likening to  This negative (prejudice) attitude can objects, of women. be harmful because it often leads to contrary acts and behaviors.  Fostering unequal gender relations  A sexist person, for example, is  Language that lacks parallelism someone who has a hostile perception fosters unequal gender towards the other sex and treats them relations. The use of “man and as the inferior sex. This negative wife” assumes that men are still, attitude could result in itself in behavior and women’s identities are such as harassment, oppression, or subsumed and shifted into violent acts. being in relation to their husband. Discrimination  Gender polarization of words in use of adjectives  Discrimination means an act or  It is the used of parallel attitudes against a person or a group adjectives to show the of individuals. difference in perception  According to the United Nations, regarding men and women. “discriminatory behaviors take many This polarization adjectives forms, but they all involve some sort of shows how perception does exclusion or rejection. change how one seed certain  Suppressing opportunities or privileges acts, depending on who that other groups may have access to performs them. is discrimination, such as the right to vote at national elections.  Hidden assumptions  In the Philippines, women had no legal rights, including owning  Hidden assumption in property until 1937, in which they sentences can also be form of microaggression if the gained the right to vote. This form of underlying perceptions are oppression and discrimination was sexist and degrading. based on the belief that women are inferior to men. Stereotypes Freedom and Equality  Stereotypes are an “overgeneralized belief about a particular group or class Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of of people.” Human Rights (UDHR) states that “all human  A stereotype can be categorized as beings are born free and equal in dignity and “explicit,” meaning the person is aware rights.” This declaration was drafted by that they have these thoughts towards member countries of the United Nations, a group of people, and they can say it including the Philippines, in 1948. This out loud. monumental document outlines the  It can also be “implicit,” wherein a fundamental rights of every human being that person does not know if they have should be protected by everyone at all times. these stereotypes since it lies in their Accepting diversity of the human race is key sub-conscious. to making a safer and more inclusive environment for everyone, regardless of race, sex, religion, sexuality, gender, or creed. Lesson 2 Women in Advertising Media Representation  The insight about the display of the female nude is real not only for art  Media representation is how the media but for every medium where presents or frames “aspects of society women are displayed. Women are such as gender, age, or ethnicity.’’ often presented as sex objects in  It is important because it shapes advertisements, even for products audiences' knowledge and that have nothing to do with their understanding and will contribute to sexuality or their bodies. Cars, their ideas and attitudes. Because of alcoholic, beverages, cigarettes, our exposure to television, the media vacations spots, and sports feature ultimately represents our social women in some degree of undress. realities as it mirrors the ideologies, belief systems, and stereotypes. Women in Film and the Film Industry  According to a report by the Center for the Study of Women in Women in Western Art Television ad Film, only 33% of  Women are constantly being made speaking roles and 34% of objects of one’s viewing pleasure. identifiable leading characters in Whether anyone is looking at them or Hollywood films were played by not, women have taken on this men. Moreover, only 22% of awareness as though looking at leading roles in the top-grossing themselves through another’s eye. The films of 2015 were women. idea of women and representation  Many studies about Hollywood and started with women's role in Western gender show that men dominate art. While women of previous centuries the film industry. Male directors, did not actively play a role in the art writers, and producers make industry as painters, they did become movies whose leading characters the “muse or subject of various art are men and whose stories are forms. those that interest men. And so, a  The Judgement of Paris by Paul vast majority of movies are about Rubens presents a strong starting spies and cops, political intrigue in point for the study of women in the realms of business and politics, Western art. It depicts a scene from and historical dramas and disasters Greek mythology in which the most where men are shown as the beautiful man, Paris, was made to drivers of actions. Men save the choose the most beautiful goddess day or find a resolution. among Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena. Women and Sexualization  Olympia by Edouard Manet shows a self-possessed prostitute frankly  Fundamentally, women in films and displaying her body and person advertising are highly sexualized and  Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe by Edouard reduced to their bodies. Even men and Manet presents a nude woman, boys, when exposed to the idea that a painted candidly in her non-idealized woman’s fulfillment is to be desired body, sitting bored between two and owned by men, would treat dressed men while presenting her women accordingly. If a woman is sexuality without idealization dependent on men for her sustenance, self -worth, and meaning, then she is viewed as an object that does not have her own dignity and worth.   Men would see women as objects that MODULE 4 only exist to serve men's needs; this is Lesson 1 the root of much gender-based violence. Human Rights and Gender Based Violence Media Stereotype  The United Nations defines Human Rights as “rights inherent to all human  are simplified representations of a beings, regardless of race, sex, person, group of people or a place, nationality, ethnicity, language, through basic or obvious religion, or any other status.” These characteristics -which are often rights include the right to life and exaggerated.’ liberty, freedom of opinion and  Although stereotypes can help people expression, the right to work and connect with the content as they reflect education, freedom from slavery and it in their own realities, it can have torture, and many others. Every adverse effects on disadvantaged person in the world is entitled to enjoy groups like LGBT community, these rights without any form of reinforcing negative and even false discrimination. stereotypes.  The LGBT community is highly Republic Act 9262 misrepresented in the Philippine media. There are many stereotypes of  It is a special law, otherwise known as the LGBT in the media, and most are Anti-Violence against Women and their not flattering. Often they are used as Children Act of 2004 (Anti-VAWC), comic relief in their portrayal of the which penalizes as a public crime loud and boisterous “bakla”, the certain acts of violence against women straight male who acts like a “bakla” and their children. The law was signed with exaggerated gestures, the sex- last March 8, 2004. It took effect on deprived muscular male homosexual, March 27. or the awkward “tomboy” who Violence against Women and their eventually feminine woman after Children meeting the man of her dreams.  “Violence against women and their Reclaiming the Media children”(VAWC) is any act or a series  It is necessary to offer alternative of acts committed against the victim visions of womanhood to the public for which result in or is likely to result in their own reflection. To break the physical, sexual, psychological harm monopoly of the media by companies or suffering, or economic abuse that present sexualized, objectified including threats of such acts, battery, women as products, it is necessary to assault, coercion, harassment, support campaigns with alternative arbitrary deprivation of liberty. perspectives on womanhood. Women Victims Protected under RA 9262: Empowerment seems to be the way to forward. Women should be a. wife; or empowered so that they will be able to b. former wife; or tell their own stories. Concretely, equal c. a woman with whom the offender has access to women to the mechanisms or had a sexual or dating relationships; of communal storytelling and image or creation must be provided; in other d. a woman with whom the offender has words, give more women access to a common child; mass media. Children victims protected under RA 9262 Economic Abuse or Violence  Economic abuse is the deprivation of a  “Children” means the abused woman’s woman’s financial independence. This children, boy or girl alike, below 18 form of abuse can be realized through years old, whether legitimate or explicit acts such as denying women illegitimate; or other children who live the right to use property or materials with the woman or are under her care. that are legally hers, destroying her The “Offender” Liable for RA 9262 things, solely controlling her money or property, or threatening to deprive her The following can be held liable for of financial support. More subtle forms violation of RA 9262: of economic abuse involve the removal a. husband; of support from one’s partner; having b. former husband; her father, spouse, or relative disallow c. boyfriend; her from participating in the labor d. Ex-boyfriend; market; or stopping her from creating e. live-in partner or ex-partner her own income generating project. f. one with whom the woman has a 2. Sexual Violence common child;  Sexual violence is defined as the g. one with whom the woman has/had forcing of unwanted sexual acts upon sexual or dating relationship a person. It is not limited to the act of copulation; any act that is sexual in A Woman be held Liable for Violation of nature can be considered sexual RA 9262? violence. Sexual violence ranges from  A lesbian partner/girlfriend or ex- rape, incest, sexual abuse of children, lesbian partner/girlfriend can also be to sexual objectification of women and held liable for committing act or a children. Molestation and the attacking series of acts against another woman or unwanted touching of a woman’s with whom the lesbian has or had a private parts are included in this sexual or dating relationship definition. Violence against Women and their A protection order is an order issued under Children is a Public Crime RA 9262 for the purpose of preventing further act of violence against a woman or a child  Any citizen who has personal specified in Section 5 of the law and granting knowledge of the crime can file a other necessary relief. criminal complaint. Protection Orders Issued under RA 9262? Types of Violence against Women The following protection orders may be 2 umbrella terms for violence against issued accordingly; women: a. Barangay Protection Order 1. Physical Violence (BPO), issued by the Punong  The most detectable form of VAW is Barangay, or in his or her physical violence. It involves causing absence, any available physical or bodily harm against Barangay Kagawad. It is another person. effective within fifteen (15) days. Psychological Violence b. Temporary Protection Order  Psychological force or violence (TPO), issued by the court and involves causing harm to a victim is effective within thirty (30) through the use of emotional days. manipulation, resulting in mental c. Permanent Protection Order suffering. (PPO), issued by the court after notice and hearing. Lesson 2 electronic mail or through any other forms of information and communication systems; Sexual Harassment  The Philippines’ Anti-Sexual Harassment Law of 1995 defines (c) A conduct that is unwelcome and sexual harassment as the demand of a pervasive and creates an intimidating, hostile sexual act or favor in an institution, or humiliating environment for the recipient: wherein the person who demands the Provided, That the crime of gender-based act is in moral ascendancy or influence sexual harassment may also be committed over the person being solicited. between peers and those committed to a  It is considered harassment regardless superior officer by a subordinate, or to a of whether or not the victim agrees to teacher by a student, or to a trainer by a partake in the act. If a woman feels trainee; and discomfort or distress during the request, solicitation, or act, it is considered harassment. In the case (d) Information and communication system of employees, harassment covers refers to a system for generating, sending, actions from their boss, team leader, receiving, storing or otherwise processing or someone who has influence over electronic data messages or electronic one’s employment status or documents and includes the computer permanency, promotion, and the like. system or other similar devices by or in which For students, sexual harassment data are recorded or stored and any covers the teacher, instructor, procedure related to the recording or storage professor, coach, or trainer. of electronic data messages or electronic documents. With the passage of Republic Act No. 11313, Safe Spaces Act last 17 April 2019, the law expanded the meaning of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace and Education/Training institutions. The crime of gender-based sexual harassment in the workplace includes the following: (a) An act or series of acts involving any unwelcome sexual advances, requests or demand for sexual favors or any act of sexual nature, whether done verbally, physically or through the use of technology such as text messaging or electronic mail or through any other forms of information and communication systems, that has or could have a detrimental effect on the conditions of an individual’s employment or education, job performance or opportunities; (b) A conduct of sexual nature and other conduct-based on sex affecting the dignity of a person, which is unwelcome, unreasonable, and offensive to the recipient, whether done verbally, physically or through the use of technology such as text messaging or Lesson 3 Rape  defined as forced or coerced penetration of the vulva or anus using What is rape and how is it committed? a penis, body parts, or an object.  Republic Act No. 8353 known as the  Rape is considered rape even if the Anti-Rape Law of 1997, expanded the penetration is minimal. definition of the crime of rape and re-  Unsuccessful rape is called attempted classified it as a crime against rape. persons. Previously, it was classified  If more than one person commits rape as a crime against chastity, and on any one person, it is called gang belonged to the group of crimes that rape. include adultery, concubinage, acts of  Assaulting other sexual organs can be lasciviousness, seduction, corruption considered sexual violence, including of minors and white slave trade. As a forced contact between sex organs or crime against persons, the law no the mouth and pennis, vulva, or anus. longer considers it as a private crime. The lack of consent is essential to Anyone who has knowledge of the sexual violence. A person may be crime may file a case on the victim's unable to give consent due to being behalf. Prosecution continues even if drunk, drugged, or incapacitated. the victim drops the case or pardons Those who lack the comprehension to the offender. understand the ramification of their decision, such as children and person with disabilities, cannot give consent Rape is committed under the following for sex. Rape is more than an issue of circumstances: sex and lust; it is an issue of power. With the rape comes the removal of 1. A man has sexual intercourse with a free will and power of the victim, woman: Through force, threat or attacking the dignity of the person. intimidation; When the victim is deprived of reason or is unconscious; Marital rape includes acts that are covered Through fraudulent machination or by rape, although it occurs between a married grave abuse of authority; and When couple. While this form of violence is the victim is under 12 years of age or recognized by law (Anti-Rape Law of 1997), is demented, even if none of the there are cultural barriers to its full above conditions are present. implementation. In some areas in the 2. Any person who, under any of the Philippines, marital rape is not acknowledged above conditions, commits an act of as violence or raped by the victim, the sexual assault through oral or anal sex victim’s family, and more often than not, the or by inserting an instrument or object community where the crime was committed. into the anal or genital orifice of A woman who experienced marital rape may another person. be too ashamed to come forward as she feels that her issue is one that is private in nature. In the Philippines, there are two laws Others who do, however, may not even enacted that directly address rape namely: pursue their case against their husband  R.A. 8353: The Anti-Rape Law of 1997 because they have supposedly resolved the  R.A. 8505: The Rape Victim issue on their own. Assistance and Protection Act of 1998