Original article

Development of social skills and healthy sexuality in Peruvian adolescents

0000-0002-5410-5794Alejandra Luz Capcha Paucar^{1  *} 

¹Universidad Nacional de Huancavelica. Perú

ABSTRACT

To determine the relationship between social skills and healthy sexuality in adolescents of the María Inmaculada Secondary School of Huancayo-Peru. A descriptive-correlational study was carried out, with a non-experimental design and correlation method. The research, of correlational level and descriptive-correlational design, used surveys and questionnaires. The results, analyzed with SPSS 27, showed that social skills are significantly related to healthy sexuality with a significance level of 5%. The students possess innate and good social skills, which is a determining factor for their present and future sexuality.

Key words: Social skills; Sexuality education; Healthy sexuality and adolescents

Introduction

Generally, in developed countries, mostly in the old continent and North America, investment in education is higher than in developing and underdeveloped countries, which allows families and teachers to have greater comfort, greater commitment to the education of adolescents and young people and fewer needs, so they have systematized tutoring programs and guidance for their academic, social and psychological work.

In Latin America, a little more than fifty percent of the countries have a considerable budget for education, among them Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, Panama, Uruguay, Colombia, which invest in basic education, that is, in the future of its citizens; this reflects in the development of social skills in healthy sexuality and healthy sexuality, improving the quality of life of adolescents and young people in society.

Peru is one of the few countries in Latin America that makes a minimal investment in education, despite internal and external recommendations, which leads to the lag of education in public educational institutions and homes of the middle and lower class, in relation to other countries. Education is the engine of a country's development; if we do not invest in education, we are not investing in the country's development. Developed countries in their periods of growth invested in education and today they are only reaping development and prosperity. ^{Fernández (2010}) concludes that the basic skills for learning to read and write are: (body schema, visual discrimination, reasoning, visual-motor coordination, orientation in space and time, pre-writing, auditory discrimination, pre-calculus and language).

In the department of Junín, specifically in the province of Huancayo, students in regular basic education mostly come from the middle and lower classes, from urban, marginal urban and rural areas, also known as the poor and extremely poor classes.

Similarly, they are students of public educational institutions, who conclude secondary school without achieving the academic, social, and psychological profile, with low personal and social interrelation with fellow students, teachers and local society, i.e., the development of social skills is low and healthy sexuality is lacking in homes and schools, which causes an unhealthy sexuality practice. The objective of the research was to determine the relationship between social skills and healthy sexuality in adolescents of the María Inmaculada Secondary School in Huancayo, department of Junín.

It is true that in the past and today, adolescents and young people talk much more about sexuality with their friends than with their parents; parents and teachers know about it, but they do not address the subject, neither at home nor at school. It is possible that there is more information on sexuality, but very little on healthy sexuality. In this regard, she explained that (^{Hawkins, 2009}, p. 120) “most of us learned about the mechanics of sexuality from friends, the media, or family. However, we often don't know much about what healthy sexuality really is”.

DevelopmentFigure 1

Regarding social skills, for ^{Quispe et al. (2023}); Carrasco (2012) it is sometimes designated as social competence, it does not have a unique and determined definition, since there is conceptual confusion in this regard, as there is no consensus by the social-scientific community; however, this can be defined according to its main characteristics, and these point out that social skills are a set of naturally learned behaviors (and therefore can be taught), which are manifested in interpersonal situations, socially accepted (this implies taking into account social norms and legal norms of the sociocultural context in which one acts, as well as moral criteria), and oriented towards obtaining environmental reinforcements (social reinforcements) or self-reinforcements.

^{Medina et al. (2023}) in their study during the first COVID-19 confinement in Mexico found that there are positive relationships between social skills and coping strategies; likewise, recreational activities served as a valuable social support resource that facilitated an effective response during the pandemic. In addition, women were found to outperform men in terms of social skills.

Every human person is a biological-psychological-social unit (biopsychosocial) and the act of sexuality is present within this unit in different ways. In this regard (^{Mejía, 2010}, p. 123), indicated: “Sexuality is determined by a series of biological, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual aspects that condition the form of behavior or sexual conduct of each person and the form of interaction with other people”.

Therefore, sexuality becomes an inherent characteristic of every human being, which must be developed within social and legal norms and customs, framed towards an integral and holistic education.

With respect to sexuality, several definitions have been found, one of them being the following: Sexuality is a natural part of our being and includes our erotic feelings, our sexual fantasy and, of course, our sexual acts.

These acts are much more than intercourse and have much to do with how we feel about ourselves, what we find attractive in sexuality and the boundaries we set to keep ourselves sexually safe (^{Hawkins, 2009}, p. 120).

According to ^{Oseda (2015}) indicated that the research approach is a systematic, disciplined and controlled process and is directly related to the research methods; in our case the approach was quantitative.

The type of research was the applied type, and according to the same ^{Oseda (2015}) indicated that applied research is the utilization of knowledge in practice, to apply it, in most cases, for the benefit of society.

Source: Self elaboration

Graphic 1: He research design used was Descriptive-Correlational, which is formulated as follows 

The population consisted of 2540 students from the María Inmaculada de Huancayo secondary school, department of Junín-Peru (Source: DREJ 2017). The sample size was selected randomly, according to the following procedure.

Sample size. When

Z = 1.96

N= 2540

P= 0.5

Q=0.5

E= 0.045

Table 1: Variable 1 levels. Social skills 

Source: Self elaboration

According to Table 1, with respect to the social skills variable, it can be seen that 62.24% of the students surveyed have a good level of social skills, 26.57% state that they have very good social skills, while 11.19% of the respondents have an average or regular level. In summary, the level of social skills of the students is good, which is favorable.

Table 2: Variable 2 levels. Healthy sexuality 

Source: Self elaboration

According to table 2; regarding the healthy sexuality variable, it is observed that 69.23 % show a regular level of knowledge about healthy sexuality, which is worrying, 29.37 % a good level and 1.40 % a deficient level of knowledge about Healthy sexuality and health.

Results

With respect to the variable Social skills, it can be seen that 62.24% of the students surveyed have a good level of social skills, likewise 26.57% state that they have very good social skills, while 11.19% of the respondents have an average or regular level. In summary, the level of social skills of the students is good, which is favorable (Table 3).

Table 3: Hypothesis Test Relationship Coefficient 

Source: Self elaboration

Null hypothesis: Ho: Social skills are not directly and significantly related to healthy sexuality in adolescents of the María Inmaculada de Huancayo Secondary School.

Alternate hypothesis: H1: Social skills are directly and significantly related to healthy sexuality in adolescents of the María Inmaculada de Huancayo Secondary School.

Level of significance or risk: 5%.

Statistical decision: It is concluded that there is a direct and significant relationship between social skills and healthy sexuality in adolescents of the María Inmaculada de Huancayo Secondary School.

It has been shown that there is a direct and significant relationship between social skills and healthy sexuality in adolescents of the María Inmaculada Secondary School of Huancayo, with a Spearman's "r" equal to 0.886 and a significance level of 95%, which is strong.

This is corroborated by ^{Lopez (2006}) when he investigated the social and communicative skills of the students of Pamplona finding that there is an almost perfect positive relationship between social and communicative skills, with the academic activity performed by the students of the Pamplona Schools, although in our case we would associate it with healthy sexuality.

This hypothesis is reinforced by ^{Brueil (2002}) when he mentions that personal skills (including social and communicative skills) have a decisive influence on the daily activity of Basic Education students, in our case healthy sexuality, thus contrasting the general hypothesis in all its sense and meaning.

It has definitely been directly evidenced that social skills are directly related to the healthy sexuality of the adolescents of the aforementioned school, since it has been shown that the level of social skills of the young ladies is good and very good, which is very favorable in every sense of the word, but the level they have on healthy sexuality is only regular and that is worrying, since in the XXI century, adolescents still do not know what healthy sexuality is, what sexuality is, what birth control is; so it is urgent to take corrective measures as soon as possible.

This is corroborated by the theory of ^{Siemes (2010}), when he mentions that adolescents in third world countries urgently need to have workshops on healthy sexuality, so that they become aware and sensitized to their near future, which will be to become mothers.

Now, let us begin with the first specific hypothesis which states: The first social skills are directly and significantly related to healthy sexuality in adolescents at the María Inmaculada Secondary School in Huancayo-Peru.

And indeed this is endorsed by ^{Arciniega (2002}) when he mentions that "in any educational entity, basic social skills should be promoted, such as adequate and timely planning of all activities and projects before implementing them". And precisely the students of Colegio María Inmaculada do carry out such planning in an adequate and timely manner, referring logically to the first basic social skills; thus proving the first specific hypothesis, also in all its sense and meaning.

Definitely in this aspect the great majority of the students highlight the role of healthy sexuality; that is to say, everything that is perceived as a primary activity of the adolescents must be subordinated to the norms and tutoring of those in charge of the Educational Institution.

In this regard, ^{Navarro (2003}) considers that poor mental health, school dropout, low performance and other school difficulties, precarious work history and others are successfully faced thanks to the adequate and timely development of social skills. Finally, it is concluded that it is extremely urgent to develop social skills in young girls and, above all, healthy sexuality, given their chronological age, since we must prepare them as soon as possible for their future role as future mothers, but before them their role as future university students and future professionals.

Conclusions

In the study conducted at the María Inmaculada Secondary School in Huancayo, it has been established with a significance level of 5% that there is a direct and significant relationship between various categories of social skills and healthy sexuality in adolescents. It was determined that both general social skills, as well as more specific skills related to emotion management, aggression management, stress and planning, have a positive impact on promoting healthy sexuality. This indicates that the more developed the social skills of these young women, the better their ability to maintain a healthy sexuality. The study highlights the importance of fostering the development of social skills as a crucial component for the comprehensive education of adolescent girls, thus contributing to their general and sexual well-being.

Referencias bibliográficas

Arciniega, R. (2002). Hijos autónomos y responsables. Graó de Irif. S.L.

Brueil, L. A. (2002). Psicología experimental. Mc Graw Hill.

Fernández, L. (2010). Efectos de un Programa de Estimulación sobre las Habilidades Básicas para el Aprendizaje de la Lectura - Escritura. UNE.

Hawkins, D. (2009). ¡Acabe con las adicciones cotidianas! Portavoz.

López, M. (2006) Técnicas de modificación de conducta. Mc Graw Hill.

Mejía, F. (2010) Las habilidades sociales y la educación. Carpienter.

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Oseda, D. (2015) Metodología de la Investigación. Pirámide.

Quispe, J., Paredes, Y., Quispe, R., Jara, F. & Gavilán, V. A. (2023). Funcionamiento familiar y habilidades sociales en adolescentes peruanos de educación secundaria. Revista Universidad y Sociedad, 15(3), 357-365. http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2218-36202023000300357&lng=es&tlng=es

Siemes, K. (2010) Análisis de problemas y toma de dicciones. Tercera edición. Spearman Educación de México

Medina, R. T. M., Salazar, C. M. S., Andrade, A. I. A., Carranza, I. G. R., & Reynoso, L. F. R. (2023). La recreación, habilidades sociales y estrategias de afrontamiento en adolescentes mexicanos durante la primera etapa del confinamiento por Covid-19. E-balonmano.com, 19(2), 165-178. https://doi.org/10.17398/1885-7019.19.16

Received: January 10, 2024; Revised: March 21, 2024; Accepted: May 09, 2024

^*Autor para la correspondencia: [e-mail]