Church blocks student survey over sex questions

Church schools have been told by the Curia not to distribute to children a World Health Organisation questionnaire on health behaviour.

The Curia's education secretariat disapproved of the "nature of the questions" about sexual relations, a spokesman for the Curia told The Times.

The decision was not made because of the questions' subject, but because of their nature, he stressed. He referred to it (the decision) as a "guideline", but when pressed further he said the decision was between a guideline and a directive since most schools usually followed it.

The survey - distributed to Form I, III and V pupils in 41 countries - asks respondents whether they have ever had sexual intercourse, how old they were the first time they had sexual intercourse, what methods they used to prevent pregnancy and whether a condom was used the last time they had sexual intercourse.

Although there were only four questions revolving around sexual relations, the secretariat decided that "in the circumstances" none of the 76 questions should be answered, the spokesman said.

The Health Behaviour in School Children Study, carried out every four years, delves into various health issues, asking questions about eating habits, weight and physical appearance, exercise, smoking and drinking alcohol, family and bullying.

When contacted, a spokesman for the Education Division said the division decided that while the whole questionnaire should be answered by Form V students in state schools, the page containing the four sexual health questions should be removed before being handed to Form I students. The division left it to the discretion of heads of school whether to leave or remove the page before handing the questionnaire to Form III pupils.

Health Promotion Department director Mario Spiteri and senior health promotion officer Marianne Massa are stunned that the Curia objected to this year's questionnaire, especially since four years ago 19 questions had been dedicated to sexual relations, and no objections had been received from the Church's side.

Ms Massa explained that researchers from all countries taking part in the study decide on what questions to ask. The same questions are asked in all countries to enable the study to compare between countries and also map trends over a number of years.

She said that before the last survey was distributed in 2001, both the Church and the Education Division had objected to the sexual health questions included in the HBSC questionnaire. Ms Massa said it was decided to compile different questions, which led to a separate 19 questions being asked. The sexual health questionnaire was given to Form III and Form V pupils together with the rest of the questionnaire.

The problem with this was that Malta's figures on sexual health could not be compared to those of other countries. Results show that almost half of the girls - 354 out of 737 - said they had been sexually active with a partner, as opposed to 223 boys out of 573.

Eight girls and 15 boys said they had their first sexual experience when they were 10 years old or younger. Three boys and 10 girls said they had been told by their doctor that they had contracted a sexually transmitted infection.

Ms Massa said this time it was decided to abide by the original questions.

"There is nothing wrong with these questions, and our children can handle them like those in other countries. They are living in the same world and we cannot think of our children as not being exposed to the same issues as others," she said.

Ms Massa said she suggested to the Church to remove the page containing the sexual health questionnaire so that the children could answer all the others, but a week later she was told that none of the questions were going to be answered.

She also pointed out that the four questions were included as part of the whole survey, and not as a section on their own, because sexual health was part of health.

Dr Spiteri said a number of Church schools had already asked their pupils to fill in the questionnaire and the Health Promotion Department had managed to collect some.

The Curia spokesman highlighted that in the past Church schools have taken part in the survey.

The HBSC study started being carried out in 1982. Malta participated for the first time in the last study.