Introducing....us!!!

Introductions

Hi, I'm Ashley Porter. I grow up in Pleasant Grove, Utah. I grew up in a family of 8, it was fun to have lots of sibling and it was always busy with sports games and school activities. I have been married for about year and a half to my best friend. He's an Idaho boy and I think he's converted me to living in Idaho for the rest of our lives.

Hello! I’m Brittany Baird. I have been married to my amazing husband for almost three months now but it feels so much longer than that! I am from Mesa Arizona and I attend Brigham Young University- Idaho in Rexburg. I love this cute small town but I can’t wait to graduate and move back to Arizona. I study marriage and family and hope to educate others about healthy relationships and family life. I am passionate about protecting families from the threats the world throws at them.




I am Sapphire Moosman. Currently I am a Child Development major and considering  a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy. I grew up in a small town in eastern Idaho called Driggs nestled in Teton Valley.  Along with myself, my parents raised my four siblings. We spent our childhood playing with our cousins who lived just next door in the pastures, woods and creeks that surrounded our home. I have been very blessed to be raised in a home where my parents had a strong, healthy relationship and I hope to pass on some of the wisdom I have learned from them and from my education about good, wholesome relationships.


I am Annie Rigby. I was born and raised in Rexburg, Idaho and I have never moved in my life. Currently I am a Marriage and Family Studies major and considering a masters degree as a children’s counselor in a school. I am in my senior year. I grew up in a family of five. I have three sisters, one brother, and I'm the youngest. I also have six nieces and three nephews, which I enjoy being an aunt to them. They call me nanny Annie when I babysit my nieces and nephews. It's fun to have a big family where we travel and do fun outdoor activities. I love country dancing, music, running, and spending time with friends and family. I love learning in this
major, which is important for our future lives.

Our Concern

Almost all of us have had that lesson. Often known at "the Talk." Whether an awkward conversation with our parents where neither of us could make eye contact or in a middle or high school health class full of other teenagers, furtive glances and nervous laughter. That or we did not have it at all.

Sex education for pre-teens and teenagers is important as they gradually become acclimated into society. It is a necessary step to ensure they make wise choices for their overall well-being. Since the 1960’s most states in the US have policies to integrate sex and STD education into the curriculum of their schools. Despite this though we are still seeing major problems with sexual activity in people of all ages.

We did some research and found these statics about various sexual and relationship issues:

Teenage Sexual Activity

The Center of Disease Control (CDC) did a survey in 2017 on teenage sexual behaviors and found that:

• 40% were sexually active
• 10% had four or more sexual partners.
• 7% were unwilling but forced to have sexual intercourse.
• 30% had sexual intercourse in the three months before the survey. Of that group 46% did not use a condom, 14% had no contraception and 19% had used drugs or alcohol before intercourse.

Sexually Transmitted Disease

The CDC also has collected data on sexually transmitted disease and found that:

• Young adults between 13 and 24 account for 21% for all new HIV diagnoses.
• In 2000 the cases of Syphilis went from 31,618 to 101,567 in 2017
• Chlamydia has continued to increase from 7,584 people in 1984 to 1,708,569 people in 2017
• Cases Gonorrhea has gone from 363,136 in 2000 to 555,608 in 2017
• Chancroid is one of the few STD cases that have decreased. From 4,212 cases in 1990 to 7 in 2017

Domestic Violence

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) state:

• 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have been victims of [some form of] physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime.
• Almost half of female (46.7%) and male (44.9%) victims of rape in the United States were raped by an acquaintance. Of these, 45.4% of female rape victims and 29% of male rape victims were raped by an intimate partner.
• 72% of all murder-suicides involve an intimate partner; 94% of the victims of these murder suicides are female.
• 1 in 15 children are exposed to intimate partner violence each year, and 90% of these children are eyewitnesses to this violence

Cohabitation

• Women who cohabit are twice as likely to multiple head, neck or face injuries, and have a higher risk of multiple methods of physical abuse. 
• 90% of abuse happens to those that cohabit. Only 10% happens within marriages.
• In the Journal of Marriage and Family we found, Cohabitors tend to report poorer marital quality and experience more instability in their marriage than those who do not cohabit
• We researched the effects of cohabitation on children and found children born to cohabiting parents are more likely to suffer from social and emotional problems and are more likely to have lower academic success.

Fatherless

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3069659?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents state:

• A 1998 Wall street journal article states that fatherless sons are more likely to grow up with reckless and violent tendencies.
• Children that grow up without both parents don’t have as much parental, economic, and community resources, which makes chances of success in the future more difficult to achieve.
• Children do worse in life on average when they grow up without a parent.

• https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.0701.3,  Studies show that if a father has a religious affiliation he is more likely to be involved in his child's upbringing.

Our Proposed Remedy

That is a lot of depressing information that are related to sexual activity in some manner. We, the authors, believe that sex education is lacking. It is still important but for teenagers and adults to make wise choices they need to know more than how to prevent pregnancy or the risks of sexual activity.

Which is why we are proposing Relationship Education. Each week we will be posting articles to help inform on healthy relationships. Some of these articles will cover threats and issues in relationships touched on above. Others will be laying out what a healthy relationship and tips on how to strengthen a relationship.

If there is a topic or area you would like us to research and write about please feel free to comment below. We also welcome any other comments about how we can make these articles a more enriching and educational experience.