Abstract:

Puberty is a significant element of sexuality education in an international context and represents an important aspect in comprehensive education of children. A number of countries not only in Europe are accredited members of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which defines the context of human rights and is active in the area of sexual and reproductive health. The International Planned Parenthood Federation defines sexual rights, supports the right to freedom and personal safety, and cooperates with other entities to support efforts that introduce and acknowledge these rights in various countries. In 2010, the World Health Organization drafted the Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe (2010) the purpose of which is to help introduce a system of comprehensive sexuality education from birth. It uses an approach based on an understanding of sexuality as an area of human potential and helps children and young people develop basic skills that will enable them to decide freely about their sexuality and their relationships in various stages of development. At the same time, it recommends that sexual life should be lived in a fulfilling and responsible way as well as supports the protection mechanisms against possible risks. Prepubescent children need to be prepared for puberty in an appropriate manner including all related changes, associations and contexts and need to obtain the required knowledge before its onset. Knowledge is gained in the process of learning and represents the level of awareness. The cognitive level of knowledge represents the amount and quality of relevant information.
The key concept of our longitudinal educational research is the knowledge about puberty among prepubescents in selected countries. The objective of the study was to identify the level of knowledge about puberty among children in pre-puberty when they are in primary school. The current research builds on our previous research projects carried out in the Czech Republic, China, Spain, Sweden and Croatia between 2015 and 2020. As part of a university project, a research study was carried out in Hungary in 2021.This is a newly included country in our longitudinal research. The results from this country have not been published anywhere before. The data were collected by means of a knowledge achievement test. The content of the nine test items focused on the following: concept of puberty; definition of puberty; puberty age range; knowledge about physical changes in boys and girls; knowledge about other changes that puberty induces; significance of puberty in human life. The results suggest that prepubescents do not have the right knowledge about puberty and do not consider relevant associations and contexts in a comprehensive way. The incomplete knowledge suggests that prepubescents do not think about the significance of puberty in a comprehensive perspective but rather in various combinations of the biological, psychological and social areas.

Keywords:

Puberty, knowledge about puberty, prepubecents.