Educare (al)la sessualità : dalla prevenzione alla promozione della salute sessuale per adolescenti

In this dissertation I analyse international and national policies and the related Public Health educative practices through which teenage sexual health is constructed and managed in the Emilia-Romagna area and in the wider Italian context. This study starts from an anthropological survey led within a youth centre part of the Italian Health System †" named Spazio giovani and located in Bologna - and from an action-research focused on a specific regional project addressed to adolescents and teachers from secondary school named W l'amore. Furthermore, through a comparison with the Netherlands' policies and practices concerning sex education, this study aims to reflect on comprehensive sexuality education in the European context in order to highlight its critical aspects and its potentialities. Topics related to adolescence, education and sexuality in a broader sense are linked to socio-political issues concerning sexual rights and intimate citizenship. If sexuality is a complex and multidimensional component of human experiences since its fluidity is embodied in the interaction among individuals and society, sex education represents a physical and a symbolic space where to define and to share opinions, desires, intentions and identities. Thinking about sexual health and its promotion means to problematize and de-naturalize the ways teenage sexuality is publicly constructed and managed. In this sense, anthropology can help underlining the complexity of social, health and educational services addressed to teenagers and highlighting the purposes of the stakeholders involved in developing and leading sex education programs for teenagers. Aim of this research is to present sex education as a continuous social process that is supposed to promote sexual and relational diversity and that may also contribute to the co-construction of a more inclusive society where all the nuances it is made of can be appreciated and protected.