The role of parents in nurturing and sexuality education for children from Islamic and scientific perspective

Sexual interactions instigate from birth and even at human fertilization time; and hence, sexual assumptions and beliefs originated from the early years of individuals’ life can be taken into account as a foundation for mental‑sexual health in adolescence and adulthood with direct and significant effects on life‑long sexual behaviors.[1] Sexual behavior is an important element of sexuality. The given behavior is Context: Parents have an important role in sexuality education for children. The present study aimed to review the role of parents in nurturing and sexuality education for children from the perspective of Islam and scientific resources. Setting and Design: This narrative review was done in 2018. To this narrative study, the Persian and English articles in the databases of PubMed, Magiran, Barakat Knowledge network system, SID, UpToDate, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Google Scholar,
CINAHL, and Web of Science were searched. The following keywords were used for search: sexuality training, sexuality education, sexual health, guidelines, packages, Islam, parents, father, mother, and children. Inclusion criteria were studied design (articles, grey documents, packages, and guidelines) introduced in the field of sexuality education for children aged 0–12. From 80 studies retrieved, 18 articles were reviewed. Statistical Analysis Used: We employed content analysis method to extract our findings. The results of this study organized into three categories; (1) Parents are introduced by Islamic and scientific resources as the first educators of sexuality for children, (2) All resources highlighted that values and cultural features of each family are explained to children by their parents, and (3) Islamic and scientific resources put an emphasis on the effectiveness parent role on the promotion of sexual health in children and establishment of a healthy society. These issues indicate the necessity of attention to nurturing and sexuality education and considering the fact that the Islamic community requires to be shaped through its own teaching principles. Accordingly, Iranian society is in need of guidelines for parents’ readiness in line with their own culture and religion.