Change on values of parenting and cultural heritage among youth participating parental and sex education

Value-based and cultural challenges of parenting seem to separate Greenlandic communities into divided parts. Contemporary responses and future education requirements are challenges young people in terms of tradition, parent roles and community assets. Families with strong indigenous identity and heritage uphold values and views showing that “every child is welcome at any time”, therefore early pregnancy does not necessarily have a negative impact. These are some of the empirical results of recent intervention research on The Real Care Doll Program in Greenland carried out by Danish educational researchers (Wistoft & Stovgaard, 2013). The program intent to show eight- and ninth-grade students in secondary school the amount of responsibility involved in caring for a baby. Since 2006 more than one thousands Greenlandic students have been provided with an experience of being the parent of a ‘newborn infant’ by caring baby infant simulators. Accompanying sex and parental education aims to explore and reflect on the physical, emotional, social, and financial consequences of parenthood. The general objective of the research is to determine the short-term impact of the education strategy to influence youth’s perceptions of pregnancy and parenting. The research methods are a pre- and posttest questionnaire survey design supplemented with observations of teaching and personal interviews with the educators. Significant gains were found on the impact of the students perception of how early parenting affects their social and emotional life, ingenious values and cultural sustainability.