THE SEXUAL SELF

SEXUALITY IN
ADOLESCENCE
• Physical changes: Puberty
– Increased sex drive (motivation)
– Maturation of sex organs (reproduction)
– Secondary sex characteristics
• Cognitive changes:
– Introspective reflection
• Self-consciousness
• Social changes
– Significance of sexual relations
– Curiosity becomes sexual motivation
– Connection with adult roles
 DEVELOPMENTAL
CHALLENGES
• Comfort with maturing body (changes)

• Accepting feelings of sexual arousal

• Engaging in voluntary sexual activities

• Understanding and practicing safe sex

 Developmental Patterns in Dating
The American Experience

• Most adolescent girls begin dating around age 12 or 13

• Most adolescent boys begin dating around 13 or 14
• By age 15 about 20% of adolescents say they have “gone with” someone
• Dating before among American adolescents tends to follow a
developmental sequence of four steps:
1. Adolescents in same-gender groups go to places where they hope to find
other-gender groups
2. Adolescents take part in social gatherings arranged by adults, such as
parties
3. Mixed-gender groups arrange to go to some particular event together,
such as a movie
4. Adolescent couples begin to date as pairs in activities such as movies,
dinners, concerts and so on
 Social Scripts

• Expectations for how males and females

behave in romantic relationships
• Shaped by relationships at home
• Shaped by the mass media
 Dating Scripts
• Proactive Script
• Males tend to follow this type of
script
• Includes:
– initiating the date
– deciding where they will go
– controlling the public domain
(driving the car)
– initiating sexual contact
• Reactive Script
• Females tend to follow this type of
script
• Focuses on:
– Private domain (grooming & dress)
– Responding to the male’s gestures in
the public domain
– Responding to his sexual initiatives
 ROBERT STERNBERG’S
THEORY OF LOVE
Passion Intimacy Commitment
Forms of
Love Physical attraction Closeness and Pledge to love over
and sexual desire emotional attachment the long run

Liking No Yes No
Infatuation Yes No No
Empty Love No No Yes
Romantic Love Yes Yes No
Companionate No Yes Yes
Love
Fatuous/Foolish Yes No Yes
Consummate Love Yes Yes Yes
 Applying Sternberg to
Adolescence
• In most adolescent love relationships, commitment is either
missing or highly tentative

• The absence of long term commitment in adolescence

means that there are two principal types of adolescent love:
infatuation and romantic love

Keep in Mind …..

In industrialized countries people are not likely to get married until they are
in at least their mid- to late twenties
Under these circumstances it is understandable that adolescents’ love
relationship would not involve commitment as much as passion or intimacy
 FALLING IN LOVE

• Consensual validation
– People like to find in others an agreement, or consensus, with their own
characteristics
– Finding this consensus supports, or validates, their own way of looking
at the world

• People of all ages tend to have romantic relationships with people who are
similar to them in characteristics such as:
– Intelligence
– Social class
– Ethnic background
– Religious beliefs
– Physical attractiveness
 CULTURAL BELIEFS AND
ADOLESCENT SEXUALITY
• Restrictive cultures:
– Place strong prohibitions on adolescent sexual activity before marriage
– Strict separation of boys and girls in early childhood through adolescence
– Some countries will even include the threat of physical punishment and
public shaming for premarital sex
– Usually more restrictive for girls than boys
• Semi-restrictive cultures:
– Have prohibitions but they are not strongly enforced and are easily
evaded
– If pregnancy results from premarital sex, the adolescents are often forced
to marry
• Permissive cultures:
– Encourage and expect adolescent sexuality
– Sexual behavior is encouraged even in childhood and the sexuality of
adolescence is simply a continuation of the sex play in childhood
 WHAT INFLUENCES SEXUAL
ACTIVITY?
• Hormones are especially important for boys
– Testosterone surge sparks initial interest in sex for boys and
girls (girls are also influenced by estrogens)
– Boys who are more popular with girls and mature earlier
tend to initiate sex earlier than unpopular boys
• Context is especially important for girls
– The most important predictor of girls’ involvement in sexual
intercourse is whether their friends are doing it or have
sexually permissive attitudes
 PARENTS AND
SEXUAL ACTIVITY
• Parent-child communication

• Most effective
– for females (rather than males)
– with mothers (rather than fathers)
– if communication of values/attitudes
– for preventing risky sexual behaviors
 SEXUALLY ACTIVE
ADOLESCENTS
• Characteristics of non-virgins
– Similar self-esteem as virgins
– Similar overall life satisfaction as virgins
– More likely to be early maturing
– Tend to have lower levels of academic performance and academic
aspirations
• Adolescents who have sex early (15 years old or younger)
– Early users of drugs and alcohol
– More likely to be from single parent households
– More likely to have grown up in poverty
 CONTRACEPTIVE USE
AND NONUSE
• Two types of countries have low rates of teenage
pregnancy:
– Those that are permissive about adolescent sex
– Those that adamantly forbid adolescent sex
Permissive Countries Restrictive Countries

Denmark Japan
Sweden South Korea
Netherlands Morocco

They have explicit safe Adolescents are strongly

sex campaigns. discouraged from even dating

Adolescents have easy It is rare for boys and girls to

access to contraception spend time alone together
 Sexually Transmitted Diseases
• By age 24, one in three sexually active Americans have contracted an STD
• Two thirds of all STDs occur in people who are under 25 years old

• Two important characteristics of STDs

– Asymptomatic
• People show no symptoms of the disease
• They are especially likely to infect others because neither they nor others
realize that they are infected
– Latency Period
• There may be years between the time people are infected and the time they
being to show symptoms
• During this time they may be infecting others without either themselves or
their partners being aware of it
 Sexually transmitted diseases
• HIV/AIDS
– Strips the body of its ability to fend off infections
– The body is highly vulnerable to a wide variety of illnesses and diseases
– 90% of cases of HIV in the US result from intercourse between homosexual or
bisexual partners
– Outside the U.S. HIV/AIDS is spread mainly between heterosexual partners
– Has a long latency period (tend to by asymptomatic up to 5 years)
– AIDS is the leading cause of death worldwide among persons 25 to 44 years
old
– 10 of every 11 new HIV infections worldwide come from Africa
– The mortality rate for people who have AIDS remains extremely high
 SEX EDUCATION

• Americans agree that rates of premarital pregnancy and

STDs in adolescence are serious problems that must be
reduced

• However there is a strong disagreement about what is the

best solution
– One side: comprehensive sexuality education
– Other side: abstinence promotion
– Result: Neither!
 Sex Education
10 characteristics that make programs work
 Focus narrowly on reducing
one or more sexual behaviors
 Base the program on
theoretical approaches for
other risky behaviours
 Give a clear message about
sexual activity and
contraceptive use
 Provide basic, accurate
information about risks and
methods
 Include activities that teach
how to deal with social
pressures
 Model and provide practice in
negotiation and refusal skills
 Use a variety of teaching
methods
 Incorporate behavioral goals
specific to age, culture and
sexual experience
 Run the program over a
sufficient period of time
 Train teacher, youth workers
and peer leaders who believe
in the program
 SUGGESTION: ½ CROSSWISE

Elaborate your opinion on the following concerns:

1. Sexual aggressiveness among young people.

2. Knowledge about use of contraceptives.
3. Puberty and surge of hormones.
4. Sex education.