Teenage Sexuality

John Coleman, Debi Roker

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317821533
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Human Sexuality in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

First published in 1998.This text reviews current knowledge and research in key areas of adolescent sexuality, focusing on the implications of this for young people's sexual health. The book includes chapters on adolescent sexual knowledge, teenage relationships and sexual behaviour, HIV/AIDS education, sexual identity, peer education and the prevention of teenage pregnancy. The book is aimed at all those who work with young people, including those involved in health education, youth work, sex education and those in youth organisations. The book is written in straightforward language, with the aim of disseminating relevant research to all those who work with young people. The focus of the book is on understanding the implications of research in this area for young people's sexual health, risk reduction and education.

THREE

Adolescent Sexual Behaviour

Susan Moore and Doreen Rosenthal

Orientation of the chapter

Much of the research on adolescent sexuality emphasises the problematic aspects of this phenomenon. Adolescent sexual behaviour has been linked with undesirable activities such as smoking, drug-taking, and delinquency, investigated from the framework of contraceptive inadequacies and teenage pregnancy or, more recently, explored in relation to unsafe practice and HIV risk. In this chapter, we do not want to emphasise only these ‘deviant’ aspects of adolescent sexuality. There is no doubt that youths’ sexual behaviour can involve high risk — the emotional risks of being hurt or of developing anti-social attitudes to sexual behaviour, the physical risk of disease, especially HIV/AIDS, and the social risks of peer rejection, or of curtailing life’s possibilities through unplanned parenthood. Perhaps some would add to this list the spiritual or moral risks of not following some code of behaviour. Rather than buy into this argument, we acknowledge that there are many codes of sexual behaviour consistent with social harmony and individual fulfilment. One of the tasks of adolescent/youth development is, indeed, to make commitments with respect to some such code, in other words, to develop sexual values which guide behaviour. This can be a positive, life-affirming task, along with many of the other features of sexual development. Adolescent sexual behaviour is about learning to cope with changing bodies and changing feelings, it is about the search for identity, about learning to relate to others in an intimate way, about pleasure and desire, and about becoming a mature and fully rounded person.

The communication of mixed messages about sex from the adult generation make handling sexuality a difficult but exciting challenge for adolescents. Parents, school-based sex education programs, religious institutions, peers, and media images of sex can draw adolescents in different directions, with some of these influences espousing high levels of sexual caution and conservatism, and others pushing in the direction of experience, risk-taking and variety. How young people respond to the challenge of integrating these influences, in terms of their behaviours and attitudes, is the focus of this chapter.

The role of puberty in sexual behaviour and development

Adolescent sexual behaviour is inextricably linked with the events of puberty, in which the adolescent’s body develops its adult shape and capacity for reproductive functioning, and the hormonal changes affect sex drives in complex ways. Biological development does not tell the whole story of what motivates and directs adolescent sexual behaviour, because social and cultural factors also exert a strong influence on how a young person will express his or her sexuality. Nevertheless puberty provides the signal to the outside world that the child is now physically, if not emotionally, a man or a woman, and it provides all sorts of internal and external signals to the child that here are changes, urges, and feelings to be coped with, expressed, or contained.

Sexual maturation for girls includes the growth of pubic and axillary hair, breast development, and menarche, the onset of menstruation, occurring usually between 10 and 16 with a mean age for American and British populations of around 12.5 years. The menstrual cycle introduces a pattern of hormonal variations associated with ovulation, building up of the uterine lining in preparation for fertilisation, and the shedding of this lining via the menstrual period. Oestrogen and progesterone levels rise and fall in association with these events. The uterus, vagina, vulva, clitoris and other internal structures undergo growth and development so that the adolescent girl has a functional reproductive system about 12 to 18 months after the first menstrual period, and is physically capable of bearing children.

Sexual maturation for boys involves increased growth of the testes, scrotum and penis, pubic, bodily and facial hair development, and maturation of the internal prostate gland and the seminal vesicles. The first ejaculation of seminal fluid is likely to occur about 2 years after the beginning of pubic hair growth, either as a spontaneous emission or the result of masturbation. The number and mobility of sperm present in the seminal fluid increase throughout puberty, with a corresponding increase in fertility. Other changes include an increase in the size of the larynx, leading to the voice changing to deeper register, and for males and females alike, growth of the sweat glands with accompanying increases in body odour, and enlargement of the pores on facial skin, which, accompanied by hormonal changes leads to the increased likelihood of acne.¹

With these changes come effects on mood, so that the adolescent can fluctuate between the depths of despair and the heights of elation, overwhelming confidence and morose self-doubt, affection for parents and disdain for them. In addition, libido or sexual drives develop in ways that are little understood, yet we know that young people can experience these drives in ways varying from overwhelming and frustrating to surprising and pleasant, from frightening to welcome. For young people who suspect or are sure they are gay or lesbian, these drives can be even more confusing, being seen as at odds with the prevailing cultural and peer norms. The peer group can in turn be quite malevolent in homing in on differences and rejecting or isolating the ‘different’ (for whatever reason) young person, at a time when peer support is so much needed. Adolescent views about what constitutes unacceptable difference can be hard for adults to fathom, varying as they do between subgroups and over time. Particular body shapes, styles of clothing or modes of behaviour ranging from the trivial, such as hairstyle, to the more substantive, like sexual orientation are all grist to the mill of adolescent anxieties about conformity. Thus physical changes within the context of social pressures will act together to influence the direction of young people’s sexual behaviours and attitudes.

More wide-spread social mythologies, such as the belief that boys cannot control their sex drives but girls can, also have implications for adolescent sexual behaviour. Boys may feel they have the right to coerce girls into sexual activity, or that activities such as kissing and fondling imply permission for intercourse. Girls may feel concerns about their reputations if they are judged by peers as ‘leading boys on’, or they may worry that their relationships with boyfriends will be jeopardised if they do not agree to ‘go all the way’. The following quotes from 16-year-olds, the first from a young man and the second from a young woman illustrate what are typical (but not universal) views about the male sex drive:²

1. Can boys control their sexual urges?

“No, if you don’t get a girl you go home and have a good old wank. That’s why we hate cockteasers so much.”

It is often said that men are controlled by their dicks — is this true?

“Bloody oath mate, it can make you do irrational things.”

What are women ruled by?

“Silly, stupid, romantic notions.”

2. Can boys control their sexual urges?

“Not really, no. They can be controlled by the girl, but they certainly wouldn’t stop if they wanted something. Or they might if they cared about the girl and everything.”

Can women control their sexual urges?

“Yes”

It is often said that men are ruled by their dicks — is this true?

“Some are — that is all they think about. Even though they might have morals against it, because they want it so bad they will just go for it.”

In terms of sexual behaviour, an increase in sexual drive does not necessarily mean that sexual activity will begin. Social factors play a large role here with studies suggesting that girls more than boys are influenced by their friends’ behaviours. Girls whose best friends have had intercourse are more likely to also have had intercourse, while for boys, hormone concentration seems a more powerful indicator of sexual experience.³ Cultural and subgroup differences in age of first intercourse are great, as will be discussed in a later section. Physical attractiveness and opportunity are also relevant factors here, for example girls who look more mature are more likely to have had intercourse than less mature looking girls, regardless of actual pubertal status.³ Further, parental behaviours such as lower levels of parental supervision, coupled with high possibilities for interacting with the opposite sex, provide more opportunities for sexual experimentation among teenagers. Such parenting styles, while they may be associated with higher independence and social competence among teenagers, are also likely to be associated with more sexual experience.

In some cultures, puberty is marked by initiation ceremonies, completion of which confers adult status on the initiate. The protracted Western version of adolescence accords puberty little attention, with adult status dependent more on capacity to live independently from parents and be financially self sufficient. These milestones are a long way distant from puberty for most young people, and for some virtually unattainable, so that adult status must be gained in other ways, some of which have turned out to be antisocial. It has been suggested that sexual initiation has become the rite de passage of modern adolescents. The question that must be asked of the adult society is whether such a transition to adult status can be accepted as a normal event or whether it is defined as deviant. The answer to such as question is far from simple, involving as it does a social definition of how young is ‘too young’, of what is appropriate and inappropriate in sexual behaviours and their preliminaries, and of what are ‘approved’ freedoms and responsibilities for adolescents through the age ranges from early puberty to the late teens. In the next section we will consider the course of sexual initiation, from the gleam in the eye, as it were, through to intercourse. The ‘typical’ age and range of ages at which these behaviours occur will be described, an exercise which underscores the diversity rather than the conformity in Western adolescents' sexual behaviours and perceived norms.

What counts as sexual behaviour?

Autoerotic or solitary sexual behaviour includes sexual fantasies, nocturnal emission, and masturbation, subjects about which there is little research, especially among adolescents, perhaps because they are regarded as very private and even shameful activities. Thinking and dreaming about sex and sexual relationships, reading about these issues, watching them on films and videos, talking about them with others, and discovering something about the sexual responsiveness and sensuality of one's own body are all, however, part of the developmental process. These are not processes that begin abruptly at adolescence. It is part of normal childhood to discover one's body, to feel sensual pleasure, and to experience caring and being cared for —all elements of adult sexual experience. Of course it is also part of normal childhood for children to be protected from experiences that are beyond their physical and emotional capabilities, such as direct sexual overtures and expressions from others. What happens at adolescence is that the young person begins to express sexual needs of a more direct nature than in childhood —and here we are not talking necessarily about intercourse, but of experiences such as more social interaction with the opposite sex, more chance to learn about and discuss sexual issues, and a greater need for physical sexual expression of some kind. Correspondingly, the adult generation gradually removes the protections offered to children against too early sexual expression, the pace at which this occurs depending on cultural and social norms. Int...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Contributors
• One Introduction
• Two Young People's Sexual Knowledge
• Three Adolescent Sexual Behaviour
• Four Sexual Relationships, Negotiation and Decision Making
• Five Risks Associated with Early Sexual Activity and Fertility
• Six Accentuating the Positive: HIV/AIDS and STDs Prevention and Education
• Seven Strategies for Preventing Unplanned Pregnancies
• Eight Peer-Led Sex Education in the Classroom
• Nite Developing Lesbian and Gay Identity in Adolescence
• Ten Adolescent Sexuality and Adult Professional Behaviour: Future Directions for Policy and Practice
• Resources Section: Organisations and Further Reading
• Index