Transcript Sexuality - 221: Psychology of Adolescence

Sexuality
Chapter 6
The Principal’s Office
A Normal Aspect of Adolescent
Development
• Media –negative stereotyping of teen sexual
behavior
• Remember, that the majority of adolescents
have healthy sexual attitudes and engage in
sexual behavior that will not compromise their
transition into adulthood.
What we know…
• Ch. 2 Hormones increase sex drive
• Ch. 3 Perception that they are unique and
invulnerable cause sexual risk taking
• Ch. 3 Sexual urges overwhelm ability to make
competent decisions
• Ch. 4 Sexual identity intertwined with
personal identity
• Ch. 5 Gender intensification hypothesis
Media
What does the
text tell us about
the media’s effect
on teen sexuality
(p. 201)?
Developing a Sexual Identity
• Emerging sexual feelings and forming a sense
of sexual identity is multifaceted (Brown &
Brown, 2006; Carroll, 2007; Graber & BrooksGunn, 2002).
• It involves managing sexual feelings, such as:
– sexual arousal and attraction,
– developing new forms of intimacy,
– and learning the skills to regulate sexual behavior
to avoid undesirable consequences.
Heterosexual Attitudes and Behavior
p. 203
• Change in frequency and in the sequence of sexual
progression.
• Eight in 10 girls and 7 in 10 boys are virgins at age 15.
• The probability that adolescents will have sexual
intercourse increases steadily with age, but 1 in 5
individuals have not yet had sexual intercourse by age 19.
• Initial sexual intercourse occurs in the mid- to lateadolescent years for a majority of teenagers, about eight
years before they marry; more than one-half of 17-yearolds have had sexual intercourse.
• 63% 12 graders
• 34% of 9th graders
Sexual Attitudes p. 204
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Oral sex
Early maturation
Culture
Gender
Sexual Behavior
Sexual Scripts
• A stereotyped pattern of role prescriptions for
how individuals should behave sexually.
• Socialization process
Sexual Scripts 205
• 12-18 year olds reasons for sex:
– A boy or girls is pressuring them (61% of girls, 23%
of boys)
– Think they are ready (roughly equal)
– They want to be loved (45% of girls, 28% of boys)
– They don’t want people to tease them for being a
virgin (roughly equal)
Risk Factors
• Risk factors for sexual problems in
adolescence include contextual factors such as
socioeconomic status (SES), as well as
family/parenting and peer factors (Aronowitz,
Rennells, & Todd, 2006; Huebner & Howell,
2003; Swenson & Prelow, 2005).
• Another important factor in sexual risk taking
is self-regulation—the ability to control one’s
emotions and behavior (Lombardo, 2005).
Sexual Minority
• Someone whoo identifies with being lesbian,
gay, or bisexual.
• Most experience first sexual encounter in
adolescence.
• Not unusual to have same sex encounter in
adolescence but not as adult.
Sexual Minority
Although research suggests there may be a
genetic contribution to sexual attraction in
some individuals, we are far from
understanding the mechanisms involved
(Diamond, 2004).
Most experts believe that no one factor alone
causes same-sex attraction and that the
relative weight of each factor may vary from
one individual to the next.
Sexual Minority 210
• Gay Male or Lesbian Identity and
Disclosure
– Establishing a gay male or lesbian
identity is often referred to as the
coming-out process. (Rosario &
others, 2006).
– Parents are seldom the first person
an adolescent tells about his or her
same-sex attractions.
– Mothers are usually told before
fathers, possibly because
adolescents have more distant
relationships with fathers.
Sexual Minority 210
• Peer Relations
– Regardless of their age, sexual minority youth showed
excessive worry about losing friends and difficulties in
romantic relationships.
• Discrimination and Bias
– Having irrational negative feelings against individuals who
have same-sex attractions is called homophobia
– In its more extreme forms, homophobia can lead
individuals to ridicule, physically assault, or even murder
people they believe to have same-sex attractions
Sexual Discrimination
• Discrimination and Bias
– Homophobia is associated with avoidance of same-sex
individuals, faulty beliefs about sexual minority lifestyles
(such as believing the falsehood that most child molesters
have same-sex attractions), and subtle or overt
discrimination in housing, employment, and other areas of
life (Meyer, 2003).
– One common form of self-devaluation is called passing,
the process of hiding one’s real social identity
Contraceptives
• Adolescents are increasing their use of
contraceptives but large numbers still do
not use them.
• Being from a low-SES family is one of the
best predictors of adolescents’ failure to use
contraceptives (Nadeem, Romo, & Sigman,
2006).
• Younger adolescents are less likely to use
contraceptives than older adolescents
(Hofferth, 1990).
• Not being involved in a steady, committed
dating relationship is also associated with a
lack of contraceptive use (Chilman, 1979).
Teen Pregnancy
• The United States continued to have one of the highest rates
of adolescent pregnancy and childbearing in the developed
world, despite a considerable decline in the 1990s (Alan
Guttmacher Institute, 2003b; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003).
Teen Pregnancy
•Consequences of Adolescent
Pregnancy
•Creates health risks for both
baby and the mother
•Infants are more likely to have
low birth weights
•A prominent factor in infant
mortality—as well as
neurological problems and
childhood illness
•Adolescent mothers often
drop out of school.
Teen Pregnancy
• Why are U.S. adolescent
pregnancy rates so high?
• Childbearing regarded as
adult activity in Europe and
Canada.
• Unclear messages about
sexuality
• Access to family planning
services
Teen Pregnancy
• Reducing Adolescent Pregnancy
• Extensive help in obtaining competent child care and in
planning for the future (Klaw & Saunders, 1994).
• Sex education and family planning
• Access to contraceptive methods
• The life options approach
• Broad community involvement and support
(Conger,1988)
Forcible Sexual Behavior 226
Sexual Harassment
– Sexual comments, jokes, gestures, and looks
– Sexist remarks and covert physical contact
– Sexual rumors
– Blatant propositions and sexual assaults
– Quid Pro Quo
– Hostile Environment