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s so much emphasis on teaching girls how to be resistant towards sex that boys do not learn these skills and are less able to use them when they want to say no to sex they also explain how society s stereotype that boys are always ready to desire sex and be aroused may contribute to the fact that many boys may not feel comfortable resisting sex because it is something society tells them they should want 66 because society expects adolescent boys to be assertive dominant and in control they are limited in how they feel it is appropriate to act within a romantic relationship many boys feel lower self esteem when they cannot attain these hyper masculine ideals that society says they should additionally there is not much guidance on how boys should act within relationships and many boys do not know how to retain their masculinity while being authentic and reciprocating affection in their relationships this difficult dilemma is called the double edged sword of masculinity by some researchers 67 hensel and colleagues conducted a study with 387 female participants between the ages of 14 and 17 and found that as the girls got older and learned more about their sexual self concept they experienced less anxiety greater comfort with sexuality and experienced more instances of sexual activity 64 additionally across the four years from 14 to 17 sexual self esteem increased and sexual anxiety lessened the researchers stated that this may indicate that the more sexual experiences the adolescent girls have had the more confidence they hold in their sexual behavior and sexuality additionally it may mean that for girls who have not yet had intercourse they become more confident and ready to participate in an encounter for the first time 68 researchers state that these patterns indicate that adolescent sexual behavior is not at all sporadic and impulsive rather that it is strongly affected by the adolescent girls sexual self concept and changes and expands through time 68 sex education edit sex education also called sexuality education or informally sex ed is education about human sexual anatomy sexual reproduction sexual intercourse human sexual behavior and other aspects of sexuality such as body image sexual orientation dating and relationships common avenues for sex education are parents caregivers friends school programs religious groups popular media and public health campaigns sexual education is not always taught the same in every country for example in france sex education has been part of school curricula since 1973 schools are expected to provide 30 to 40 hours of sex education and pass out condoms to students in grades eight and nine in january 2000 the french government launched an information campaign on contraception with tv and radio spots and the distribution of five million leaflets on contraception to high school students 69 in germany sex education has been part of school curricula since 1970 since 1992 sex education is by law a governmental duty 70 a survey by the world health organization concerning the habits of european teenagers in 2006 revealed that german teenagers care about contraception the birth rate among german 15 to 19 year olds is 11 7 per 1000 population compared to 2 9 per 1000 population in korea and 55 6 per 1000 population in us 71 according to siecus the sexuality information and education council of the united states in most families parents are the primary sex educators of their adolescents they found 93 of adults they surveyed support sexuality education in high school and 84 support it in junior high school 72 in fact 88 of parents of junior high school students and 80 of parents of high school students believe that sex education in school makes it easier for them to talk to their adolescents about sex 73 also 92 of adolescents report that they want both to talk to their parents about sex and to have comprehensive in school sex education 74 in america not only do u s students receive sex education within school or religious programs but they are also educated by their parents american parents are less prone to influencing their children s actual sexual experiences than they are simply telling their children what they should not do generally they promote abstinence while educating their children with things that may make their adolescents not want to engage in sexual activity 75 almost all u s students receive some form of sex education at least once between grades 7 and 12 many schools begin addressing some topics as early as grade 5 or 6 76 however what students learn varies widely because curriculum decisions are quite decentralized 77 two main forms of sex education are taught in american schools comprehensive and abstinence only a 2002 study conducted by the kaiser family foundation found that 58 of secondary school principals describe their sex education curriculum as comprehensive while 34 said their school s main message was abstinence only 77 the difference between these two approaches and their impact on teen behavior remains a controversial subject in the u s 78 79 some studies have shown abstinence only programs to have no positive effects 80 other studies have shown specific programs to result in more than 2 3 of students maintaining that they will remain abstinent until marriage months after completing such a program 81 such virginity pledges however are statistically ineffective 82 83 and over 95 of americans do in fact have sex before marriage 84 in asia the state of sex education programs are at various stages of development indonesia mongolia south korea and sri lanka have a systematic policy framework for teaching about sex within schools malaysia the philippines and thailand have assessed adolescent reproductive health needs with a view to developing adolescent specific training messages and materials india has programs that specifically aim at school children at the age group of nine to sixteen years these are included as subjects in the curriculum and generally involved open and frank interaction with the teachers with the exceptions of cambodia and vietnam the unfpa funds most asian sex education program bangladesh myanmar nepal and pakistan have no coordinated sex education programs 85 some educators hold the view that sexuality is equated with violence these educators think that not talking about sexuality will decrease the rate of adolescent sexuality however not having access to sexual education has been found to have negative effects upon students especially groups such as adolescent girls who come from low income families not receiving appropriate sexual health education increases teenage pregnancy sexual victimization and high school dropout rates researchers state that it is important to educate students about all aspects of sexuality and sexual health to reduce the risk of these issues 86 the view that sexuality is victimization teaches girls to be careful of being sexually victimized and taken advantage of educators who hold this perspective encourage sexual education but focus on teaching girls how to say no teaching them of the risks of being victims and educate them about risks and diseases of being sexually active this perspective teaches adolescents that boys are predators and that girls are victims of sexual victimization researchers state that this perspective does not address the existence of desire within girls does not address the societal variables that influence sexual violence and teaches girls to view sex as dangerous only before marriage in reality sexual violence can be very prevalent within marriages too 86 another perspective includes the idea that sexuality is individual morality this encourages girls to make their own decisions as long as their decision is to say no to sex before marriage this education encourages self control and chastity 86 lastly the sexual education perspective of the discourse of desire is very rare in u s high schools 54 this perspective encourages adolescents to learn more about their desires gaining pleasure and feeling confident in their sexualities researchers state that this view would empower girls because it would place less emphasis on them as the victims and encourage them to have more control over their sexuality 86 research on how gender stereotypes affect adolescent sexuality is important because researchers believe it can show sexual health educators how they can improve their programming to more accurately attend to the needs of adolescents for example studies have shown how the social constructed idea that girls are supposed to not be interested in sex have actually made it more difficult for girls to have their voices heard when they want to have safer sex 87 88 at the same time sexual educators continuously tell girls to make choices that will lead them to safer sex but do not always tell them how they should go about doing this instances such as these show the difficulties that can arise from not exploring how society s perspective of gender and sexuality affect adolescent sexuality 89 brain maturity edit according to some studies several brain regions in the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex and in the hypothalamus that are deemed important for self control delayed gratification risk analysis and appreciation as well as the prefrontal cortex area of the human brain are not fully mature until the early 20s or about age 25 90 91 it is then argued that partially because of this young adolescents are generally less equipped than adults to make sound decisions and anticipate consequences of sexual behavior 92 although brain imaging and behavioral correlation studies on teenagers that characterize them as immature have been criticized for not being causative thus possibly reaffirming cultural biases 93 robert epstein argues that teen turmoil which is blamed on differences in brain structure and function between adolescents and adults is a relatively recent western phenomenon that is largely absent in pre industrial societies and is a result of infantilization of teenagers rather than inherent brain differences he reasons that if such incompetence and irresponsibility were truly a result of inherent brain differences then it would be present in all societies and cultures as a result many studies and health organizations suggest that teens wait until they are emotionally ready to have sex or to wait until at least age 16 93 historical research edit in 1988 two researchers from the university of north carolina ronald rindfuss and j richard udry submitted a proposal to the national institute of child health and human development nichd to study the health related risk behaviors of adolescents 94 the study was intended to collect data on the patterns of adolescent sexual behavior that could expose teenagers to sexually transmitted diseases the researchers designed the study to capture data on a national sample of 24 000 youth from the seventh to the eleventh grade 94 the american teen study had initially been approved by both the national advisory council of the nichd and by other nichd officials granting the study funding up to 2 5 million for the first year commencing in may 1991 94 one month after the approval start date of the study secretary louis sullivan of health and human services hhs cancelled the research study after having been questioned and berated by those that did not believe that research on adolescent sexual behaviors would be beneficial according to charrow 1991 this may have been the first time that a previously awarded amount of funding had been revoked 94 the american teen study sought to reveal the importance of investigating the health related risk taking behaviors of youth by gathering data across various social contexts such as at home and school 94 countless critics had condemned the study by insisting that the issue of teen sex behaviors had been studied excessively 94 centers for disease control 1991 show that the age of first intercourse for american girls began to decrease from 1985 to 1989 the number of massachusetts teens who reported engaging in sexual intercourse increased from 55 to 61 between the years 1986 1988 moreover it was found that the utilization of condoms by teenagers may decrease when they have multiple sexual partners 94 the authors 1993 state that the mathematical theory of epidemics reveals two factors about the rate of increasing infections during an epidemic the first is the probability of an uninfected person contracting aids from an infected person the transmission of a sexually transmitted disease such as hiv will depend on the sexual behaviors of individuals their personal safety practices when engaging in sexual intercourse and how often they are in contact with sexual partners 94 the second factor is the number of uninfected individuals that are in the population at the beginning of an epidemic a sexually transmitted disease spreads when the uninfected partner of an infected person becomes highly sexually active within the population leading to an increase in the amount of those infected as the population becomes more infected an infected person will be less likely to encounter an uninfected one leading to a decline in new infections however although the rate of new infections of hiv among older gay males has decreased it is dangerous to say that the same pattern has been observed for gay adolescents 94 similarly data suggests that heterosexual adolescents also engage in anal intercourse which can lead to an increase in the number of infected persons 10 of women at an adolescent planning center 19 of female canadian college students and 25 of black and hispanic women at a family planning center all reported engaging in anal intercourse with their partners 94 the statistics suggest that there is an increasing need for research on the sexual risk behaviors of adolescents 94 the current research on adolescent risk taking sexual behaviors lack three fundamentals conditions that would give sufficient and generalizable data on the current sexual behaviors of adolescents the first is that the research studies need to have large samples and thorough designs to cover the diverse populations of adolescents that range from various genders sexual orientations ethnicities races and cultures 94 second there needs to be research that studies the interaction between various social contexts such as riding in cars for enjoyment and adolescent sexual behaviors that leave youth susceptible to engaging in sexual intercourse lastly it would be necessary for repeated longitudinal studies on the sexual behaviors of adolescents as behaviors are constantly changing and may be open to different interpretations 94 the american teen study would have been utilized to conduct the type of research that would be needed to investigate the increasing rate of sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents 94 the authors 1993 suggest that the cancellation of the american teen stud...
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