Sexuality in adolescence
Anna Ševčíková
(asevciko@fss.muni.cz)
Overview
• Effects of puberty on sexual development
• Review of developmental tasks
• Sexual behaviors in numbers
• Psychosocial factors related to sexual development
Biological markers of puberty
• Phase of adrenarche: emissions of androgens from adrenal cortex
• In girls at age 6 (years), in boys at age 8 (years)
• Growth of primary and secondary sexual characteristics
• Breast, penis, scrotum growth, pubic hair growth (after the start of breast
growth at age 10), testes growth (at age 12)
• Growth spurt (in girls at age 11, in boys at age 14)
• Changes in the proportion of muscle mass and fat
• Boys: 1,5 x muscle mass than in girls, girls: 2 x body fat than boys
• enlargement of circulatory and respiratory system
Psychological aspects of puberty
• Girls:
• Increase of negative emotions (anger, sadness) (due to luteinizing hormone)
• rapidity of pubertal changes – effects on mood
• Fast changes → more problems
• Slower pace → more time for adjustment → better wellbeing
• Boys:
• Higher amount of testosterone → less mood problems but more behavioral
problems
• Association with the approaching the ideal of male beauty
Earlier puberty and consequences
• Girls:
• Poor academic career, poor mental health (lower self-esteem, suicidal
ideations), problem behavior (drug, earlier sexual debut, conflicts with
parents)
• Reasons:
• No longer group belongingness
• deviation from female beauty
• Greater peer pressure with regards to dating and sexuality
• Boys?
Review of developmental tasks I
• 11 – 14 years
• Context: parental surveillance, same-sex peer, media effects
• Recognition of one-self as sexual being (sexually attracted to others, sexually
attractive for others, mindful about reproductive capacity)
• Beginning of the development of sexual fantasies
• Differentiation of sexual activities in girls and boys
• Application of gender roles in sexual activities
• Double standard (traditional sexual scripts – Gagnon & Simon, 1973)
• Homosocial norms stemming from same-sex peer norms
• Reinforcement of gender roles due to media
Review of developmental tasks II
• 15 – 18 years
• Same-sex group, mixed-sex group, less strong parental authority,
stronger media consumption?
• Sexual acts are more embedded in non-sexual social relationships
• More open to heterosocial norms
• Sexual experiences with several peers
• Maturation of the development of sexual fantasies
• Consolidated understanding of gender differences in sexual roles and
activities
• E.g. differences in a good or bad girl
Review of developmental tasks III
• 18 + (emerging adulthood)
• Partner selection
• More active sexual life
• Men learn to love, women learn to have sex
• Legitimization of sexual activities (experimentation)
• Stabilization of sexual identity/orientation
Sexual behaviors
• Sexual fantasies
• The most common (72 %)
• Function:
• learning one’s own sexual needs/desires
• prediction of one’s own sexual responses
• Masturbation
• 1/3 girls and 2/3 boys masturbate at age 13-15
• BUT at age 19: 21% women and 90% men
• Not really substitute activity – more common among sexual active individuals
• Partner sex
• The most common sexual script: kissing – necking – petting – vaginal/sexual
intercourse
• Not always universal
Age of sexual debut (vaginal intercourse)
• CZ (Weiss, 2012)
Age of sexual debut (Bozon & Kontula, 1998)
GR BE DK FI FR DE
1922-
1931)
1932-
1941)
1942-
1951)
1952-
1961)
1962-6)
1972-3)
1967-
1971)
22,8
17,5
17,3
19,0
20,4
17,4
20,9
18,0
18,4
17,4 16,7
19,0
18,0 16,6 17,0 18,1
17,7 17,7
18,8 20,7 18,0 21,1 20,2 20,9
Age of sexual debut (Bozon & Kontula, 1998)
1922-
1931)
1932-
1941)
1942-
1951)
1952-
1961)
1962-6)
1972-3)
1967-
1971)
22,817,3
20,4 20,9 18,4 19,0 18,8 20,7 18,0 21,1 20,2
GB IS NL NO PT CH
19,1
17,0 17,3 16,4 16,3
18,3 18,3
18,1 17,5 16,2 19,0 18,2 18,44
19,5
19,321,2 21,618,717,820,9
19,2
24,319,5 16,4
Psychosocial factors related to sexual development
• Biological characteristics: early puberty + menarché at a lower age – earlier sexual
debut (Crokett et al., 2003)
• Psychological characteristics:
• Depression in younger girls → earlier sexual debut
• No association between self-esteem and earlier sexual debut
• Problem behavior: criminal or unethical behavior → earlier sexual debut
• Risk behavior = more sexual experiences
• Attitudes: stronger religiosity – less sexual experiences
• Academic achievement – better grades, academic ambitions – delayed sexual debut
Psychosocial factors related to sexual development
• Social factors
• Quality of relationships between parents and children
• Quality of communication between parents and children
• Monitoring children
• Family structure
• single-parent household = earlier sexual debut
• Older siblings
• Lower social-economic status of the family
Psychosocial factors related to sexual development
• Social factors
• Peers
• Evaluate and approve the selection of a romantic partner
• collective = facilitate/inhibit following sexual norms
• Peer effects (Brown, 1999; Connolly & Goldberg, 1999)
• Initiation phase (11–13): interest in the opposite sex
• Status phase (14–16): romantic relationships within peer groups
• Affection phase (17-20): reorientation towards the dyad
• Romantic partner
• Sex primary within romantic relationships
Psychosocial factors related to sexual development
• Social factors
• Poverty in their living environment
• Media as a superpeer!
Summary
• Greater knowledge about effects of puberty on girls
• More risks for girls
• Early sexual debut = riskier for girls
• Exploration of sexuality = riskier for girls (due to double standard)
• Sexually active teens = wider repertoire of sexual activities
• The age of sexual debut decreases but not necessarily valid for our
generation
• The strongest peer pressure related to sexuality in mid-adolescence
• Family and poverty: strong social factors in sexual development
• Media