Sexual Behaviour Flashcards
How has young people’s sexual behaviour changed?
More likely to have had sex - age is lower now than it was in the past
Larger changes for girls
Proportion before 16 has increased - used to be 10% now 40%
Reduction in medium age of intercourse and oral - oral gone from 27-17 girls and 23-16 boys
Changes in monogamy and promiscuity
Young people are more likely than older people to have had more than one sexual partner in the last year
More likely to have concurrent partners, less likely to be monogamous
Rise in non relationship sex among young people
What are the influences on young people’s sexual activity?
Physiological development Psychological development Family Peers Media/internet Young peoples attitudes
Physiological development
Pubertal changes - go from not being able to reproduce, to being able too
4 year process, age 11-13
average growth spurt of 25cm, weight gain of 40lb
changes in hormones - testosterone and estradiol
end point - sexual maturation and adult physique
Psychological development
Gains in intellectual capacity - being able to deal with abstract logic
Exporation of behaviour and identity - what is happening to my body, puberty falling so people may not have cog capacity to understand it
Sex is part of socialisation into adult world
Risk taking in adolescence is developmentally appropriate
Family influences
Retrospective and longitudinal research shows later initiation of sex occurs in girls who have better relationships with their fathers and mothers, but this doesn’t influence boys timing
earlier sexual activity might also be linked to divorce or living in a one parent family I parent is dating - modelling
not deterministic, just tendencies
Peer influences
Earlier sexual activity is related to the perception that more adolescent peers are sexually active.. but this is a false consensus effect:
adolescents overestimate the level of peer sexual activity, have to go with what people tell you, they may life
overestimating peer activity is greater among the sexually experienced - norm shaping behaviour is an inaccurate norm
Media and internet influences
More permissive attitudes (thinking it is ok) if exposed to sexual content in the media, and perceive more media support
more frequent exposure to sexual elicit material = lower satisfaction, particularly for less experienced
use of sexual media interacts with peer norms, more positive attitudes to sex who use sexual media and think their peers have positive attitudes to media
Why does more frequent exposure to the media lead to lower satisfaction?
Portrayal on the media isn’t what actually happens, it is fantasy and they are paid to do it
it is unrealistic, when it comes to real life, people are disappointed
What are the positive effects of the media?
It can be a safe space e.g. safety rehearsing coming out but online sexual victimisation is common
What are young peoples attitudes towards sex?
More permissive compare to older people and compared to history
Less likely to think oral sex is sex
Levels of approval of pre marital sex has increased
Earlier activity related to more positive attitudes
What are the changes in attitudes and behaviour?
meta analysis of 530 samples
more permissive attitudes (less guilt and more approval of premarital sex) - men only
more are sexually active and at younger ages - men and women
more oral sex - women only
Are more positive attitudes related to greater engagement in behaviours?
Stronger attitude behaviour links for women
For men, behaviour was only predicted by earlier attitudes
For women, there were reciprocal attitude behaviour links - attitudes changes behaviour changing attitudes etc
What are the consequences of young people’s sexual activity?
Experience - timing/regret
Risks - teen pregnancy, motherhood, STI’s
Responses - education
What are people’s responses to first sexual experience?
Many young people regret the timing
the likelihood of regretting is greater the younger they had sex, women more regretful than men
13-14 female - 84%
13-14 male - 42%
girls more likely to have negative feelings, having a low fam background and partner 2 years older was a predictor - pressured
biggest influence was being a girl or boy
Teenage pregnancy
Uk had highest teen birth rate in Europe, second highest in the world
USA - 52.1 births per 1,000
UK - 30.8
English speaking countries have highest teenage birth rates
it fell following the teenage pregnancy strategy but is still higher
cross national differences cannot be attributed only to differences in sexual activity
responses to teenage sexual activity have marital effects
What is teenage motherhood predicted by?
socioeconomic disadvantage being born to a teenage mother expectation of being a teenage parent low educational experience poor or no sex education poor communication with parents
What is teenage motherhood linked too?
Disadvantage later in life but only if birth is the outcome
Have their been increases in STI’s?
Total STI episodes seen at GUM clinics doubled
Diagnoses of gonorrhoea and chlamydia doubled
Sustained increase in diagnosis of most other STI’s
they are common among young people due to more sexual partners, non-monogamy and inconsistent use of barrier methods
Condom use
Young people more likely to use condoms than older people, use is influenced by unintended pregnancy
there is a tradeoff between condoms and other contraception
What affects condom use?
Most likely effect:
communication about condoms
least likely effect:
knowledge about them
interventions that include a skills component in addition to knowledge/attitudes are the most effective, condom use is unlike other behaviours as it involves more than one person
When promoting condom use, what should interventions target?
positive attitudes positive peer norms self-efficacy intentions perception of condom use as effective contraception condom use skill
What do adolescents want to know about in terms of sex ed?
using sexual health services managing relationships, dealing with jealousy, love and attraction how people have sex sexual pleasure masturbation homosexuality, bisexuality
What education is favoured?
Peer education is rated more favourably than teacher delivered sexuality education but it is no better than influencing behaviour or outcomes
