Sexuality in Adolescence

Patterns of physical maturation are parallel throughout the world, but the development of sexuality varies dramatically from culture to culture. As seen in Table 1, the timing of marriage and sexual intercourse varies widely. Cross-cultural differences in marriage patterns, courtship rituals and sexual norms are also related to differences in adolescent sexual behavior (Miller and Benson 1999). TABLE 1

Social and cultural norms can either encourage or inhibit romantic and sexual behavior; the cultural context in which sexuality develops is important to the outcomes of that development. Romantic love has been associated more with Western cultures than traditional cultures, but romantic love (intense attraction that involves the idealization of the other within an erotic context, with the expectation of enduring some time into the future) is found in 88.5 percent of cultures ( Jankowiak and Fischer 1994). Despite the prevalence of romantic love, the ways in which it is expressed varies widely. In the United States, sexual behaviors are normatively experienced in dating relationships; that is, adolescents usually first engage in sexual intercourse as part of romantic, dating relationships. Romantic feelings become prominent among adolescents by the mid-teenage years, and for most adolescents, especially females, these feelings are the basis for entry into sexual experience. Casual or nonromantic sexual experiences are also part of the teenage sexual landscape (Miller and Benson 1999). Although the double standard allowing males but not females to pursue purely sexual relationships is disappearing, gender-based differences remain in what is considered most important in a relationship. Females are likely (75%) to first engage in coitus in a relationship they characterize as being serious or steady, whereas males more often report (50%) that their first coitus was in a casual dating relationship. Males choose partners based on physical attractiveness, whereas females tend to associate sex with commitment. Dating relationships tend to follow a natural progression from casual to steady to permanent, although sequential stages have become less predictable in recent years (Miller and Benson 1999).

Noncoital sexual activity. Although adolescent coitus patterns mentioned previously provide important facts about teenage sexual behavior, adolescents usually do not go from being nonsexual to having sexual intercourse. Couples tend to follow a continuum from embracing and kissing to fondling, then petting, and finally more intimate behaviors that include vaginal intercourse (Miller and Benson 1999). Haffner (1998) reported that nearly 90 percent of teenagers say they have a boyfriend or girlfriend and that they have kissed someone romantically. By age fourteen, half of the boys reported having touched a girl's breasts and a quarter have touched a girl's genitals, and 75 percent report heavy petting by age eighteen. As many as half of the adolescents in the United States report experiencing cunnilingus or fellatio (oral sex) (Haffner 1998) with very little known about the percentage who experience sexual behaviors with partners of the same sex. Although most teenagers move through a progression of sexual behaviors, adolescents living in poverty are more likely to move directly from kissing to intercourse. Older teenagers tend to behave more responsibly in romantic relationships, basing relational decisions on mutual feelings, long-term plans, and commitment rather than desire for sexual relations (Miller and Benson 1999). Recent studies also have shown that early age of first romantic relationship is associated with early age at first intercourse (Flanigan 2001). Internationally, little information is available on the noncoital sexual activities of adolescents.

Although the majority of teenagers in the United States follow the patterns mentioned above, some do not. Sexual coercion is one possible explanation of why some move more quickly to sexual intercourse without first developing romantic attachments. About 22 percent of women and 2 percent of men in the United States report being forced into unwanted sexual acts at some time in their lives (Michael, Gagnon, Laumann, and Kolata 1994). Women who have intercourse in early adolescence are much more likely to have been coerced. Three out of four women who first had intercourse before age fourteen, and three out of five of those experiencing intercourse before age fifteen, reported doing so against their will. Having a coerced sexual experience can have long lasting effects on young women. Brent C. Miller and Brad Benson (1999) summarized studies that women who experienced forced sex at an early age also tended to be younger at first voluntary intercourse, less likely to use contraceptives, had more frequent sexual experience, greater numbers of sexual partners, higher incidence of drug and alcohol abuse, and greater risk of emotional problems. Those coerced into early sexual intercourse are also more likely to trade sex for money, drugs, alcohol, or a place to stay. Other research has reported similar outcomes (Miller, Monson, and Norton 1995). These patterns are apparent among African Americans, Latinos/Latinas, and European Americans (Perkins, Luster, Villarruel, and Small 1998).