Televised sexual content and parental mediation: Influences on adolescent sexuality

Little research has been conducted to examine the influence of exposure to televised sexual content on adolescent sexuality or how parental intervention may reduce negative effects of viewing such content. This study uses self-report data from 1,012 adolescents to investigate the relations among exposure to sexually suggestive programming, parental mediation strategies, and three types of adolescent sexuality outcomes: participation in oral sex and sexual intercourse, future intentions to engage in these behaviors, and sex expectancies. As predicted, exposure to sexual content was associated with an increased likelihood of engaging in sexual behaviors, increased intentions to do so in the future, and more positive sex expectancies. Often, parental mediation strategies were a significant factor in moderating these potential media influences.     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXUAL SELF-CONCEPT INVENTORY FOR EARLY ADOLESCENT GIRLS

The Sexual Self-Concept Inventory (SSCI) was developed to assess sexual self-concept in an ethnically diverse sample of urban early adolescent girls. Three scales (Sexual Arousability, Sexual Agency, and Negative Sexual Affect) were shown to be distinct and reliable dimensions of girls' sexual self-concepts. Validity was established through comparisons with established instruments. Sexual Arousability and Sexual Agency were associated with positive sexual self- esteem, positive future orientation toward sex, intentions to engage in intercourse, and lower levels of sexual experience. Negative Sexual Affect was associated with stronger abstinence attitudes and lack of intentions or orientation toward sex in the near future. The results indicate that the SSCI constitutes a valid means of assessing early adolescent girls' views of their sexuality and sexual behavior and may be of use in studies of health and risk-related decision making.     

Quick-fix sex: pseudosexuality in adolescents

This paper offers therapists, parents, and educators a model for understanding adolescent sexuality. The focus is on how nonsexual needs drive sexual behavior and produce an artificially high sex drive. It proposes that the overwhelming intensity of the adolescent sex drive is due to factors other than libido or biological phenomena. The critical factor in helping teenagers control their sexuality responsibly is to teach them what these needs are and how they influence sexual behavior.     

Social cognitive processes mediating the relationship between exposure to television's sexual content and adolescents' sexual behavior

This study used multiple-group structural equation modeling to test a model explaining the association between exposure to televised sexual content and initiation of intercourse among an ethnically diverse national sample of 1,292 adolescents. The authors hypothesized, on the basis of social-cognitive theory, that exposure to televised sexual content would influence adolescents' safe-sex self-efficacy, sex-related outcome expectancies, and perceived peer norms regarding sex, and that each of these would, in turn, influence intercourse initiation. Findings support a model in which the relationship between exposure to TV's sexual content and intercourse initiation is mediated by safe-sex self-efficacy among African Americans and Whites but not among Hispanics. Outcome expectancies and perceived peer norms may also mediate the link between exposure and intercourse initiation among all 3 racial/ethnic groups, although evidence of this could not be confirmed.     

Barriers to mother-adolescent communication about sex,maternal monitoring and sexual behaviour among adolescents in Mexico

Mexican mothers have an important role in adolescent sexuality; however, they report multiple barriers to parent–child sex communication, which may impact adolescent sexual behaviour. This cross-sectional study examines whether adolescent perceptions of maternal barriers to communication are associated with adolescent sexual behaviour frequency indirectly through its association with maternal monitoring, and whether these associations differ by age and gender. Mexican adolescents (N = 1433), ages 12–19 (53% girls), completed a survey on normative sexual behaviours, adolescent perceptions of maternal barriers to sex communication, and maternal monitoring. Structural equation modelling analyses revealed that more barriers to communication (adolescent perceptions) were associated with more sexual behaviour frequency (i.e., oral and vaginal sex) among Mexican adolescents indirectly through its association with maternal monitoring. Findings were stronger for adolescents in 8th grades, but no differences were found by gender. This model expands our understanding of the parenting factors that impact Mexican adolescent sexuality.     

Local erotic songs and chants among rural Nigerian adolescent males

This paper investigates local erotic songs and chants circulating among adolescent males in Nigeria. The purpose is to assess the critical themes which these erotic verses evoke and their potentials in the discursive construction of adolescent sexual identities and definition of the (erotic) spaces and meanings on the basis of which young Nigerian males constitute their sexual conducts. Data indicate high level of awareness and knowledge of local erotic songs and chants among adolescent males. The songs and chants were reportedly used to learn about gender and sex roles, the body, and sexuality, and for recreation. Themes in local boys’ erotic songs and chants are primarily male privileging and penis advantaging, and celebrate male sexual activity, desire, violence, ruthlessness, and risk-taking as well as male control and subordination of women and their body. The songs and chants depict feminity and female sexuality as inferior to masculinity and male sexuality and tend to objectify women’s body as a facility for male sexual pleasure. The paper argues that while erotic verses circulating among adolescent Nigerian males help relieve them of the difficulties caused by the cultural relegation of sex and sexuality to the realm of the unspoken, they contain very disturbing and potentially dangerous images that provide little space for male responsibility and respect for women. Local erotic verses circulating among adolescents present an under-explored resource in sexuality education and a critical entry point for current efforts to understand and help young people extricate themselves from the sea of half-truths, myths, and prejudices about sex and sexuality.     

Changing Discourse,Learning Sex,and Non-coital Heterosexuality

Young people learn what sex is, how to perform it, and what status it has largely through discourse. Sexual discourse has changed since the mid-twentieth century, but coitus still dominates heterosexual sex talk, and both change and continuity are reflected in adolescent sexual attitudes and behavior. Acceptance of non-coital sexuality among LGBTQ people and heterosexuals has increased, but these behaviors often have a different status when performed by members of each of these groups. Non-coital acts may be legitimately sexual when performed by non-heterosexuals, but coitus remains the paradigmatic heterosexual activity even though young heterosexuals often engage in non-coital behaviors. Young heterosexuals often differentiate real coital sex from quasi-sexual non-coital behaviors, and sexuality researchers, clinicians, and educators frequently reinforce this distinction and threaten the sexual status and self-esteem of young heterosexuals who do not like or cannot perform coitus. Many sexuality professionals urge young heterosexuals to recognize non-coital acts as sexual because of their risks of sexually transmitted infections, but sometimes also undermine this message by describing these acts as preliminaries to or substitutes for coitus. These professionals use an objective language of sexuality which presumably should supplant the mistaken usages of young people, but they overlook their own dependence on culturally constructed sexual discourse, and can impose needless problems on young people.     

African American Adolescent Females' Perceptions of Neighborhood Safety, Familial Strategies, and Sexual Debut

Sexual debut represents a developmental transition that holds possibility for growth and for risk. Family and neighborhood may impact timing of debut. This qualitative study examined family strategies (e.g., moving, parental monitoring), perceptions of neighborhood, and attitudes about sex and sexual debut among sexually experienced and inexperienced African American adolescent females living in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods. Findings show that more familial strategies were reported by sexually inexperienced females, suggesting that strategies may delay sexual debut. Furthermore, experiences with neighborhood violence related to attitudes about sex and sexual debut, suggesting a linkage between death anxiety and sexual debut among female youth.     

“Am I Still a Virgin?”: What Counts as Sex in 20 years of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Seventeen</Emphasis>

In this paper, I analyze what counts as sex using a qualitative content analysis of the sexuality and health advice columns in Seventeen from 1982 to 2001. These columns are a useful source for identifying adolescent sexual norms including what counts as sex. Previous sex research often assumed that sex meant penile–vaginal intercourse and was the cause of virginity loss. Thus, I use virginity-related key terms (e.g., virgin, sex) to identify the sexuality and health advice columns pertinent to this project. These columns illustrate how multiple sexual acts can cause virginity loss; however, Seventeen remains ambiguous in its discussion of what counts as sex. Letter writers are concerned with what sexual acts they can participate in and still remain virgins and what act defines virginity loss. My analysis reveals that the columns reinforce heteronormativity by telling readers virginity is lost only through penile–vaginal intercourse. Additionally, Seventeen supports the sexual double standard by placing the responsibility of sexual behavior solely on female adolescents rather than on them and their partners.     

Understanding the Relationship between Religiosity and Caregiver–Adolescent Communication About Sex within African-American Families

Caregiver–adolescent communication about sex plays a critical role in the sexual socialization of youth. Many caregivers, however, do not engage their youth in such conversations, potentially placing them at risk for negative sexual health outcomes. Lack of caregiver–adolescent communication about sex may be particularly harmful for rural African American youth, as they often report early sex initiation and are disproportionately impacted by STIs. Moreover, sexual communication may be particularly challenging for families with strong religious backgrounds, potentially affecting the occurrence and breadth of topics covered during communication. Study aims were to: determine whether there was a relationship between caregiver religiosity and type of topics covered during communication about sex (e.g., general sexual health vs. positive aspects of sexuality) among 435 caregivers of early adolescent, African American youth; and if so, identify factors that might explain how religiosity affects communication about sex. Results indicated that caregiver religiosity was positively associated with communication about general, but not positive aspects of sexuality for caregivers of males. Attitudes towards communication about sex and open communication style mediated the relationship. There was no association between religiosity and communication about sex for caregivers of females. The findings from this study could provide a base to better understand and support the sexual socialization process within religious, African American families.     

Adolescents' perceptions of friends' and parents' attitudes to sex and sexual risk-taking

This study investigated the association between adolescents' perceptions of parental and peer attitudes towards sexuality and AIDS precautions, and the risky sexual behaviours of 1008 sexually active, heterosexual undergraduate students aged 17-20 years. Students were asked to rate the extent to which their mothers, fathers and friends would agree or disagree with 16 statements reflecting support of the adolescent engaging in sexual behaviour and using sexual precautions, including precautions against AIDS. The adolescents also indicated whether they were sexually active and their level of condom use in both ‘regular’ (or steady) and ‘casual’ relationships. Results indicated that adolescents perceived their parents as non-liberal in their sexual attitudes and relatively unlikely to discuss sex or precautions with them. Parents were viewed as more accepting of their sons' sexual behaviours than of their daughters'. Adolescents believed that peers were more likely to discuss sexuality and precautions than parents, and were more liberal in their sexual attitudes. Adolescent sexual risk-taking was related to the perceived attitudes of significant others in ways which varied across gender and type of relationship. Implications for interventions are discussed.     

School administrators, parents, and sex education: a resolvable paradox?

The emergence of AIDS as an untreatable, lethal disease, responding to educational prevention strategies in high-risk populations, has brought the issues of sex education in the public schools to the forefront. However, administrators, teachers, and parents perceive different barriers to sex education implementation. This study, undertaken in a northeastern, multigenerational, ethnic city, characterized by adolescent pregnancy rates a third higher than the state overall, polled 42 junior and senior high school administrators regarding educational priorities, perceived barriers to expansion of sex education, and preferred methods of introducing sex education. Administrators perceive parents as a major barrier to the introduction of more formalized sex education in their schools. Paradoxically, these same administrators felt that parents were generally uncomfortable in talking to their children about human sexuality. Recommendations are offered from existing models of health education for resolution of administrators' conflicting views on parental roles.     

It Works Both Ways: The Relationship Between Exposure to Sexual Content in the Media and Adolescent Sexual Behavior

Using a longitudinal Web-based survey of adolescents 14–16 years of age, we estimate regression models where self-reported sexual behavior and content analytic-based exposure to sex in the media are related cross-sectionally and longitudinally. We find evidence for both cross-sectional nonrecursive and prospective longitudinal relationships even after adjusting for both established predictors of sexual behavior (e.g., physical development, having a romantic partner, parental monitoring, peer and parental norms, respondent's age) and of exposure to sexual media content (e.g., time the respondent goes to bed, extracurricular activities, television in the bedroom, total time spent with television, music, video games, and magazines). Sexually active adolescents are more likely to expose themselves to sex in the media and those exposed to sex in the media are more likely to progress in their sexual activity. These findings are consistent with others in the literature that demonstrate a causal effect of exposure to sexual content on sexual behavior but extend established results by also looking at the causal effect of sexual behavior on exposure both cross-sectionally and over time.     

亲子性话题沟通风格对青少年性行为和性态度的预测： 依恋的调节效应

采用问卷法探讨了亲子间性话题沟通风格与青少年性行为、性态度的关系,并考查了亲子依恋的调节效应。结果发现：（1）两个关于性别、父母职业和受教育程度的多元方差分析表明：男生与女生在与父亲和母亲的性话题沟通开放性上均没有显著差异,与父亲和母亲性话题沟通的舒适感上有显著差异。男生与父亲的性话题沟通风格好于与母亲的,而女生与母亲的性话题沟通风格好于与父亲的。父母的职业和受教育程度以及青少年性别、父母职业、受教育程度的交互作用不显著;（2）进一步的结构方程模型分析表明：青少年与父母性话题沟通开放性对性行为具有显著的负向预测作用,对不赞同同伴性行为的态度具有显著的正向预测作用;而青少年与父母性话题沟通舒适感对不赞同同伴性行为的态度具有显著的负向预测作用;（3）依恋对性话题沟通和青少年的性行为的关系有显著的调节作用,与完全安全依恋的家庭相比,在与父母依恋都不安全的家庭中,青少年与父母性话题沟通的开放性对青少年的性行为有更强的预测力     

Adolescent Girls’ Sexual Empowerment: Two Feminists Explore the Concept

Although all feminists tend to value empowered female sexuality, feminists often disagree, sometimes heatedly so, about the definition of and path to empowered sexuality among adolescent girls. In this theoretical paper, two feminists, who have previously expressed differing perspectives regarding adolescent girls’ sexual empowerment (Lamb 2010a, b; Peterson 2010), discuss their disagreements and attempt to find some common ground in their viewpoints on girls’ sexuality. A critical question related to sexual empowerment is whether empowerment includes a subjective sense of efficacy, desire, and pleasure. In other words, are girls sexually empowered if they feel that they are empowered? The authors identify three themes that make answering this question particularly challenging—age differences, exposure to sexualized media, and the pressure to please a partner. Despite these challenges, the authors identify several points of consensus, including agreeing that adequate sexuality education and media literacy education are vital to optimizing adolescent girls’ sexual empowerment.     

Parental and family risk factors for substance use in inner-city African-American children and adolescents

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a multidimensional model of parental and family influences on risk for substance use in inner-city African-American primary grade children and their adolescent siblings. The risk factors investigated were conceptually grouped into three broad domains of family influences and the respective indices computed: parental risk attributes, family risk attributes, and parenting styles. Parenting styles were captured as indicators of a latent construct, poor parenting. In study 1, we hypothesized that the parental and family risk variables would be mediated through parenting styles to predict intentions to use drugs, actual drug use, positive drug attitudes, and negative drug attitudes in a sample of 455 inner-city African-American families and their primary-grade children. In study 2, the substance use risk model was tested on a sample of 59 adolescent sibilings to determine whether the pattern of parental and family factors that contributed to early high-risk attitudes and behaviors in children would predict drug attitudes and behaviors in teen siblings. The results confirmed our expectations that parental and family risks were important predictors of childrens' negative drug attitudes and intentions to use drugs in the future and that positive parental and family characteristics would protect against future risk by enhancing negative drug attitudes. Also, substance use attitudes and behaviors in the teen siblings were predicted primarily by family risk characteristics. The family risk index also predicted frequency of use of hard drugs, but only when mediated through poor parenting. The implications of these results for future research are discussed.     

Paradox of Parental Involvement in Sexual Health and Induced Abortions Among In-school Female Adolescents in Southwest Nigeria

Prevalent early sexual initiation and unprotected sex involvement with various partners create dilemmas for adolescents and their parents. This article explores parents' involvement in their adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health, particularly with respect to terminating unintended pregnancies. This was done to gain an understanding of the dynamics of parental involvement in resolving anxieties concerning unintended pregnancy and the reasons for seeking induced abortions. The study used a mixed method approach, and 460 female students aged 13–20 years completed the self-administered questionnaire. Thirty-three parents who had an adolescent daughter in school and 31 female adolescents participated in eight different focus group discussion sessions, respectively. A quarter of the respondents had been pregnant at least once. All the females who had ever become pregnant had tried to terminate the pregnancy. Few (9 %) had used contraception at their last sexual intercourse. Twenty nine percent of the respondents had discussed sexual matters with their parents and 82 % preferred discussing such matters with their mothers. In the qualitative findings, some of the parents reported not having been involved in or supportive of terminating their daughter's pregnancy, but confirmed that some mothers had reasons to support induced abortions. Major reasons for mothers' involvement in their daughters' induced abortions were to avoid the social stigma, disruption of schooling and financial stress associated with unintended pregnancy. Resolving conflicting parental interests and values concerning adolescent sexuality and induced abortions is essential for promoting adolescent sexual health in Nigeria.     

Sexuality education groups in juvenile detention

Several major studies have described the magnitude and character of adolescent sexual activity and sexual knowledge related to contraception and sexually transmitted diseases (Diepold & Young, 1979; Hass, 1979; Sorenson, 1973; Zelnick & Kantner, 1980). Few systematic studies have been conducted, however, which analyze the attitudes toward sexuality and contraception of delinquent adolescents who are generally school dropouts and who may engage in socially unacceptable behaviors such as running away, drug abuse, and prostitution. Delinquent youths, especially delinquent girls, have been characterized as being more sexually active and less sexually knowledgeable than their nondelinquent peers (Gibbon, 1981; Mannarino & Marsh, 1978). Despite the assumed high-risk nature of this delinquent population, few juvenile detention facilities have offered systematically evaluated coeducational sex education programs. One barrier to implementation of such programs in juvenile detention centers is the lack of a treatment or program orientation of most staff, and/or staff denial of adolescent sexuality in general, an attitude which suppresses the development of healthier sexual values and often promotes pathologic sexual interaction within institutions (Shore & Gochros, 1981). A recent survey of adolescent sexuality (Diepold, 1979) points out that teenagers' feelings about their "sexual selves" impacts greatly upon their general self-image. Low self-esteem is more frequently found among delinquents than nondelinquents (Jones & Swain, 1977; Lund & Salury, 1980), and treatment for delinquent girls often focuses on increasing self-esteem and developing assertiveness skills based on feelings of self-worth (DeLange, Lanahan, & Barton, 1981; NiCarthy, 1981). Two studies carried out with juvenile detainees from a large urban center confirmed that sexual activity among delinquent adolescents is significantly greater than that of the general adolescent population, and that the delinquents have little or no knowledge of birth control methods or venereal disease (Deisher, 1980; Schroeder, 1981). Further, these adolescents appear to endorse constricted and conventional values related to sexual activity, abortion, and relationship issues and frequently have a background of sexual abuse and prostitution. These findings form the basis of the current study which attempts to develop an effective coeducational sex education program for this population within a detention facility. This program is specifically designed for a sexually active adolescent group aged 14 to 17.     

Safe Sex Education for Adolescent Daughters: vhaVenda Mothers Views

The study explored vhaVenda mothers' perceptions of imparting safe sex education to their adolescent daughters. Data was collected through six focus group discussions with each group consisting of six to eight mothers. The results indicated that mothers want their children to be knowledgeable about sexuality to avoid consequences associated with negative sexual behaviour. The mothers were of the vew that children ought to receive sexuality education from parents. Nonethless, relatively few parents appear to be eager to discuss sexuality in great depth.