Developmental Paper

Studies show that the national average for an adolescent’s first sexual intercourse encounter is seventeen years old. Despite this number being very close to the average age in other industrialized countries, the United States holds a higher percentage of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease (STD) contraction than those countries (Harper et al, 2010, p. 125). It’s becoming evident that while a majority of the nation’s youth is sexually active, they are not doing so with the appropriate knowledge to keep themselves and others healthy.

Teens end up getting sexually transmitted diseases because they are unaware of the consequences of unprotected sex. No abstinence-only program affected the incidence of unprotected vaginal sex (The Australian). Annually 3 million teenagers contract STDs from their partner (Robert Rector). Teens who have early sex not only suffer from STDs, they also have emotional and physical damage. Research shows that young people who become sexually

By comparing those activities and the environment in which the black and white adolescents are raised in, it is reasonable to assume that adolescents often behave similarly to the people they pass the most amount of time with. Christerson, Edwards and Flory express that “white teens spend more time with their friends and therefore have fewer obstacles to using drugs and alcohol” (Christerson, Edwards, Flory 55). Based on this citation, and according to Christerson, Edwards and Flory, African Americans teens are supervised by their parents and spend a lot of time with them. By the logic of the group of three authors, it can be assumed that black adolescents are given less opportunity to engage in alcohol and in drugs due to their tight bond with their families, who don’t encourage those type of activity. However, as previously stated by the authors of Growing up in America, black teens have sex before marriage which goes against their religious beliefs. The authors relate the frequency at which African American youth have vaginal sexual intercourse with pressure from their friends. Christerson, Edwards and Flory could be wrong in this particular case. If black teens do in fact spend a majority of their time with parents, they shouldn’t have any desire in having sex before marriage. A more logical explanation is that when teens goes through puberty, they’re awareness of the opposite sex increases

In the last decade or so, however, the growing awareness of the dangers of AIDS does appear to have contributed to a decline in the rates of sexual intercourse among teens. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that between 1991 and 2005 the percentage of teenagers who are sexually active dropped from 57.4 percent to 46.3 percent among males and from 50.8 percent to 44.9 percent among females. The rates of pregnancy, abortion, and sexually transmitted disease among teens have actually dropped even faster than the rate of sexual activity. So it appears that, in addition to postponing sex, teens are also becoming more responsible in their sexual activities. For example, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 87.5 percent of teens were either abstinent or used condoms. Of course, that means that 12.5 percent of teens were still having unprotected sex, but that is a significant improvement over past decades. Similarly, although the rate of teen pregnancy has declined, more than 11 percent of the babies born in the United States

One of the major topics correlated with adolescents is the increase in sexual activity among adolescents (Miller & More, 1990). The dramatic increase in sexual intercourse among members of the United States, mostly homosexual men, lead to one of the worst epidemics in history, the AIDS

An experiment completed in 2002 identified sex related differences in adolescent risky behavior, with a sample size of 9,601 females and 9,165 males. 32% of males, and 31% of females had friends who used substances. 25% of females engaged in delinquent activities and 39% of males engaged in delinquent activities. 22% of females were smokers, and 21% of males were also smokers. 37% of females were or have had sexual intercourse, and 39% of males. 64% of females used contraception during their first sexual intercourse, and 65% of males used contraception. “p≤.001;∗∗p≤.01;∗p≤.05.” (Wilder, I. E, Watt, T. T 2002). The use of contraception has increased since the 1970’s, but studies show that adolescents are still unlikely to use contraception always. 30% of females, and 18% of males did not use contraception the last time they had intercourse. (Wilder, I. E, Watt, T. T 2002). There are still ongoing issues pertaining to the adolescent’s willingness to participate in risky behavior. One-third of adolescents from the study concluded that they did not use contraception during their first sexual intercourse. Parent’s exposing their children to risky behaviors in turn risk having children who participate in negative

The first risk factor is contextual factor, such as socioeconomic status and poverty, family and peer factors. The study showed that the percentage of sexually active young adolescents is higher in low-income areas of inner cities (Morrison-Beedy & others, 2013). A recent study revealed that neighborhood poverty concentrations predicted 15- to 17-year-old girls’ and boys’ sexual initiation (Cubbin & others, 2010). Children from low-income families are more likely to fall into the bad habits because they are lack of discipline from parents who are busy making a live. The second one is family factors. The family connectedness and parent-adolescent communication about sexuality can predict the sexual outcome. A study shows that sexual risk-taking behavior was more likely to occur in girls living in single-parent homes (Hipwell & others, 2011).

This paper will examine how parental monitoring effects the risky sexual practices performed by adolescents, ranging from seventh to twelfth grade. One study that examined whether parental monitoring mediated the relationship between community violence exposure and spectrum such as recidivism, risky, sex, and drug use among youth with a history of being detained, found that females exhibited more risky sexual behaviors compared to males, even though they reported significantly higher levels of parental monitoring (Viosin, Tan, Tack, Wade, DiClemente, 2012). Similar to what I plan on finding, Huang et al. (2011)’s data shows that most males reported having lower parental monitoring than females. In addition, adolescents that recorded having

In the reviews the authors found that negative socioeconomic situations experienced at the community and family levels affect teen’s sexual behaviors and add to higher numbers in teen birth rates in the U.S.

While parents would like their children to wait as long as possible to begin having sex, the reality is that teens are having sex much younger than many parents think. Some teens, or preteens, begin having sex or engaging in sexual behavior in junior high. By the time they are seniors in high school, an estimated 65 percent of teens have had sex, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2007. (Dawn, 2009). Unfortunately, a percentage of those teens will become pregnant. After more than a decade and a half of decline (a 27 percent drop from 1991 to 2000), teen birth rates rose again in 2006, which was the last year for which data are available. It is still unclear on what caused teen birth rates to rise again, with supporters of abstinence-only sex education programs and contraception-based programs each blaming the other side for the increase. However, a 2007 study in the Journal of American Public Health attributed the trend in decreasing pregnancy rates to improved contraception use among teens during that time. (Anderson Orr, 2009).

For example, if one adolescent participates in early sexual initiation, other adolescents from his/her peer group are then more likely to form the attitude this action is appropriate and then also participate in the same risky behavior. Therefore, if an adolescent is allowed the opportunity to interact with risk-taking peers, positive family factors may no longer be a protective factor against risk taking behaviors (Smith et al. 2005). However, if parents are aware that their adolescent’s peer group participates in risky behaviors and restrict their adolescent’s involvement in the peer group, this parental monitoring may buffer the negative impact of the peer group. On the other hand, if a parent is less involved, possibly due to parenting stress, maternal depression, etc., then an adolescent may continue engaging with the risk taking peer group. Continued exposure to a group of risk taking peers will in turn influence the adolescent’s own risk taking attitudes and behaviors (Galan, 2016).

It is known that a lot of adolescents engage in different sexual intercourse before they even graduate from high school. A study that was conducted in 2014 by the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina stated how this type of high risk sexual behavior is the reason as to why these kinds of actions have resulted in more than 9 million new cases involving sexually transmitted diseases, and 8,300 new cases of human immunodeficiency viruses, which include things such as HIV. These results continued between adolescents and new coming adults. The study also found that if you have a well-established open communication about the different sexual health issues with your partner that promotes safer sexual

Twenge, Sherman and Wells (2015) examined how Americans changed their sexual behaviors from 1972-2012. For instance, participants born before 1950 can recall a time when sex outside or marriage was taboo perhaps their sexual behavior attitude has changed in three ways; time period which is a cultural change that affects people of all ages, the generational or cultural change that primarily affects young people, and age developmental effect.

With the increase of cases of sexually transmitted diseases being reported, the young population today have to be more careful than ever before when it comes to having sex and sexual behavior. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 41% of U.S. high school students reported to having sexual intercourse and of those who are sexually active 43% did not use a condom the last time they had sex. (CDC, 2015) This unhealthy sexual behavior increase the risk of contracting STD’s and causing unintended pregnancy. The population between 13-24 are also responsible for about 22% of new HIV diagnoses in the United States and about 20 million new STDs cases are reported each year among the young

In the past decade the use and abuse of tobacco, alcohol, illegal drugs, and sexual intercourse has become a serious problem among teenagers. Many studies have been conducted to address this problem, such as the annual survey put out by Michigan State University. The deficiencies in these studies include the locality in which these studies are done as well as how to address these problems within a small community rather than broadband.