Environmental Influence Of Sexuality On Adolescents

Ryan, Caitlin Ryan; Russell, Stephen, T.; Huebner, David; Diaz, Rafael; Sanchez, Jorge, 2010, Family Acceptance in Adolescence and the Health of LGBT young Adults, Journal of Child and Adolescence Psychiatric Nursing, Volume 23, pp. 205-213

Human sexuality is a common phrase for all, and anything, pertaining to the feelings and behaviors of sex for the human race. Sexuality has been a topic that has been discussed and studied for as far back as 1000 years B.C. and is still being studied today. As the discussion of sexuality has progressed through history, theories have been created based on research and experiments that scholars have implemented, based on their own perceptions of human behavior. Out of the many theories that pose to explain sexual behavior, Sexuality Now explained ten that are seemed to be the most overlapped, and built off of theories. Of these theories, two that were discussed in the text were the behavioral and sociological theory. These two theories cover some of the basic ideas of what could possibly influence a person’s sexuality.

Sexual behaviors and experimentation are very much a part of childhood development. Normative sexual behaviors of children consists of preschool children poking others bodies, and being interested in bathroom functions, while children ages 5 to 7 years are telling dirty jokes, kissing, and holding hands, and children ages 8 to 12 years, are mooning and exhibitionism, kissing, and touching others’ genitals (Caldwell, 2007). However when children are not supervised appropriately they are capable of sexually harming other children. Adolescents are accountable for perpetrating 20% of all sexual assaults, along with 50% of all child sexual abuse cases (Keelan & Fremouw, 2013). However in considering that statistic some sexual harming behaviors can be within the parameters of normal child behavior, and sometimes rarely signal predatory inclinations (Caldwell, 2007). The vast majority of youth harmful sexual acts are manifestations of non-sexual feelings. In fact, many mental health care professionals have found that much of the behavior classified as sex offenses should not necessarily be considered predatory. Therapists point out that many sexual offenses are carried out by naïve experimenters who are overly impulsive and/or immature adolescents that sometimes engage in sexual experimentation (Smith, Wampler, Jones, & Reifman, 2005). Examining the sexual behavior along with the age of the perpetrator and victim helps classify whether or not those behaviors fall

Sexual abuse of children damages them for them entire lifetimes and robs them of the full, comfortable relationships they should have as adults. However, given these differences, sexual abuses evokes similar responses in everyone because it is as aggressive and conceive abuses of power that is expensive as humiliating, degrading and destruction. One of the major achievements of the past quarter century has been the growing awareness of the prevalence and changing psychological consequences of the sexual abuse of children. The majority of perpetrators are someone the child or family knows. As many as 93% of victims under the age of 18 know the abuser. A perpetrator does not have to be an adult to harm a child. They can have any relationship to the child including an older sibling or playmate, family member, a teacher, a coach or instructor, a caretaker, or the parent of another child. According to 1 in 6, sexual abuse is the result of abusive behavior that takes advantage of a child’s vulnerability and is in no way related to the sexual orientation of the abusive person.”

It can be very difficult for LGBTQ children to be open about their sexuality or gender orientation, especially if they do not receive support from the ones who are supposed to love them no matter what. Parents positively influence the health of their LGBTQ children by providing support an encouragement. Children should be able to talk to their parents about their issues and receive beneficial advice and support. Parents’ influence on the health of lesbian, gay, and bisexual teens: What parents and families should know explained that parents who support their LGBTQ children decrease the risk of the children becoming depressed, abusing drugs or alcohol, and committing suicide(Centers for Disease Control). Therefore, I believe that parents of LGBTQ youth can have a significant impact on the health of their children. As a country, we must encourage each other to accept people for who they are. It is imperative that this acceptance beings in the home and at

During the adolescent years a lot of change occurs both physically and emotionally and although engaging in sexual activity is a personal decision, taking risks can certainly have outside influences. Psychologist Urie Bronfenbreener’s ecological perspective theory posits that a child’s development is formed through interconnected influences with their environment based on a layered system. These systems include: microsystem (direct connection to groups or institutions), mesosystem (the interconnection between microsystem components), exosystem (social settings that indirectly affect the child because of their influences on the microsystem and mesosystems) and macrosystem (culture, values and laws governing the other systems). (Moritsugu,

Kar, S.K, Chuoudhur, A., & Singh, A.P. (2015) Understanding normal development of adolescent sexuality: A bumpy ride. Journal of Human Reproductive Sciences, 8(2), 70-74.

Sexuality is a normative part of adolescent development. Early adolescent sexual debut is associated with more negative outcomes (Broderick and Blewit, 2015). Different cultures hold different view of sexual orientation. Almost weekly we here about

“Average of 9.5% of the 4,163 girls surveyed in 1997 and 1999 nearly four percent reported sexual abuse” (Levine 2). Sexual pressures are very dangerous. They cause “Nearly one in five teenage girls had been physically or sexual abused by a date” (Levine 1). In fact, 17% of teens in a recent survey report that a boyfriend or girlfriend has made them afraid to not respond to a cell phone call, email, IM, or text message because of what he or she might do” ( Abusive Teen Dating Partners 3). If there are five girls in a group and all asked the same questions about being physically or sexual abused by a date at least one would say yes that they have been sexually abused. That would be 20% of high school girls. High school girls experience in increased amount of sexual pressures within

In the field of Psychology there are many different topics that come about when learning about the essentials of life span development. Life span development consists of numerous things that people encounter from birth, childhood, adolescents, and adulthood. Today let's analyze the gender differences between the timing of an adolescent's first sexual behavior. The reason for these differences between the gender can be made up of multiple things. Some researchers may say that sexual orientation, race, culture or other demographic characteristics play a role. When looking at this particular topic, for boys participating in sexual behaviors is consider normally. Where as for a girl it is looked downed on because of the risk of pregnancy at a young age. The timing for boys and girls first sexual behavior mainly depends on the maturity and physical level of the adolescents. Most can confirm that it is likely for girls to mature faster than boys because of the physical changes and thought process that happens so fast within the female adolescent's body.

Healthy sexual development, since everyone has their own personal experiences and influences throughout their life this would be different for each individual. Although, if the person was a victim of sexual abuse or had the ideas that sexual contact was considered dirty or a sin their beliefs may be skewed. This could be especially true for someone in the adolescent puberty developmental stage when the person is unsure of their sexual orientation, and finds themselves sexually aroused by someone of the same sex. Puberty can be a difficult time for adolescents and if the person is comes out as a gay male or a lesbian they often face biases and can be victimized by their peers, society, and even their family members (Strickland, 1995). Therefore,

There are new strategies that have been developed to address teen sexual health issues. These issues may vary from puberty, sexual behavior and sex education, gay questioning to teen pregnancy. Puberty is the stage of human development when the body becomes capable of reproduction. Parental advice, peer, media and religiosity are some influences that will impact teens’ sexual behaviors and decisions. Children learn a lot more through peers than parents or from any other source. (Yarber) The media portrays a lot of nudity, sexually provocative language, and sexual passion. Kids spend about 4 hours a day watching television and they are exposed to a lot of sexual information that most likely is not accurate. Adolescents are engaging in sexual activity at younger ages and should be properly educated in contraception use to prevent STD transmission and pregnancy.

The wide variety of potentially harmful consequences of Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) can also be better identified and understood when considering the abuse circumstances. Factors such as the severity of the abusive act, victim’s age, the frequency and duration of the abuse, the relationship the victim had with their abuser and if physical violence was involved are all key factors that contribute to the degree of trauma experienced by the victim and the varies long-term harmful consequences experienced by survivors (Davidson and Omar 2014, 104). It is important therefore to consider these factors when trying to determine what harmful outcomes survivors will be prone to experience and how best to counsel them.

Adolescence is a time in a person’s life for them to discover and grow with who they are; during this time, learning about sex and sexuality are major topics for the adolescents, as well as their parents, to confabulate and embrace who they are. Adolescents should discover their sexual preference and further their education about themselves, along with their parents. If adolescents are not taught about sexuality and being sexually active, it can lead to either good consequences or bad consequences, it depends on the individual. They need to be taught about the risks and benefits about being sexually active, and how to emotionally and physically handle it.

Research shows that parent child communication about risk behaviors can reduce the likelihood that adolescent will participate in these behaviors (Dilorio, McCarty, Denzmore & Landis, 2007). In addition if parent-child communication is low risky behaviors such as alcohol use and risky sexual behaviors increase (Dilorio et al., 2007). In a literature by Olsen, Parra, & Bennett (2010) it was found that quality communication and interactions with children and mothers reduced the risk of victimization in adolescent romantic relationships. Moreover, adolescents are experiencing sexual dating violence which is another risk factor in the school climate. For example, in a study by Taylor, Stein, Mumford, and Woods (2012) it was found that 20% of students in the sixth and seventh grade had experienced sexual dating violence.