Chapter 9: Adolescence & Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach -- Love & Sexuality

HIV/AIDS

Strips the body of its ability to fend off infections

leading cause of death worldwide among 25-44 years

long latency period

Developmental Sequence of Love Relationships

-Same-gender groups go to places where they hope to find other gender groups

-Take part in social gatherings arranged by adults

-Mixed-gender groups arrange to go to some particular event together

-adolescent couples begin to date

Why Adolescents form Love Relationships

Recreation, learning, status, companionship, intimacy, courtship

Dating scripts

The cognitive models that guide dating interactions

Dating Scripts: Proactive Script

Males tend to follow this type -- initiating the date, deciding where to go, initiating sexual contact

Dating Scripts: Reactive Script

Females tend to follow this type -- private domain, responding to male's gestures

Sternberg's Theory of Love

Different types of love involve combining 3 qualities of love

Passion -- involves physical attraction & sexual desire

Intimacy -- Feelings of closeness & emotional attachment

Commitment -- pledge to love someone over the long run

Liking

Intimacy alone

No passion or commitment

Friendship

Infatuation

Passion alone

No intimacy or commitment

One night stand

Empty love

Commitment alone

Without passion or intimacy

*Can be a couple married for many years and have lost passion and intimacy OR arranged marriages

Romantic love

Passion an intimacy W/O commitment

"Being in love"

Companionate love

Intimacy and commitment, withou passion

*Married couples who have been together for a long time OR unusually close friends

Fatuous

passion and commitment

*people quick to marry without really knowing each other

Consummate love

All three aspects of love

Sternberg and adolescence

*Little to no commitment

*infatuation and romantic love are high

Consensual Validation

People like to find in others an agreement with their own characteristics -- validates their own way of looking at the world

Intelligence

Social class

Ethnic background

Religious beliefs

Physical attractiveness

Attachment Styles in dating

resemble the parent-child attachment styles

Attachment Styles: Secure

Characterized by emotional support & concern for the partner's well-being

Attachment Styles: Insecure

Excess of dependence on the partner OR excess of distance

Model of Adolescent Love: Initiation Phase

First explorations of Love

-superficial and brief

-fear/anxiety

*Early adolescence

Model of Adolescent Love: Status Phase

Begin to gain confidence in their interaction skills with romantic partners

Remain aware of evaluations of friends and peers

Assess how their status with friends and peers will be influenced

Model of Adolescent Love: Affection Phase

Come to know each other better & express deeper feelings

Also engage in more sexual activity

Tend to last several months when they are in this phase

Peers become less important

Model of Adolescent Love: Bonding Phase

The romantic relationship becomes more enduring & serious

-possibility for lifelong commitment

Emergin Adults and breaking up

-45% of college couples broke up

>lower level of intimacy and love

>less similar characteristics

>less balance in commitment between partners

Women were more likely to break up

Rejected men tended to be lonelier/unhappier

Arranged Marriages Considerations

Family's status, religion & wealth

Choosing a marriage partner

Important:

Mutual attraction

Dependable character

Emotional stability & Maturity

Pleasing disposition

LEAST important:

-religious/political backgrounds

-financial state

-havin glots of money

How many people marry in societies?

90%

Arranged marriages

-Romantic love is NOT considered the basis of marriage in all cultures

-Alliance between two families

-Most important things: OTHER families status, religion, and wealth

Semi-arranged marriage

Most common marriage practice today

Parents introduce suitors to children; they get to choose

Cohabitation

at least 2/3 experience this in US and Europe

-US: tends to be brief and unstable

-Europe: tend to stay together as long a married couples

Sexuality

Biological sexual development, as well as sexual values/beliefs/thoughts/feelings/relationships/behavior

Sexual activity among adolescence

-Masturbation (porn)

-Necking and petting

-Sexual intercourse/oral sex

HS Students Who Had Intercourse

Lowest: White adolescents (44%) and Asian American

Somewhat higher: Latino (52%)

Highest: African Americans

Pornography

-Appealing especially with male adolescents

-Internet --> easier to obtain

-Emerging adults: 87% of men and ONLY 31% of young women

Restrictive Cultures

-Strong prohibitions on sexual activity before marriage

-strict separation of boys & girls

-may include the threat of physical punishment or public shaming for premarital sex

-more restrictive for girls than boys

>Women's virginity is important

EX: Arab cultures, Asia, South America, Japan/South Korea

Semi-restrictive Cultures

-Prohibitions not strongly enforced

-forced to marry if pregnancy results from premarital sex

EX: Samoans and Americans

American culture - ambivalence

60% of national adults agreed premarital sex is always wrong

Permissive Cultures

-Encourage & expect adolescent sexuality

-sexual behavior encouraged even in childhood

EX: Trobriand Islands in South Pacific, Denmark, Sweden, netherlands

Sexual scripts

*Different cognitive frameworks for understanding how a sexual experience is supposed to proceed and how sexual experiences are to be interpreted

Ex: Boys are expected to "make the moves"

Girls set the limits on how far the sexual episode is allowed to progress

Girls - romance, friendship, emotional intimacy

Boys - sexual attraction outweigh emotional factors

Characteristics of sexually active adolescents

Similar self-esteem as virgins

Similar overall life satisfaction as virgins

More likely to be early maturing

Tend to have lower levels of academic performance and academic aspirations

*early users of drugs/alcohol, more likely to be a single parent household, or likely to have grown up in poverty

Sexual harassment

*mild harassment, such as name calling, jokes, and leering looks, to severe harassment involving unwanted touching or sexual contact

-over half of American women experience sexual harassment some time during their professional life

Date Rape

Sexual harassment takes place when a person is forced by another to have sexual relations against her will -- 15% of adolescent girls & 25% of emerging adult women have experienced

Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Adolescents

-More adolescents/emerging adults experiences same-sex attractions than engaged in same-sex behavior

-confusions/anxiety is multiplied

-average age for coming out has declined

-almost entirely exposed to heterosexual models of dating/love/sex

-harder for African Americans/Latinos

Contraceptives

*Two types of countries have low rates of teenage pregnancy:

-Those that are permissive about adolescent sex (easy access to contraception)

-Those that adamantly forbid adolescent sex (boys and girls rarely spend time together alone)

Adolescent pregnancy in US

-One of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in developed countries

-Higher rates of poverty --> less likely to use contraception

-Mixed messages (is this prohibited or not)

30% of pregnancies of American adolescents end in...

Abortion

14% of adolescents...

miscarry

What percentage of adolescents raise their own children?

-50%

Adolescent birth rates

higher among latina and black populations

Teen moms are...

Twice as likely to drop out of school

less likely to go to college or become employed

less likely to get married

more likely to get divorced if they get married

*5 years after birth, teen moms still lag behind their peers educationally, occupationally, and economically

Teen dads...

More likely to become divorced

Lower level of education

Lower paying job

More prone to drug and alcohol use

More likely to violate the law

More feelings of anxiety and depression

Children born to adolescent mothers are more likely to...

Be born premature

lower birth rate

physical/intellectual problems

behavioral problems

school misbehavior/delinquency

Sexuality in Emerging Adulthood

Sex is viewed as a "normal part of life" by emerging adults

Parents are less opposed to sex among emerging adults than adolescents

Few expect to get married before their mid-20s

There is a great deal of diversity among emerging adults in terms of sexual behavior

Common: One partner in the past year

More likely to engage in recreational sex

Characteristics of STD's

*STD: infections transmitted through sexual contact

-Highest rate in emerging adulthood

Asymptomatic

no symptoms, neither they or others really they are infected

Likely to affect others

Latency period

Years between the time people are infected & the time they show symptoms, may be infecting others without themselves or their partners being aware of it

Chlamydia

- 2nd most common STDS

-74% of cases are between 15-24 year olds

-leading cause of female infertility

HPV

Most common STD

-infects cells on the surface of the body

-increased risk of developing cervical cancer for women

Herpes Simplex

Caused by a virus, highly infectious, no cure

Sex Education

-Americans agree that rates of premarital pregnancy and STDs in adolescence are serious problems that must be reduced

-Debate:

>Comprehensive sexuality education: start at early age, discussion: sexual development and sexual behavior, easy access to contraception

>Abstinence promotion

Sex Education: 10 characteristics of effective programs

Focus narrowly on reducing one or more sexual behaviors

Base the program on theoretical approaches for other risky behaviors

Give a clear message about sexual activity and contraceptive use

Provide basic, accurate information about risks and methods

Include activities that teach how to deal with social pressures

Model and provide practice in negotiation and refusal skills

Use a variety of teaching methods

Incorporate behavioral goals specific to age, culture, and sexual experience

Run the program over a sufficient period of time

Train teachers, youth workers, and peer leaders who believe in the program