CYC 112
Sleep
In a national survey, only 25% of US adolescents got 8 or more hours of sleep on an average sleep night. 7% less than four years earlier
to be an healthy as possible, children need adequate night time sleep:
Recommended:
9-11 hours of sleep/night for children 5-13 years old
8-10 hours of sleep/night for children 14-17 years old
But… 1 in 4 children are NOT getting enough sleep
1 in 3 children have trouble going to sleep or staying asleep
1 in 5 children have difficulty staying awake during waking hours
1 in 10 children do not find their sleep refreshing
17.2% of children that get insufficient sleep report hyperactivity compared to 11.9% of children who get adequate sleep
21.5% of children that get insufficient sleep report stress compared to 10.3% of children who get adequate sleep
11.2% of children that get insufficient sleep report poor mental health compared to 4.5% of children who get adequate sleep
Students who sacrifice sleep to study have difficulty understanding what was taught in class are more likely to struggle with class assignments.
In 13 to 19 year olds, getting less than 7 hours of sleep is associated with increased risk of being overweight, having depressive symptoms, being less motivated, difficulty concentrating, high levels of anxiety, and engaging in self-harm/suicidal thoughts.
A recent study indicated that insufficient sleep was associated with alcohol and marijuana use in adolescence.
Reasons for less sleep:
Electronic media usage
caffeine
changes in the brain
early school start times
Using electronic devices other than television 5 or more hours a day has been linked to getting inadequate sleep
Caffeine consumption and daytime sleepiness are related to lower academic achievement.
Adolescents stay up later at night and sleep longer than when they were children
Early school starting times may cause grogginess and poor performances on tests
Sleep patterns are often poor in emerging adulthood
At about 20-22 years of age, a reverse in the tiing of bedtimes and rise times occurs
Emotional and academic stress affects sleep, as does smartphones and energy drinks
Less sleep is linked with suicide risk, lower gpa, and delayed college graduation
Adolescents need 9-9.5 hrs of sleep per night and the average rn is 7-7.25
Puberty creates a shift in circadian rhythms, causing a sleep phase delay
Lack of sleep negatively impacts cognitive functions, academic performances, mood regulation, healthy weight, use of substances and peer relationships
Homework, social factors, caffeine, electronic devices are factors that interfere with sleep
Interventions: time management, family norms, limit access to electronics and caffeine, later school start times.
Teen brain delays signals that tell brain to wake up
10 tips for sleep:
Physical activity
Avoid caffeine after school
Limit after school naps to 30 minutes or less
Have meals around the same time every day
Keep indoor light dim at night
Put away your smartphone before bed
Relax and unwind before bed
Set a bed time that will give you 8 hours or sleep
Get bright light every morning
Stick to your sleep schedule on weekends.
School should start no earlier than 8:30 AM
Sleep Hygeine:
Stop exercise just before bed
Set a bedtime routine
Queues your body that its time to sleep
Establish a fixed wake up time
Sleep only when sleepy
The bed is just for sleep (and sex)
Get out of bed
Do not worry
Avoid caffeine
Avoid alcohol
Do not smoke before bed
Skip naps
Get some natural light
Start small (one step at a time)
80-20 rule
Make a choice not a have to
“everything in moderation, including moderation”
Recommended Sleep Time by Age
4-12 months - 12 to 16 hours including naps
1-2 years - 11 to 14 hours including naps
3-5 years - 10 to 13 hours including naps
6-12 years - 9 to 12 hours
13-18 years - 8 to 10 hours
More resources that are accessible in the community to youth, like role models and youth activities, the less likely adolescents are to engage in such behaviour.
Nutrition
Eating habits of many adolescents are health-compromising
An increasing number of adolescents have an eating disorders
Eating regular family meals has a positive effect on health and wellness.
Schools can also play an important role
One special concern in American culture is the amount of fat in the diet
Another special concern is the high caffeine levels of energy drinks.
Exercise and Sports
Exercise improves quality of life in both adolescence and adulthood
Researchers have found that individuals become less active as they reach and progress through adolescence.
In 2019, 23% of 9th- through 12th-graders had engaged in physical activity for 60 mins or more.
Ethnic differences and gender difference in exercise participation.
Exercise has:
A positive effect of weight status
Reduced triglyceride levels, lower blood pressuire
Additional positive effects of exercise:
Better connectivity between brain regions than in adolescents who are less fit
Reduced stress and depression.
Puberty
Puberty is a brain-neuroendocrine process occurring primarily in early adolescence that provides stimulation for the rapid physical changes that accompany this period of development.
We do not know what starts puberty, but complex factors are involved.
Puberty is accompanied by changes in the endocrine system, weight, and body fat. We don’t know if these are causes or consequences of puberty.
Heredity: The timing of Puberty is programmed into the genes of every human being. For most people, puberty takes place between 9 and 16 years of age.
Hormones are powerful chemical substances secreted by the endocrine glands and carried by the bloodstream. Two classes of hormones:
Androgens are the main class of male sex hormones
Estrogens are the main class of female sex hormones
Both Androgens and Estrogens are produced by both sexes.
Testosterone is an Androgen important for male pubertal development. It is associated with development of external genitals, increases in height, and deepening of the voice. In adolescent boys it is also linked to sexual desire and activity.
Estradiol is an Estrogen important for female pubertal development. Primarily secreted by the ovaries in girls. It is associated with breast development, uterine development, and skeletal changes. The contributions of hormones to sexual desire and activity is less clear in girls than for boys.
Both boys and girls experience increased testosterone and estradiol during puberty. Testosterone spikes harder for boys, and estradiol spikes harder for girls.
The Endocrine System. Puberty is a process that unfolds through a series of coordinated neuroendocrine changes. Puberty onset involves the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis.
Hypothalamus is a structure in the higher portion of the brain that monitors eating, drinking, and sex.
Pituitary gland is the endocrine gland that controls growth and regulates other glands.
Gonads are the sex glands—the testes in males, the ovaries in females.
How does the Endocrine system work?
The pituitary gland sends a signal via gonadotropins (hormones that stimulate sex glands) directing the testes or ovaries to manufacture the hormone. Then, through interaction with the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland detects when the optimal level of the hormone has been reached and maintains it with additional gonadotropin secretions.
Levels of sex hormones are regulated by two hormones secreted by the pituitary gland:
FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) stimulates follicle development in females and sperm production in males
LH (luteinizing hormone) regulates estrogen secretion and ovum development in females and testosterone production in males.
In addition the Hypothalamus secretes a substance called
GnRH (gonadotropin-releasing hormone), which is linked to pubertal timing
These are regulated by a negative feedback system. If the level of sex hormones rises too high, the hypothalamus and pituitary gland reduce their stimulation of the gonads, decreasing the production of sex hormones. If the level falls too low, they increase their production.
Negative feedback system (to the right) can be compared to a thermostat and furnace. If a room becomes cold, the thermostat signals the furnace to turn on. The action warms the air, which eventually triggers the thermostat to turn off the furnace.
Growth Hormones We know that the pituitary gland releases gonadotropins that stimulate the testes and ovaries. The pituitary gland grows in adolescence and its volume is linked to circulating blood levels of estradiol and testosterone. In addition, through interaction with the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland also secretes hormones that lead to growth and skeletal maturation either direction or through interaction with the thyroid gland, located in the neck region.
At the beginning of puberty, growth hormone is secreted at night. Later in puberty, it is also secreted during the day, though daytime levels are usually very low. Cortisol, a hormone that is secreted by the adrenal cortex, also influences growth, as do testosterone and estrogen.
Adrenarche and Gonadarche are two phases of puberty linked with hormonal changes
Adrenarche: Puberty phase involving hormonal changes in the adrenal glands, which are located just above the kidneys. These changes occur from about 6 to 9 years of age in girls and about one year later in boys, before what is generally considered the beginning of puberty.
Gonadarche: Puberty phase involving the maturation of primary sexual characteristics (ovaries in females, testes in males) and secondary sexual characteristics (pubic hair, breast and genital development). This period follows adrenarche by about two years and is what most people think of as puberty.
Menarche: A girl’s first menstrual period.
Spermarche: A boy’s first ejaculation of semen
In the US, the Gonadarche period begins around 9 to 10 years of age in non-latina white girls and around 8 to 9 years in African American girls.
In boys, Gonadarche begins around 10 to 11 years of age.
Menarche occurs in mid- to late gonadarche in girls.
In boys, Spermarche occurs in early to mid-gonadarche.
Weight and Body Fat Some researches argue that a child must reach a critical body mass before puberty, especially menarche, emerges. A number of studies have found that higher weight is linked to earlier pubertal development.
Leptin and Kisspeptins Reproduction is energy-demanding and thos puberty is said to be "metabolically gated" as a way to prevent fertility when energy conditions are very low.
The hormone leptin, which is secreted by fat cells and in abundance stimulates the brain to increase metabolism and reduce hunger, has been proposed to play an important role in regulating puberty, especially in females. Increased leptin levels have been linked to earlier pubertal onset in some studies.
Kisspeptins, which are products of the Kiss 1 gene, have been reported to regulate GnRH neurons and thus play a role in the pubertal onset and change.
Weight at Birth and in Infancy
Lower-birth-weight girls experience menarche approximately 5 to 10 months earlier than normal-birth-weight girls, and low-birth-weight boys are at risk for small testicular volume during adolescence.
Growth Spurt
Growth spurt associated with puberty occurs approximately two years earlier for girls than for boys. For girls, the mean beginning of the growth spurt is 9 years of age; for boys, it is 11 years of age. The peak of pubertal change occurs at 11.5 years for girls and 13.5 years for boys. During their growth spurt, girls increase in high about 3.5 inches per year; boys, about 4 inches.
Ultimate height is often a midpoint between the biological mother's and biological father's height, adjusted a few inches down for a female and a few inches up for a male. The growth spurt typically begins before menarche and ends earlier for girls. The growth spurt for boys begins later and ends later.
Weight gain follows roughly the same timetable as the rate at which height is gained. Weight gains coincide with the onset of puberty. 50% of adult body weight is gained during adolescence. At the peak of this weight gain, girls gain an average of 18 pounds in one year at roguhly 12 years of age. Boys' peak weight gain of 20 pounds occurs at about the same time as their peak increase in height, about 13 to 14 years of age.
In addition to increases in height and weight, puberty brings changes in hip and shoulder width. Girls experience a spurt in hip width, whereas boys undergo an increase in shoulder width. In girls, increased hip width is linked with an increase in estrogen. In boys, increased shoulder width is associated with an increase in testosterone.
Finally, the later growth spurt of boys produces a greater leg length in boys than in girls. Boys' facial structure becomes more angular, whereas girls' facial structure becomes rounder and softer.
Puberty
Determinants of Puberty
Puberty is a brain-neuroendocrine process occurring primarily in early adolescence that provides stimulation for the rapid physical change involved in this period of development. Puberty's determinants include heredity, hormones, weight, and percentage of body fat. Two classes of hormones—androgens and estrogens—are involved in pubertal change and have significantly different concentrations in males and females.
The endocrine system's role in puberty involves the interaction of the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and gonads. FSH and LH, which are secreted by the pituitary gland, are important aspects of this system. So is GnRH, which is produced by the hypothalamus. The sex hormone system is negative feedback system. Leptin and kisspeptins have been proposed as pubertal initiators, but research has not consistently supported this role. Growth hormone also contributes to pubertal change.
Low birth weight and rapid weight gain in infancy are linked to earlier pubertal onset. Puberty has two phases: adrenarche and gonadarche. The culmination of gonadarche in boys is spemarche; in girls, it is menarche.
Growth Spurt
The onset of pubertal growth occurs on average at 9 years of age for girls and 11 years for boys. The peak of pubertal change in 11.5 years for girls and 13.5 years for boys. Girls grow an average of 3.5 inches per year during puberty, while boys grow an average of 4 inches per year.
Sexual Maturation
Sexual maturation is a key feature of pubertal change. Individual variation in puberty is extensive and is considered to be normal within a wide age range.
Secular Trends in Puberty
Secular trends in puberty took place in the twentieth century, with puberty coming earlier. Recently, there are indications that earlier puberty is occurring only for overweight girls.
Adolescents show heightened interest in their bodies and body images. Younger adolescents are more preoccupied with body image than are older adolescents. Adolescent girls often have a more negative body image than adolescent boys do.
Psychological Dimensions of Puberty
Adolescent and emerging adults increasingly obtain tattoos and body piercings (body art). Some scholars conclude that body art is a sign of rebellion and is linked to risk taking, whereas others argue that body art is increasingly being used to express uniqueness and self-expression rather than rebellion.
Researchers have found connections between hormonal change during puberty and behaviour, but environmental influences need to be taken into account. Early maturation often favors boys, at least during early adolescence, but as adults late-maturing boys have a more positive identity than early-maturing boys do. Early-maturing girls are at heightened risk for a number of development problems. Most early- and late-maturing adolescents weather the challenges of puberty successfully. For those who do not adapt well to pubertal changes, discussions with knowledgeable health-care providers and parents can improve the coping abilities of early- or late-maturing adolescents.
Health
Adolescence: A Critical Juncture in Health
Many of the behaviours that are linked to poor health habits and early death in adulthood begin during adolescence. Engaging in healthy behaviour patterns in adolescence, such as regular exercise, helps to delay the onset of disease in adulthood. Important goals are the reduce adolescents' health-compromising behaviours and to increase their health-enhancing behaviours.
Risk-taking behaviour increases during adolescence and, combined with a delay in developing self-regulation, makes adolescents vulnerable to a number of problems. Developmental changes in the brain have recently been proposed as an explanation for adolescent risk-taking behaviour. Among the strategies for preventing engagement in unhealthy risk are to limit adolescents' opportunities for harm and to monitor their behaviour. Adolescents tend to underutilize health services. The three leading causes of death in adolescence are accidents, homicide, and suicide.
Emerging Adults' Health
Although emerging adults have a higher death rate than adolescents, emerging adults have few chronic health problems. However, many emerging adults are not inclined to consider how their personal lifestyles will affect their health later in life.
Nutrition
Special nutrition concerns in adolescence are eating between meals, high levels of fat in adolescents' diets, and increase reliance on fast-food meals.
Exercise and Sports
A majority of adolescents are not getting adequate exercise. At approximately 13 years of age, their rate of exercise often begins to decline. American girls especially have a low rate of exercise. Regular exercise has many positive outcomes for adolescents, including a lower risk of being overweight and higher self-esteem. Family, peers, schools, and screen-based activity influence adolescents' exercise patterns.
Sports play an important role in the lives of many adolescents. Sports can have positive outcomes (improved physical health and well-being, confidence, ability to work with others) or negative outcomes (intense pressure by parents and coaches to win at all costs, injuries). Recently, the female athlete triad has become a concern.
Sleep
Adolescents tend to go to bed later and get up later than children do. This pattern may be linked to developmental changes in the brain. A special concern is the extent to which these changes in sleep patterns in adolescents affect academic behaviour and achievement. Developmental changes in sleep continue to occur in emerging adulthood.
Evolution, Heredity, and Environment
The Evolutionary Perspective
Natural selection—the process that favours the individuals of a species that are best adapted to survive and reproduce—is a key aspect of the evolutionary perspective. Evolutionary psychology is the view that adaptation, reproduction, and "survival of the fittest" are important influences on the behaviour. Evolutionary developmental psychology has promoted a number of ideas, including the view that an extended "juvenile" period is needed to develop a large brain and learn of the complexity of human social communities. Critics argue that the evolutionary perspective does not give adequate attention to experience or the role of humans as a culture-making species.
The Genetic Process
The nucleus of each human cell contains chromosomes, which contain DNA. Genes are short segments of DNA that direct cells to reproduce and manufacture proteins that maintain life. DNA does not act independently to produce a trait or behaviour. Rather, it acts collaboratively. Genotype refers to the unique configuration of genes, whereas phenotype involved observed and measurable characteristics.
Heredity-Environment Interaction
Behaviour genetics in the field concerned with the degree and nature of behaviour's hereditary basis. Research methods used by behaviour geneticists include twin studies and adoption studies. In Scarr's view of heredity-environment correlations, heredity directs the types of environments that children experience. Scarr describes three categories of genotype-environment correlations: passive, evocative, and active (niche-picking). Scarr argues that the relative importance of these three genotype-environment correlations changes as children develop.
The epigenetic view emphasizes that development is the result of an ongoing, bidirectional interchange between heredity and environment. Many complex behaviours have some genetic leading that gives people a propensity for a specific development trajectory. However, actual development also requires an environment, and that environment is complex. The interaction of heredity and environment is extensive. Much remains to be discovered about the specific ways that heredity and environment interact to influence development.
Key Terms
Active (niche-picking) genotype-environment correlations: Correlations that occur when children seek out environments that they find compatible and stimulating.
Adaptive behaviour: A modification of behavior that promotes an organism’s survival in the natural habitat.
Adoption study: A study in which investigators seek to discover whether the behavior and psychological characteristics of adopted children are more like those of their adoptive parents, who have provided a home environment, or more like those of their biological parents, who have contributed their heredity. Another form of adoption study involves comparing adopted and biological siblings.
Adrenarche: Puberty phase involving hormonal changes in the adrenal glands, which are located just above the kidneys. These changes occur from about 6 to 9 years of age in girls and about one year later in boys, before what is generally considered the beginning of puberty.
Androgens: The main class of male sex hormones
Behavior genetics: is the field that seeks to discover the influence of heredity and environment on individual differences in human traits and development. If you think about all of the people you know, for example, you have probably realized that they differ in terms of their levels of introversion/extraversion. Behavior geneticists try to figure out what is responsible for such differences
Chromosomes: Threadlike structures that contain deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA
DNA: A complex molecule that contains genetic information
Epigenetic view: Belief that development is the result of an ongoing bidirectional interchange between heredity and environment.
Estrogens: The main class of female sex hormones
Evocative genotype-environment correlations: Correlations that occur because an adolescent’s genetically shaped characteristics elicit certain types of physical and social environments.
Evolutionary psychology: emphasizes the importance of adaptation, reproduction, and “survival of the fittest” in explaining behavior. Because evolution favors organisms that are best adapted to survive and reproduce in a specific environment, evolutionary psychology focuses on the conditions that cause individuals to survive or perish (Crespi, 2020). In this view, the process of natural selection favors those behaviors that increase organisms’ reproductive success and their ability to transmit their genes to the next generation.
Female athlete triad: involves a combination of disordered eating (weight loss), amenorrhea (absent or irregular menstrual periods), and osteoporosis (thinning and weakening of bones) (Raj, Creech, & Rogol, 2020). Once menstrual periods have become somewhat regular in adolescent girls, not having a menstrual period for more than three or four months can reduce bone strength. Fatigue and stress fractures may develop. The female athlete triad often goes unnoticed by parents and coaches of female secondary school and college athletes.
Gene x Environment (G x E) interaction: The interaction of a specific measured variation in DNA and a specific measured aspect of the environment.
Genes: Units of hereditary information, which are short segment composed of DNA
Genotype: A person's genetic heritage; the actual genetic material
Gonadarche: Puberty phase involving the maturation of primary sexual characteristics (ovaries in females, testes in males) and secondary sexual characteristics (pubic hair, breast and genital development). This period follows adrenarche by about two years and is what most people think of as puberty.
Hormones: Powerful chemicals secreted by the endocrine glands and carried through the body by the bloodstream
Menarche: A girl's first menstrual period
Passive genotype-environment correlations: Correlations that occur because biological parents, who are genetically related to the child, provide a rearing environment for the child
Phenotype: The way an individual's genotype is expressed in observed and measurable characteristics.
Precocious Puberty: The very early onset and rapid progression of puberty
Puberty: A brain-neuroendocrine process occurring primarily in early adolescence that provides stimulation for the rapid physical changes that accompany this period of development.
Secular trends: Patterns of the onset of puberty over historical time, especially across generations
Spermarche: A boys first ejaculation of semen
Twin Study: A study in which the behavioural similarity of identical twins is compared with the behavioural similarity of fraternal twins.
Sexuality
Exploring Adolescent Sexuality
A Normal Aspect of Adolescent Development
Too often the problems adolescents encounter with sexuality are emphasized rather than the fact that sexuality is a normal aspect of adolescent development. Adolescence is a bridge between the asexual child and the sexual adult. Adolescent sexuality is related to many other aspects of adolescent development, including physical development and puberty, cognitive development, the self and identity, gender, families, peers, schools, and culture.
The Sexual Culture
Increased permissiveness in adolescent sexuality is linked to increased permissiveness in the larger culture. Adolescent initiation of sexual intercourse is related to exposure to explicit sex on TV.
Developing a Sexual Identity
Developing a sexual identity is a multifaceted process. An adolescent’s sexual identity involves an indication of sexual orientation, interests, and styles of behaviour.
Obtaining Research Information About Adolescent Sexuality
Obtaining valid information about adolescent sexuality is not easy. Much of data are based on interviews and questionnaires, which can evoke untruthful or socially desirable responses.
Sexual Attitudes and Behaviour
Heterosexual Attitudes and Behaviour
The progression of sexual behaviours is typically kissing, petting, sexual intercourse, and oral sex. The number of adolescents who reported having had sexual intercourse increased significantly in the twentieth century. The proportion of females engaging in intercourse increased more rapidly than males. National data indicate that slightly more than half of all adolescents today have had sexual intercourse by age 17, although the percentage varies by sex, ethnicity, and context. Male, African American, and inner-city adolescents report the highest rates of sexual activity. The percentage of 15- to 17-year-olds who have had the sexual intercourse declined between 1991 and 2019.
A common adolescent sexual script involves the male making sexual advances and the female setting limits on the male’s sexual overtures. Adolescent females’ sexual scripts link sex with love more than adolescent males’ sexual scripts do.
Risk factors for sexual problems include early sexual activity, having numerous sexual partners not using contraception, engaging in other at-risk behaviours such as drinking and delinquency, and living in a low-SES neighbourhood, as well as cognitive factors such as attentional problems and low self-regulation. Heterosexual behaviour patterns change in emerging adulthood.
Sexual Minority Youths’ Attitudes and Behaviour
An individual’s sexual attraction—whether heterosexual or sexual minority—is likely caused by a mix of genetic, hormonal, cognitive, and environmental factors. Terms such as “sexual minority individuals” (who identify themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual) and “same-sex attraction” are increasingly used, whereas the term “homosexual” is used less frequently now than in the past.
Developmental pathways for sexual minority youth are often diverse, may involve bisexual attractions, and do not always involve falling in love with a same-sex individual. Recent research has focused on adolescents’ disclosure of same-sex attractions and the struggle they often go through in doing this.
The peer relations of sexual minority youth differ from those of heterosexual youth. Sexual minority youth are more likely to engage in substance abuse, show sexual risk-taking behaviour, and be the target of violence in a number of contexts. Discrimination and bias produce considerable stress for adolescents with a same-sex attraction. The stigma, discrimination, and rejection experienced by sexual minority youth are thought to explain why they are more likely to develop problems. Despite such negative experiences, many sexual minority youth successfully cope with the challenges they face and have health and well-being outcomes that are similar to those of their heterosexual counterparts.
Self-Stimulation
Self-stimulation, or masturbation, is part of the sexual activity of virtually all adolescents and one of their most frequent sexual outlets.
Contraceptive Use
Adolescents are increasing their use of contraceptives, but large numbers of sexually active adolescents still do not use them. Adolescents from low-SES backgrounds are less likely to use contraceptives than are their middle-SES counterparts.
Problematic Sexual Outcomes in Adolescence
Adolescent Pregnancy
The U.S. adolescent pregnancy rate is one of the highest in the Western world, but it also has declined in the last two decades.
Adolescent pregnancy increases health risks for the mother and the offspring. Adolescent mothers are more likely to drop out of school and have lower-paying jobs than their adolescent counterparts who do not bear children. It is important to remember, though, that it often is not pregnancy alone that places adolescents at risk. Adolescent mothers frequently come from low-income families and were not doing well in school prior to their pregnancy.
The infants of adolescent parents are at risk both medically and psychologically. Adolescent parents are less effective in rearing their children than older parents are. Many adolescent fathers do not have a close relationship with their baby or with the adolescent mother.
Recommendations for reducing adolescent pregnancy include education about sex and family planning, access to contraception, life options, community involvement and support, and abstinence.
Sexually Transmitted Infections
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are contracted primarily through sexual contact with an infected partner. The contact is not limited to vaginal intercourse but includes oral-genital and anal-genital contact as well.
AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which destroys the body’s immune system. Currently, the rate of AIDS in U.S. adolescents is relatively low, but it has reached epidemic proportions in sub-Saharan Africa, especially among adolescent girls. AIDS can be transmitted through sexual contact, sharing needles, and blood transfusions. A number of intervention projects focus on AIDS prevention.
Genital herpes is caused by a family of viruses with different strains. Genital warts, caused by a virus, is the most common STI in the 15- to 24-year-old age group. Commonly called the “drip” or “clap,” gonnorhea is another common STI. Syphilis is caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum, a spirochete. Chlamydia is one of the most common STIs among adolescents and emerging adults.
Forcible Sexual Behaviour and Sexual Harassment
Some individuals force others to have sex with them. Rape is forcible sexual intercourse with a person who does not give consent. About 95 percent of rapes are committed by males. An increasing concern is date, or acquaintance, rape. Sexual harassment is a form of power asserted by one person over another. Sexual harassment of adolescents is widespread. Two forms are quid pro quo and hostile environment sexual harassment.
Sexual Literacy and Sex Education
Sexual Literacy
American adolescents and adults are not very knowledgeable about sex. Sex information is abundant, but too often it is inaccurate.
Sources of Sex Information
Adolescents get their information about sex from many sources, including parents, siblings, schools, peers, magazines, TV, and the Internet.
Cognitive Factors
Cognitive factors, such as idealism and the personal fable, can make it difficult for sex education to be effective, especially with young adolescents.
Sex Education in Schools
A majority of Americans support teaching sex education in schools, and this support has increased in concert with increases in STIs, especially AIDS. Currently, a major controversy is whether sex education should emphasize abstinence only or provide instruction on the use of contraceptive methods.