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Risk behavior among teenagers
Effects of peer pressure on teens
Effects of peer pressure on teens
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Teenagers and Sex
Some may say that,” money is what makes the world go around”. Others may say that,”sex is what makes the world go around”. In my opinion, I believe it is a mixture of both sex and money. The survey I chose to evaluate was about teenagers having sex.
The purpose of the survey was to show that teens are having sex, but they are safer than teens were in the 80’s. According to the survey, teenage pregnancy, teenagers having sex, abortion, and sexually transmitted diseases, have declined over the pass ten years. The presence of AIDS, I feel has a lot to do with the decline. In some cases teenagers are very aware of what sexually transmitted diseases are out their and what kind of deadly affect it could bring upon your body.
The survey was conducted to see what young Americans had to say about sex. Sex is something that teenagers are faced with everyday. Peer pressure and trying to fit in with the crowd; seems to be a major reason why teenagers are having sex today. The survey proved that today’s teenagers are more aware of the consequences of having sex, and it is not a game to play around with.
The Alan Guttmacher Institute Center did the actual survey for Disease Control and Prevention Surveys, and Child Trends. The survey targeted teenagers from the age of
Fifteen to nineteen years old. Newsweek magazine was curious to know what teenagers were thinking about sex, so they conducted the research on teenagers having sex. The researchers seem to have gotten the outcome they were looking for. The big picture was to show that teenagers are aware of sex and what could happen to them if they’re not careful. Even though teenagers are aware of the fact that you could get AID’S and even end up dead, there are still more sexually transmitted diseases with teenagers, than sexually active men and women the ages 20-44.
The survey seems to have met the parents and teenagers of today. The survey wasn’t limited to just teenagers in one school. Teenagers took the survey across the United States. This survey isn’t bias because it asked questions to both males and females. Also the sexually transmitted diseases are reported to health centers and hospitals in order to help cure them.
I feel the subject surveyed was a very important issue. My sociology class was just talking about this subject a week ago.
The second reason for contraceptives being given to teenagers, will help them avoid many dangerous Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) associated with unsafe sexual practices. Studies have shown an increase in unprotected sexuality among teenagers can result in a wide-range of social problems, such as STDs. The topic of birth control in public schools has attracted much support from the American public, according to statistics surveyed. For example, a 2006 Associated Press-Ipsos survey discovered that 67% of Americans support the provision of contraceptives to students. This study also determined that, “About as many - 62 percent - said they believe providing birth control reduces the number of teenage pregnancies” (Associated Press).
Today’s young Americans face strong peer pressure to be sexually active and engage themselves in risky behaviors (Merino 100-109). Anyone deciding to have sex must first think about all the risks involved. Kekla Magoon, author of Sex Education in Schools, says that “half of all teens aged 15 to 19 years old in the United States have had sex” (Magoon 64-65). It is currently not required by federal law for schools to teach Sex education and those few schools that do teach Sex education have the decision to determine how much information is allowed. Advocates from both sides of the Sex education debate agree that teens need positive influences in order to make practical decisions (Magoon 88-89). Opponents of Abstinence-only education believe it fails because it does not prepare teens for all the risks of sex (Magoon 64-65).
In 1995 a study was conducted to see how many teenagers were sexually active or had been involved sexually in any way. The study revealed that, by the age of sixteen, 50% of teenagers in the U.S have had been involved in sexual intercourse (Oberman, 1994). There was another study that was conducted statewide surveying young girls from 8th grade to 12th grade. The survey asked about what age was the young girls when they first had sex and the age of their sexual partners. The survey excluded intercourse that was by force. Girls who were between the ages thirteen to eighteen did not have a partner that was much older than them. However younger girls between the ages of eleven to twelve said that their partners were five or more years older (Leitenberg, 2000).
The overall teen birth rate has declined by 16 percent from 1991 to 1997. “All states are recording a decline and it is the sixth year in a row that the teen birth rate has declined,” stated Donna Shalala, HHS secretary of U. S. Newswire. Although the birthrate among teens is decreasing and the percentage of teenagers who have had sexual intercourse is declining, it is a multi-fauceted problem affecting today’s youth. The government is taking in to consideration all possibilities and conditions with teen births to make an affective way to prevent it.
... is the direct effect of teens and young adults not being educated on the things that come with sex and the consequences of their actions. Teens need sex education because the knowledge will give them an insight on the subject and help them think about the proper precautions to take in order to be a responsible person insuring that they use the right contraception and/or abstinence in order for them not to have children as a teen. Other factors play into why teens become pregnant as well. In the results for my interviews, parent/child relationships should be established and upheld as a relationship that is strictly parent and child. Teens who do not have a true parent/parents in their lives to care about the important thing that contribute to the child’s well being such a becoming pregnant at a young age, tend to make decisions that are not healthy in their lives.
Communication: A Series of National Surveys of Teens about Sex. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser
Condom use is higher among young men who worry more frequently about AIDS when the effects of other factors are held constant. Between 1988 and 1991, however, sexually experienced teenagers showed declines in the frequency with which they worried about AIDS, how serious they thought AIDS was, and the likelihood they would get AIDS. These reductions were associated with lower levels of condom use.
Arielle Massiah SW 7300 Sunday, March 29, 2015 Article Critique Teenage Sexuality and Media Practice: Factoring in the Influences of Family, Friends, and School Jeanne Rogge Steele Literature Review and Theoretical/ Conceptual Framework The social problem that the research addresses is the outrageously high rate of unprotected teenage sexual engagement and encounters. The problem was made apparent due to a survey that disclosed that not only had “three quarters of the 2,439 participants engage in sexual intercourse by their senior year, half of the participants reported that they did not use condoms and one third of the population failed to allocate the use of birth control at all; drastically increasing their exposure to HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy”. Steele, 1999, p. 339.
A study conducted on teens in Sweden and the Netherlands showed that teens in those countries were just as sexually active, but the teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease rate was much lower. Researchers say this is due to sex education that begins in elementary school and continues on(Bender p.13). Only ten percent of American school-age youth participate in a comprehensive program lasting at least forty hours(deMauro p.89). Teens in America also score low on questionnaires based on sexual knowledge(Gordon p.
The government likes to pretend that if high school students get taught the “abstinence-only” method they would never think of taking part in sexual activities. Statistically this is incorrect. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “56 percent of high school students are virgins”(Martin). For the 56 percent abstinence only is doing them well, but there are still 44 percent of high school students engaging in sex without knowing the precau...
In America, a significant problem we should look at is regarding sexually active young teens. It seems that almost every teen is sexually active. They are having sex at such a early age. A question that rings in our minds, is do they truly even know what sex is? Growing up, Catholic teachings instructed myself to wait until marriage. They say premarital sex is a sin. Now, not only are churches teaching abstinence, but, schools as well. Premarital sex is a important growing problem: that usually results in a unwanted pregnancy, in some cases; forced abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, ultimate emotions of remorse. Sexual relations among teens is a problem not only for them, but possibly their children and America as a whole.
Sex among teenagers is one of the most controversial topics of our time. The teen pregnancy and STD rates in the United States alone have become a major problem over the years. Despite these skyrocketing sex cases, sexual education is not being taught in some schools, and the ones that do are extremely limited. Parents, the government, organizations, and school boards do not teach the proper curriculum necessary for students to thoroughly understand sexual behavior. This essay will explain the need for proper sexual education in our schools.
Historically, research on sexuality has been driven by a public health agenda, which is overshadowed by moral panic and bad outcomes of adolescent sexuality (i.e. STIs, unintended pregnancy, etc.). This perpetuated widespread abstinence policies in institutions in which adolescents were involved. This heteronormative and patriarchal society rested upon the assumption that women were gatekeepers of insatiable male sexuality and that frankly, boys will be boys.
Martinez, Gladys, Joyce Abma, and Casey Copen. “Educating Teenagers About Sex In The United States”. CDC.GOV. Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 15 Sept. 2010. Web. 09 Feb.2014
...tions and fifty percent of them were from young adults ages 15-24 (CDC). “Every year around nineteen million Americans get an STI infection and out of that nineteen million, nine million of them are young adults between the age 15 to 24” (STD Statistics). We want statistics like these to go down not stay the same or go up. They are not going to go down unless we do something about it. The more people getting viruses, the better chance our children are going to have sex with someone that has a virus and does not know it. There will be a domino effect passing viruses down from generation to generation if something does not change. It is a parent’s job to want the best for their children, education, health and knowing all about everything that can change their lives drastically. More sex education in schools could change the direction that people’s lives are heading.