Sexual Behavior in Adolescents - Essay Example

 Sexual Behavior in Adolescents Abstract Sexual behavior in Adolescent is actually influenced by some complex set of connections among biology and genetics, personality characteristics, individual perceptions, as well as socio-cultural values and norms. This essay will be focusing on how our brain responds to our adolescent, why teens moving to adolescent are attracted to sexual play, and what are the necessary steps that need to be taken in order to control such wrong behavior. This paper will also include some accurate sources of information which are perceived as accurate by teens. How they use that information in their adolescent in order to have a stable life and what are different kinds of activities one should involve in order to stay away from sexual desire until the accurate time, when they are strong enough to handle themselves and the relationship. Sexual Behavior in Adolescents A teenager’s brain develops a bit unevenly, from back towards front, from the very beginning of adolescence through mid-20s. This might help in explaining their endearingly strange behavior, but it also makes them move towards taking risk. Everyone is aware of the fact that how important it is to guide and to nurture toddlers, when their brains are in the development phase with a warp speed. But the question is how the development phase of teen’s brain is handled? Now everyone is getting aware of the fact that, just like toddlers, adolescents also go through quite similar wave of key development. Between the ages of 13 and 25, the brain is going through a pruning and escalating process. Within this time period, the brain cells as well as neural connections which are not used appropriately are cut back and die, however the ones which are used the most get stronger. This latest knowledge, related to development of brain in adolescent, clearly explains the reason of the importance of parent’s encouragement for their child at their teenage to get involved in healthy activities. It is simply a directly proportional formula, that is, the more time a teen spend in learning music or swimming, the stronger their brain gets. It is similar to the connections used while mastering in a sport, playing video games and/or watching some documentary. Ironically, in this duration when the teen’s brain growing through a rapid development and getting influence by outside forces that is physical, cognitive, social and emotional, teens want to have everything experimented, especially drugs or sex. Why is that so? One of the main reasons could be that the specific brain area which deals in making judgment of complex issues (Prefrontal Cortex) is not mature completely which ultimately comes under pressure by the other regions such as motivational and emotional which are quite mature. The Scientists believe that this characteristic of brain development in teenagers makes it very clear that why sometimes these young people use poor judgmental skills and also lack in fine impulse control. It is quite possible that any decision taken by the teen now might affect him for the rest of their life but the reason will only be the massive changes taking place in their brains. For instance, brain scans have linked access use of alcohol with low memory functioning (Nagel, 2005). In order to keep the teen’s self esteem high and self-concept strong, make sure that the teen feels that they are important; sense of belongingness needs to be there. Also they need to have role models with positive attitude. There are many examples which state that children are mostly engaged with similar gender friends in sexual activity which is considered to be normative part of their development. As soon as a child reaches towards adolescence, they find themselves engaged in sexual action with different girls and boys which can be considered as a way to test sexual feelings of their own. Even though sexual orientation is assumed to be firm before adolescence, but its expression might have postponed till early adulthood or for an indefinite time period, making it quite difficult to calculate approximately the occurrence of bisexuality and homosexuality among adolescents. Ambiguity with respect to sexual orientation might reduce during the years of adolescent, with parallel increases in heterosexual and homosexual affiliation. Sexual orientation pervasiveness estimates vary between different adults with operational explanation of homosexuality (Almeida, 2009).  One of the most important tasks for adolescence is to turn in to an adult who is sexually healthy. This can be done by encouraging sexual health development in adolescent by providing precise information regarding sexuality, nurturing decision-making and communication skills responsibly, and offering assistance and guidance for young people in order to explore sexual behavior and by developing sexual values positively. This can also be done by encouraging communication between parents and their children who are reaching adolescent in certain ways which can enhance sexual health while discouraging unsafe sexual behavior. (Hendriksen, 2007) Adolescents need to be restrained from sexual activity till the time they are emotionally, physically and mentally prepared for a mature sexual relationship along with their consequences consciously. They should be properly educated about intimacy, benefit of abstinences, limit setting for sexual desires, contraception, confrontation to harmful sexual pressures, pregnancy delays and avoidance of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Since quite a number of adolescents are and will be active sexually, guidance and support should be provided for developing skills so that they can personally assess their readiness for sexual relationship responsibly. Research has revealed that adolescents acquire the information regarding sexual health from a number of different sources (Dzung, 2008). It is also observed that whenever the teens are inquired about their information sources which they value the most regarding safe sex and birth control, they always respond to acquire it from their friends, cousins and siblings, parents, health care and clinical practitioners. For the reason that teens value their adults as source of information, it is quite essential for parents as well as healthcare practitioners in order to start conversations and share accurate and timely information lest adolescents acquire information merely from others, possibly sources that are less reliable. Interventions, which are office based, are most possibly contribute in the reduction of risks and hazard and promote sexual health within young people, by chance they took place in concerts along with other attempts in schools, families and communities. Noar (2002) explains some key characteristics of multilevel efforts which are quite successful in order to prevent pregnancy as well as to promote adolescents sexual health. Building skills in office based involvements are quite effective and are quite significant because since adolescents usually found involved in dismissing elders’ guidance, however they listen attentively and actively to what practitioners have to share. Whether such communication evens the progress of an adolescent’s process of changing behavior depends heavily on the accurate information presented and the skills required in connecting and comprehending readiness and perspective for change in a specific young person. Since there are some teens who consider their adults as information source, therefore they should keep an open door for support and ongoing conversation. Reference Nagel, Schweinsburg, Phan & Tabert. (2005), Imaging Psysiologic Dysfunction of Individual Hippocampal Subregions in Humans and Genetically Modified Mice,: Adolescent brain development Almeida, J., Johnson, R. M., Corliss, H. L., Molnar, B. E., & Azrael, D. (2009). Emotional distress among LGBT youth: The influence of perceived discrimination based on sexual orientation. Journal of Youth and Adolescence,38(7), 1001-1014. Noar, S. M. (2002). Reducing unintended pregnancy among adolescents: Authors did not give balanced interpretation of their findings. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 325(7367), 777. Vo, D. X., & Park, M. J. (2008). Racial/ethnic disparities and culturally competent health care among youth and young men. American journal of men's health, 2(2), 192-205. Hendriksen, E. S., Pettifor, A., Lee, S. J., Coates, T. J., & Rees, H. V. (2007). Predictors of condom use among young adults in South Africa: the reproductive health and HIV research unit national youth survey. American Journal of Public Health, 97(7), 1241. Read More