Stress in Young People Caused by Sexual Identity

The stress inherent in coming of age has begun at an earlier age than in previous centuries. Due to better nutrition, "puberty occurs two years earlier than it did a century ago" (Schrof, 1995, p. 85). In addition to maturing earlier, today's teens must contend with amorphous cultural expectations. Social roles for men and women have been in flux since the so-called "sexual revolution" of the 1960s, and cultural expectations of female and male behavior have continued to evolve, nd, in some cases, de-evolve, since then. For example, girls have become more aggressive in their sexual roles, many times taking the active lead in initiating sex. Boys, unwilling to appear "unmanly," frequently engage in sex before they are cognitively ready.

Boys and girls do not develop their conscious sexual identities by

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which to identify. This situation alone is stress inducing. Add to it the other stressors of adolescence faced by all teens--finding one's place in one's peer group, deciding when to first have sex, rejecting one established order by conforming to another, and so on--and the pressure can seem insurmountable. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine (Friedman, 1994, p. 923) notes that an adolescent's formation of ego identity "may be entirely private, or it may be communicated to others--in which case it becomes part of one's social role." If teachers and other responsible adult figures wanted to set a healthy example for teens who are beginning to identify themselves as homosexual, they would communicate with teens regarding sexuality, both heterosexual and homosexual. Sadly, gay and lesbian teens experience the pressure of having to keep their sexual identities hidden from view because school--the modern classroom--is deemed an inappropriate place for sexual discussion. In almost all cases, the modern health class offers no opportunity for solutions or interventions with regard to the stress that adolescents experience regarding sexual identity. In terms of sexual precocity, "gay males are more likely than heteros
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Approximate Word count = 1540
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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