Adolescent Sexuality: Protective Strategies
One of the key issues in adolescent sexuality is protection. Adolescents are not only vulnerable to the same sexually transmitted diseases as adults but are much less likely to employ contraception, making them more likely to become pregnant and/or contract a lethal disease. The protection of adolescents against the physical, emotional, and social consequences of early sexual activity falls upon parents, schools, youth organizations, churches, and society as a whole, yet even with all of these agents employing some type of protective strategy, adolescent sexuality and its concomitant disease, illegitimacy, and emotional ravages are still rampant. Furthermore, the outgrowth of illegitimacy has contributed to a secondary problem in the U.S.ùthe need for welfare reform (Piccione & Scholle).
The sexual vulnerability of adolescents requires strategies for protecting them until they are mature enough to make cognizant and informed decisions about sexuality. Two of the most popular protective strategies employed for this have been sex education and abstinence campaigns. Sex education purports to inform adolescents about sexuality, explaining the how-toÆs and dangers, and instructing them on how to use various forms of contraception. However, in spite of all this instruction, many teens do not use contraception or other forms of protection. In a poll, ô66 percent of teens said they would feel suspicious or worried about their partnerÆs past, if the partner suggested using a condom; 49 percent would worry that the partner was suspicious of them; 20 percent would feel insultedö (ôAdolescent Protective Behaviors: Abstinence and Contraceptive Useö).
Abstinence campaigns are another protective strategy for teens, and these have been fairly successful, with U.S. teens remaining abstinent longer than in the past (ôAdolescent Protective Behaviors: Abstinence and Contraceptive Useö). ...