Social
Influences on Adolescent Premarital Sex
1.
Abstract
Premarital
sex has been a social issue in every culture for years. How it is
caused and both of
its positive and negative effect have been widely studies.
2.
Introduction
Premarital
sex refers to an intercourse occurred before one has got married.
It¡¦s
even correct to say that the sex a single 40-year-old man has is a kind of
premarital sex!
Most of the studies related to this behaviour focus mainly on
adolescents and
single young adults. For example, by the age of 14, 22.7% of female
adolescents and
37.3% of male adolescents report that they have engaged in their first
act of intercourse
(Zelnik & Shah, 1983). Another study of college-aged individuals
found that males
had averaged six partners and females averaged five partners over
their dating
history (DeLamater & MacCorquodale, 1979). It shows that premarital
sexuality has
become a normative behaviour for today¡¦s youth. Hofferth, Kahn, and
Baldwin indicate
that rates of sexual intercourse among young teens have increased
dramatically, and
high numbers of individuals are engaging in first coitus at early
ages. These figures
demonstrate that premarital sexual activity has become the norm
for most adolescent
and single adults today. Meanwhile, has everyone think of the
causes for this
trend in their own culture? Research into this activity, however, has
often focused on
long-term negative outcomes such as teenage pregnancies, births,
and abortions (Henshaw,
1987; Trussell, 1988). This research paper is therefore going
to discuss the
social influences on adolescent sexuality.
3.
Social Influences
3.1
Parents
According to
Moore and Rosenthal, parents are regarded as the primary
socialisers of
their children, with influence over a variety of beliefs and
behaviours.
3.1.1
Communication between parents and adolescents
Parents often find initiating and sustaining
discussions about sexuality with
their teenagers
extremely difficult. They feel that they lack knowledge, are
embarrassed by the
topic, and often have misperceptions about their adolescent¡¦s
behaviour.
According to a recent study by Collis, one parent responded, ¡§I like to
think parents
should be, but it is my experience that it is a very difficult thing for far
too many parents
and kids to discuss. Also, many parents prefer to believe their kids
are virgins or
could not accept their kids might have a homosexual experience. As for
drugs!!¡¨ In
reality, expressed parental approval of adolescent sexual activity is
relatively
low, especially for daughters. Darling and Hicks characterized the major
parental
communications about sex as reflecting these sentiments: ¡¥Pregnancy before
marriage
can lead to terrible things¡¦; ¡¥No nice person has sex before marriage¡¦;
¡¥Petting can too
easily lead to intercourse¡¦; and the one positive message ¡¥Sex is a
good way of
expressing your love for someone.¡¦ In their study, they found that both
sons and daughters
heard more of the cautionary messages than the positive one, but
the difference was
greater for females. Moore et al.and Collis also suggest that
parents may be
seeing what they would like to see, rather than what is.
Katchadourian
claims that discussions about sex are a form of sexual interaction and,
in the family
context, these discussions are often embarrassing, even when both
parents and
adolescents have liberal attitudes and are comfortable about talking with
peers about sexual
matters. Furthermore, there may be some adaptive function in
parents ¡¥turning
a blind eye¡¦ (even unconsciously) to adolescent sexual
experimentation. It
illustrates that the possibility that there are many misperceptions
and
miscommunications between parents and their adolescent children about sex is
difficult to
ignore. It¡¦s especially true in Hong Kong and other Asian countries where
sex education for
adolescent is not enough. It seems that the topic of sex will never be
come up in a
conversation between a adolescent and the parents. This lack of
communication leads
to the problem that adolescents are unable to search for their
parents¡¦ help
when they come across any difficulties about sex.
3.1.2
Family background
Experimentation
is one way in today¡¦s society for young people to gain a
sense of
independence from parents, to begin the process of growing up and taking on
adult roles (Moore
& Rosenthal, 1993). It is of interest that adult behaviour, of various
sorts, has more
influence on teenage sexual behaviour than adult talk. A 16-year-old
expressed, ¡§If
your parents are divorced or separated, and your mum or dad brings
home different
people on weekends and each night of the week and stuff, you sort of
think that having
sex is no big deal. It is not special or anything like that. But if your
parents are married
and stuff like that, you sort of see it as a big deal and should only
share it if you
love the person. For example, nonvirginity in youths has been
associated with
non-authoritative parenting (Hill1987; Kandel 1990), permissiveness,
and lack of
parental support (Inazu & Fox 1980; Jessor & Jessor 1977). There is also
a strong
relationship between a mother¡¦s own sexual experience as a teenager and that
of her own
adolescent daughter (Newcomer & Udry 1983). And that girls from
single-parent
families are more likely to become sexually active at an earlier age than
those who grow up
in two-parent families (Inazu & Fox 1980; Newcomer & Udry
1983; Zelnik et
al.1981). Studies which relate the initiation of early sexual activity to
lack of family
closeness and lack of parental support suggest that adolescents who
seek independence
early due to unsatisfactory family relationships regard sex as part
of the expression
of that independence. However, the move to independence through
sexuality may have
healthy elements given that economic independence for teenagers
is becoming less
possible. Of course it has its risks as well. The concerned parent
needs to tread the
fine line between respecting an adolescent¡¦s privacy and providing
information and a
values framework so that the teenager can make sensible and well
informed decisions
about sexual behaviour. It shows that the family background plays
an important part
in affecting adolescent sexuality and their sense of independence.
3.1.3
Educational and Work Experience of Parents
Thornton and
Camburn suggest that the educational and work experience of
the parents may
influence attitudes and present opportunities for sexual experience
while the parents
are away from home. It is not supported by much evidence at all.
However, adolescent
,whose parents do not have much time to take care of them, are
likely to try new
things and make some challenges themselves. A home with no
parents is also
able to provide a place for most of their first intercourse.
3.2
Peers
While peer
influence has little impact, relative to that of parents, on young
children, there is
a shift at adolescence, with peers becoming more important in
forming
teenagers¡¦ beliefs and regulating their behaviours.
3.2.1
Sex information
Peer
influence and pressure is often cited as one of the most influential factors
affecting
adolescent sexual decisions (Hofferth & Hayes 1987). Teenagers can obtain
information about
sex easily from their friends, which may serve to guide
decision-making
about sex. This information is, of course, not always
accurate, as
reflected in long-standing teenage myths about fertility such as ¡¥You can¡¦t
get pregnant the
first time you have sex¡¦. Research about sources of sex information
for adolescents
shows over-shelmingly that peers are a major influence in this area,
with parents
playing a minor role in the sex-education of their children (Davis &
Harris 1982; Libby
& Carlson 1973; Miller 1976; Shipman 1968; Thornburg 1981).
In
Moore and Rosenthal¡¦s survey of undergraduate students aged 17 to 20 years,
they found that 69
per cent of sexually active young people felt they could discuss any
concerns they had
about sex with their friends, while only 33 and 15 per cent
respectively felt
this way about discussing sexual problems with mother or father.
Similarly, 61 per
cent agreed that a good deal of their sex education came from
friends, with few
crediting either parent with provding sex education. Among these
late adolescents,
73 per cent had talked about ¡¥many aspects¡¦ of contraception with
peers, but only 37
per cent had done so with mothers and 15 per cent with fathers.
However, although
discussion and information-sharing about sexual matters was
common among
age-mates, it was interesting to note that practical assistance from
peers in matters of
arranging contraception or encouraging safer sexual practices was
rare. It¡¦s not
really a healthy phenomenon indeed.
3.2.2
Peer attitudes
Adolescents
can accept peer attitudes about sexuality. These can be implicitly
reflected in peer
behaviour, which the teenagers may use as a model for his or her
own behaviour, or
they can be actively proselytized through discussion, questioning,
teasing, dares,
shaming, and the like(Lewis & Lewis 1984). It shows that many young
people usually have
the strong desire to be like their admired age-mates and part of a
group can lead them
to engage in the sexual behaviours and express the sexual
attitudes. At the
same time, it is well to remember that these peer influences are not
always negative, as
friends and adolescent groups may express and model healthy as
well as unhealthy
sexual attitudes and behaviours. This issue receives scant attention
in current
research, where the emphasis seems often to address only adult disapproval
of peer influence
on adolescent sexuality (Susan & Doreen 1993).
3.3
The Youth Culture
The power of the youth culture in shaping teenagers¡¦ opinions and
behaviours
can be recognized
when we look around at the conformity of youths to current
fashions in
clothes, music, and leisure activities. The area of sexuality is just as
subject to this
influence as any other. Adolescents derive much of their information
about sexual mores
and behaviours from this subculture, which is wider than
immediate peers,
and which purveys sets of beliefs about what adolescents should be
doing, from the
point of view of their age-mates. These beliefs are communicated via
various media
directly targeted at young people. Influences include publications for
teenagers, movies
and television designed to appeal to this age group, music, songs,
rock videos. For
example, Videoclips of pop singers or groups have become popular
as a mean of
promoting careers by persuading teenagers to buy records of their
favourites. At the
same time, these video clips frequently give powerful messages
about sexuality ,
not only in terms of their lyrics but also of their behaviour. Popular
music and dacing
has been likened to a mating ritual, in which rhythm and simulated
sexual movements
provide sexual release and indicate attraction (Brook-Taylor 1970).
On the other hand,
Thornburg (1975) suggests that the pressures inherent in the
adolescent
subculture may thrust young people into heterosexual involvement before
they are physically
and emotionally ready to deal with it, almost bullying them into
premature sexual
activity. In reality, not everything in adolescent subculture brings
a wrong message
about sexuality to them. The evidence above does not apply to every
culture
too.
4.
Conclusion
In most
cultures, especially Hong Kong, premarital sex and bad behaviour are
usually linked
together. Another good example is the Hip-pop style. The Hip-pop style
drawings on the
street walls are always assumed to be made by bad adolescents. This
assumption refers
to a stereotype which is due to the public perception. It even
gradually becomes a
public belief. However, adolescent premarital sexuality is not
often a bad thing
as mentioned above. It is a good way to express our love towards
another
person and enable ourselves to be more mature. The most important thing is
that
how and from whom the correct concept of this issue is passed to a adolescent.
After all, one is
able to accept and handle the consequence of this sexuality.