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 (Moore & Rosenthal 1993). It is also  

important to note that the power of peer influence is always much larger than that of

parents influence. Since sex can usually be a discussion topic among the adolescents, a

peer is able to influence a adolescent’s attitudes towards premarital sex no matter it is a

piece of information, a correct/incorrect advice, or even a kind of support. So, the

influence of peers should not be underestimated.

3.3 The Youth Culture

      The day-to-day impact of social control on teenagers is reflected in their

  commitment to perform in ways appropriate to their role. Western societies, by

  prolonging the transition to adulthood and by segregating their youths, have given rise

to an institutionalized youth culture—more or less standardized ways of thinking,

  feeling, and acting that are characteristic of a large number of youths (Moore &

  Rosenthal 1993).

3.3.1 A subculture

      Moore and Rosenthal suggest that 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 even 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. Writers such as McRobbie (1982)

  believe that adolescent fiction contributes to the creation of ideologies about

  relationships between the sexes, sexual expression and power. For girls, she argues,

  these ideologies deal with the construction of teenage femininity, such as the nature of

  attractives, the desirability of feminine passive acceptance, and the importance of

  attracting a man. Teenage boys’ interests in a varied diet of adventure, hobbies,

  non-fiction, and soft-porn such as Playboy may encourage a wider range of

  self-definitions and identities which do not necessarily revolve around sexual

  attractiveness. The theory of the youth subculture can be applied to every culture

  around the world. The youth subculture is quite different from the adult culture as the

  former one is only a movement towards maturity. It possesses its own structure and

  style. Sex is one of the most important subject in the subculture because it is

  mysterious and new to the adolescents. It’s likely for them to use the current trend’s

  view as their own views towards sex. Hence, a adolescent’s attitudes towards

  premarital sex is directly related to the current youth subculture.

3.3.2 Current pop star as a role model

      Teenagers are presented with role models in the form of current pop stars.

  Whereas the teenagers of the 1950s swooned to the sound of Frank Sinatra crooning

 that ‘Love is a many splendoured thing’ or ‘Our love is here to stay’, ‘today’s

  adolescents are more likely to hear explicitly sexual lyrics such as Madonna’s ‘Erotic,

  erotic, put your hands all over my body’. Even more explicitly sexual are the lyrics of

  rap musicians:

      You know it’s good for me and it’s good for you

      Let Jim Browski [slang for penis] go to work and penetrate.

  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). It is particular true that

  adolescents mostly have their own idols for whom affect their own life styles and

  sexual attitudes. However, Thornburg 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. I agree this view that the adolescents may not be able to

  handle the consequences of premarital sex because of both of their physical and

  emotional immaturity. Therefore, the construction of a healthy youth subculture is

  definitely important for guiding adolescents’ attitudes towards premarital sex.

3.4 Media models of sexual behaviour

      On television, movies, and videos adolescents see in their own living-rooms

  people expressing the whole gamut of sexual behaviours, including violent sexuality.

  Many popular modern movies have strong sexual themes. In these movies, sex is

  explicit and not represented, tastefully and discreetly, by waves crashing or needs

  blowing in the wind as was the case in the 1940s and 1950s. Today’s teenagers are

  bombarded with scenes of unambiguous sex (usually between unmarried partners),

  the details of which are portrayed in mystery. Teenagers know what sex is and how it is

enacted at increasingly earlier ages. Sachs et al.point out that young people

aresocialized into a world characterized by a vast array of media forms. Although it

ishard to establish clear lines of influence, we know that adolescents today watch many

  ‘sexy’ films, videos, and video clips. These range from the explicitly pornographic to

  those that might be regarded as ‘soft-porn’. In Hong Kong, the media do give a lot

  information about sex to adolescents too. Some magazines like ‘YES!’, of which the

  target readers are mainly adolescents, even provide sex writings and answer questions

  about sex. These information, however, are not always true and accurate.

3.5 School

      In the United States, Nielsen describes the state of sex education as ‘too little

  too late’. In 1975, Thornburg surveyed a large sample of American adolescents from

  eleven different locations and estimated that about 40 per cent of information about

  sex was obtained from school literature, about 40 per cent from peers, and about 15

  per cent from parents. In 1987, Allen concluded from her survey in the United

  Kingdom that many teenagers received most of their information about sex and

  contraception from school classes, with friends being a further major source. In

  Australia, Goldman and Goldman found that the major sources of children’s and

  teenagers knowledge about sex were parents, books, and the mass media. Only 19

  per cent of these children claimed to have learned most of what they knew about sex

  from teachers and school sex lessons. In Allen’s study, secondary school students

were far more likely to rate parents as accurate sources of sex information than

  teachers and were very unlikely to rate teachers as ‘the first person to turn to with a

  question about sex, contraception or personal relationships’. Goldman and Goldman

  comparing sex education across a number of different nations concluded that lack of

  trust in teachers’ knowledge of discretion served to inhibit many young people in

  Britain, Australia, and America from approaching their teachers for information or

  advice about sex. All these evidence show that there is a lack of sex education in

  school or the system of sex education is not well-developed in most countries

  worldwide. Taking Hong Kong as an example, the one or two talks organised by the

  Mother’s Choice is absolutely not enough for students to learn about sex. The students

  are always too shy to raise questions during the lesson too. It makes adolescents think

  ‘teachers will never be available for consultation about sex’.

4. Conclusion

      In most cultures, especially Hong Kong, premarital sex and bad behaviours 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 an adolescent.

  After all, one is able to accept and handle the consequence of this sexuality.

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