Gender differences in patterns of adolescent sexual behavior

The findings of a questionnaire survey of sexual attitudes and behavior of a large nationwide sample of Israeli adolescents (N=5410) show clear gender differences in patterns of sexual behavior even among kibbutz adolescents who express very permissive attitudes toward premarital coitus and live under conditions which provide easy access to potential sexual partners. Permissive conditions increase rates of coitus among female adolescents, but this sexual experience occurs within the framework of an emotionally involving relationship. Kibbutz girls who report coital rates equal to those of kibbutz and nonkibbutz boys (about 40%) have their first coital relationship with a steady boyfriend with whom they are in love and continue having sexual relations with the same partner. This pattern is similar to that of nonkibbutz females, who report much lower rates of coitus (14%). Males do not necessarily have sexual relations in the context of an emotional relationship. The findings are interpreted in terms of pattern of sex-role socialization.This study was supported by the Israel Center for Demographic Studies and by the Ministry of Health.Research interests are socialization, parent-child interaction, and cross-cultural research.Presently working on Ph.D. in public health at University of California, Berkeley.Research interests are child development and personality.Research interests are clinical obstetrics and gynecology, contraception, sex education, and family planning.Research interests are chronic disease epidemiology and research methodology.     

Gender differences associated with young people's emotional reactions to sexual intercourse

The differences between male and female adolescents' emotional reactions to their most recent occasion of sexual intercourse were examined. The sample included 932 sexually active Australian secondary school students who completed a self-report questionnaire concerning their sexual behavior. The majority of young people reported that they felt happy or good following their most recent occasion of sex. Females were more likely than males to report negative emotions such as feeling bad and used, but there was no difference between the percentage of males and the percentage of females who reported feeling guilty. Girls were more likely to feel bad, used, or guilty last time if they were drunk/high or had sex with someone who was not a steady partner. Boys who had sex with someone other than a steady partner last time were more likely to feel guilty. Peer and parental influences were also associated with feelings of guilt. Girls who were more confident that they could talk to one of their parents/guardians about sex, and boys who believed that most of their peers were sexually active, were less likely to have felt guilty.Received B.A. (Hons) from University of Queensland. Research interests include adolescents mental and sexual health.Received B.A.(Hons) from University of Queensland. Interested in the areas of sex roles and sexual behavior among adolescents.Received Ph.D. from Murdoch University. Research interests include population studies of sexual behavior and mental health.Received M.B.B.S., M.D. from University of Sydney. Research interests include adolescent health, psychological response in disasters, coping with grief and loss and living with HIV/AIDS.     

Irish/woman/artwork: Selective readings

This paper concentrates upon particular artworks from Irish women artists. It demonstrates that there are certain themes which recur in their artwork. These include dislocation, particularities about place and contestation around language, all of which are rooted in the lived experience of being Irish, being female and being an artist. At the same time the paper provides readings of this artwork which demonstrate that these experiences are diverse, and that the areas of representation within which the artists are working are socially produced constructs. There is therefore no romantic essentialist category of ‘Irish woman artist’, but rather the richly interplaying histories, readings and contexts of Irish/woman/artwork.     

revolutionary marriage: on the politics of sexual stories in Naxalbari

Marriage practices, the dynamics of interpersonal relationships and the politics of sexuality are relatively under-researched themes in the study of Bengali communism. Historical scholarship on the revolutionary politics of the extreme left Naxalbari andolan of the late 1960s–1970s, the object of this piece of study, is no exception. The article engages with women and men's narratives on the practice of ‘revolutionary’ marriage in the movement through the prism of contemporary popular memory studies and narrative analysis. Drawing on field interviews with middle-class male and female activists, the article draws attention to the contestatory nature of marriage in the collective memory of the movement. Narrative contestations over marriage in the Naxalite movement underscore, I argue, a tension between a utopian ideal of transgressive interpersonal relations and dominant middle-class codes of sexual morality. At the same time, individual attempts to ‘compose’ (in storytelling) socially recognizable and acceptable subject positions are grounded upon the silencing and abjection of more risky memories. Given the discrepancies and contradictions within the narrative repertoire from which individuals construct their identities, these ‘marriage stories’ are a tremendous resource for investigating the politics of love, sexuality and subject-formation in middle-class Bengali society.     

Self-concept of adolescent sexual abuse victims

To assess the self-concept and psychological profile associated with sexual abuse, 20 young female victims evaluated in a sexual abuse clinic completed the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire (OSIQ). The alleged assault was intrafamilial in 13 cases, lasting from several months to 10 years. Extrafamilial abuses were isolated events. Intercourse was alleged in 18 of the 20 instances. OSIQ group mean scores were in the poorly adjusted range for three scales, indicating serious problems with sexual attitudes, family relations, and feelings of inability to master the external environment. While the mean Overall Adjustment scale score was within normal limits, 10 girls had scores in the range indicating severe problems in adjustment; 7 were incest victims. Compared to nonsexually abused adolescent patients from a general adolescent clinic, sexually abused youth had significantly more problems with vocational/educational goals, psychopathology, and ability to master the environment (p<0.05). The self-concept problems identified in these sexually abused youth (a) are similar to those reported by women seeking psychiatric care long after their childhood sexual abuse occurred and (b) share some features reported among physically abused adolescents.This work was supported in part by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (#7278) and the Indiana State Board of Health, Maternal and Child Health Division.Received M.D. from Case Western Reserve University. Research interests are psychosocial effects of chronic illness on children and adolescents, compliance and cognitive developments.Received M.D. from Georgetown University.     

Maternal employment and adolescent sexual behavior

This study investigated whether maternal employment would be associated with teenage sexual attitudes and behaviors likely to increase the probability of teenage pregnancy. Female subjects whose mothers were employed outside the home during the high school years (a) had a greater tendency to begin sexual relations before age 19, (b) expressed less concern regarding the risk of unintended pregnancy, and (c) scored lower on an objective test of their practical knowledge about contraception.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Washington. Research interests include personality and environmental influences on adjustment.Received Ph.D. from University of Georgia. Current research interests are in behavioral teratology.Received Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University. Research interests are in loneliness and adjustment.Received Ph.D. from North Carolina State University. Research interests are in population and urban sociology.     

sexual assault as trauma: a Foucauldian examination of knowledge practices in the field of sexual assault service provision

This paper examines the deployment of the concept of psychological trauma in the field of sexual assault service provision, a field in which a feminist understanding of sexual violence has achieved a position of ‘truth’. Using a Foucauldian methodological approach, the investigation centred on service provision in New South Wales, Australia, and analysis focused on the everyday practices of workers illuminated through documents collected from the field, in particular the interview texts produced from interviews with thirty sexual assault practitioners. The paper focuses on the adult survivor of child sexual assault who emerged in the study as the most traumatised category of victim. I lay out how ‘trauma’, specifically the concept of ‘complex trauma’, operates as the conceptual (emotional, relational, neurobiological) link between past abuse and current problems, redefining them not as ‘problems’ but as the symptoms or effects of untreated childhood trauma. I argue that in the local field this deployment is simultaneously enabling and problematic. The production of a subject position of ongoing ontological vulnerability has the effect of repositioning the ‘adult survivor’ outside the socio-political context of their current lives and as such appears misaligned with a feminist ‘regime’ centred on enabling practices and structural gender inequality. However, I demonstrate how this same knowledge of the neurobiological, relational and emotional effects of trauma on the survivor self is used by practitioners as part of their established feminist practices of enabling victims to regain a sense of power and control, of interrupting blame and working for victims at a broader systemic level. The research adds to feminist research and commentary that has drawn critical attention to uptake of trauma in sexual assault work by showing the specificity of how trauma operates in a specific location, and illustrating both the potential and the problematic aspects of trauma as a feminist knowledge practice.     

Murder,cruelty and sexual assaults

As more and more political institutions stress the significance of gender equality policies, it becomes important to investigate the different interpretations and meanings attached to the concept of gender equality in diverse policy contexts. In this article we are interested in problematizing visions of gender equality by studying the challenges that the growing amount of paid domestic work performed within European households poses for gender equality policies and practices in two European countries. The aim is to reveal normative assumptions and silences in relation to gender equality by comparing how “paid domestic work” has been framed in policy debates in Sweden and Spain. As welfare states, Sweden and Spain are generally considered to be very different, and in policies on care for children and the elderly the differences are perhaps most apparent. In both countries, however, paid domestic work in the home has become more and more common in the last two decades. The rise of paid domestic services in European households has been interpreted as due to the limitations or decline of welfare states, the ageing populations, and the increasing numbers of dual-earner families. These services are most often provided by women, predominantly of immigrant background, and involve a wide range of tasks, including care work. The phenomenon of an increasing sector of domestic (care) work poses a theoretical and methodological challenge to gender and welfare studies. This article argues that the analysis of debates surrounding domestic service in private households is a useful starting-point for an intersectional analysis by means of revealing the normative assumptions and marginalization embedded in gender equality policies. It uses a comparative frame analysis in combination with intersectional analysis to assess how interactions between gender, class, race, and sexuality have been articulated in the policy debates on domestic services in Spain and Sweden.     

Patterns of risky sexual behaviors among emerging adults in intimate sexual relationships in two tertiary institutions in southwestern Nigeria

This study explored patterns of risky sexual practices and perceived vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections among 450 sexually active emerging adults (18–25 years) through a self-administered questionnaire and 43 interviews. Findings showed that 97.4% of men and 98.1% of women were in intimate sexual relationships, among which 74% of men and 46.5% of women had unprotected vaginal intercourse and anal sex (α = 1.74 for men and 1.09 for women) within the past month. Consequences of unprotected sexual practices notwithstanding, engagement in risky sexual practices prevail. Redesigning of current behavioral modification approaches targeted toward promoting healthy sexual practices in young adulthood is required.     

An integration of theory: Adolescent sexual contacts

The purpose of the present study was to examine the predictive validity of several theoretical factors drawn from control, social learning, and differential association theories for explaining adolescent sexual behavior. The sample consisted of 1478 adolescents who attended ten private schools located in different areas of this country. When examined together in multivariate regression equations, the theoretical factors accounted for 47.2% and 42.7% of the respective variances in frequency of sexual intercourse among males and females. The single factor of differential association with peers accounted for most of the respective variances (males, 33.1%; females, 26.8%). The discussion addressed the theoretical implications of the present findings for future research.The arrangement of names of authors was purely alphabetical, since contributions to it were equal.Received Ph.D. in social welfare from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Research interests: juvenile delinquency, adolescent sexual behavior, and homelessness.Received Ph.D. from Virginia Commonwealth University. Research interests: adolescent sexual behavior, use of forgiveness in clinical practice, and homelessness.     

Educational correlates of adolescents' sexual attitudes and behavior

Parents' educational attainment is known to be related to their children's educational aspirations and plans, and these variables have been presumed to be inversely related to early adolescent sexual activity. Relationships between these educational variables and adolescents' sexual attitudes and behavior were analyzed in a sample of 810 high school students from two Western states. Parents' educational background was positively related to adolescents' educational plans and performance, and these educational variables were inversely related to adolescents' premarital sexual attitudes and intercourse experience. It seems most plausible to conclude that parents' educational backgrounds affect children's educational interests and grades, which, in turn, affect adolescent sexuality. However, the observed associations also could be interpreted to suggest that early sexual behavior reduces adolescents' educational plans and lowers their school grades.The data analyzed here were collected as part of a prevention demonstration grant (APH 003-6-01-0) awarded to Terrance D. Olson by the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs. This paper is based on the master's thesis of the second author.Received Ph.D. in Family Sociology from the University of Minnesota. Research interests concern the antecedents and consequences of early adolescent sexual behavior.Received a master's degree from the Department of Family and Human Development at Utah State University. Interested in the problem behaviors of young teenagers.     

on the orgasm of the species: female sexuality,science and sexual difference

This essay interrogates the assemblage of female sexuality. Drawing on an analysis of Masters and Johnson's anatomical research and primatological research on monkeys, I argue that the female sexuality was the product of encounters between women, machines and monkeys. Orgasm's extra-species life produced a conception of female sexuality as natural in evolutionary and anatomical terms. The set of assumptions that follow this naturalisation of female sexuality through an emphasis on orgasm allow us to further deconstruct notions of female sexuality, naturalness and the politics of knowledge that produce this assemblage. Ultimately, I argue that this focus on anatomy and female orgasm allows us to see the stakes of an anatomically based sexual difference.     

A closer look at adolescent sexual activity

This study of 1228 parochial students in the eastern United States answered questions about adolescent sexuality. Few of the students surveyed claimed that sex was forced or even pressured. Over half of the students reported going steady as their relationship status when experiencing their first intercourse. Another fourth reported that they were dating or knew each other well. Approximately one-fifth of the students reported that drugs or alcohol was used at the time of first sex and three-fourths of them had first sex at either their own home or a friend's home. Nearly half of the students wished they had waited longer before having sex, especially the females and the more religious students. One-half of the nonvirgin students in the sample reported having had only one sexual partner. The implications of this information for setting social policy, designing and implementing effective sex education programs are discussed.Received Ph.D. in family studies/family science, Brigham Young University in 1994. Research and writing interests include adolescent sexuality and related problems, character education, and parenting.serving a sabbatical at BUY—Hawaii currently. Received Ph.D. in psychology at Michigan State in 1966. Research interests concern gender issues, parenting, and adolescent problems.In 1978 received Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Washington. Research interests include adolescent problems and social policy.