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Social liberals in the country’s “blue states” tend to support sex education and are not particularly troubled by the idea that many teen-agers have sex before marriage, but would regard a teen-age daughter’s pregnancy as devastating news. And the social conservatives in “red states” generally advocate abstinence-only education and denounce sex before marriage, but are relatively unruffled if a teen-ager becomes pregnant, as long as she doesn’t choose to have an abortion.

Regnerus argues that religion is a good indicator of attitudes toward sex, but a poor one of sexual behavior, and that this gap is especially wide among teen-agers who identify themselves as evangelical. The vast majority of white evangelical adolescents—seventy-four per cent—say that they believe in abstaining from sex before marriage. (Only half of mainline Protestants, and a quarter of Jews, say that they believe in abstinence.) Moreover, among the major religious groups, evangelical virgins are the least likely to anticipate that sex will be pleasurable, and the most likely to believe that having sex will cause their partners to lose respect for them. (Jews most often cite pleasure as a reason to have sex, and say that an unplanned pregnancy would be an embarrassment.) But, according to Add Health data, evangelical teen-agers are more sexually active than Mormons, mainline Protestants, and Jews. On average, white evangelical Protestants make their “sexual début”—to use the festive term of social-science researchers—shortly after turning sixteen. Among major religious groups, only black Protestants begin having sex earlier.

In 2004, the states with the highest divorce rates were Nevada, Arkansas, Wyoming, Idaho, and West Virginia (all red states in the 2004 election); those with the lowest were Illinois, Massachusetts, Iowa, Minnesota, and New Jersey. The highest teen-pregnancy rates were in Nevada, Arizona, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Texas (all red); the lowest were in North Dakota, Vermont, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Maine (blue except for North Dakota). “The ‘blue states’ of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic have lower teen birthrates, higher use of abortion, and lower percentages of teen births within marriage,” Cahn and Carbone observe. They also note that people start families earlier in red states—in part because they are more inclined to deal with an unplanned pregnancy by marrying rather than by seeking an abortion.

THE evidence suggests that homosexual behaviour is partly genetic. Studies of identical twins, for example, show that if one of a pair (regardless of sex) is homosexual, the other has a 50% chance of being so, too.

In a paper to be published soon in Evolution and Human Behavior, they suggest the advantage accrues not to relatives of the opposite sex, but to those of the same one. They think that genes which cause men to be more feminine in appearance, outlook and behaviour and those that make women more masculine in those attributes, confer reproductive advantages as long as they do not push the individual possessing them all the way to homosexuality.

Other evidence does indeed show that homosexuals tend to be “gender atypical” in areas beside their choice of sexual partner. Gay men often see themselves as being more feminine than straight men do, and, mutatis mutandis, the same is true for lesbians. To a lesser extent, homosexuals tend to have gender-atypical careers, hobbies and other interests.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 90–95 percent of HIV infections are transmitted through heterosexual sex. As a result, encouraging changes in heterosexual behavior is a large part of the HIV prevention effort in that region. However, research has shown that, on average, Africans have not changed their sexual behavior very much in response to HIV. This is particularly surprising in light of large changes in behavior among another high-risk group—gay men in the United States.

results suggest a strong correlation between income, life expectancy, and behavior change. Individuals with higher income and longer expected future life span are more likely to respond to HIV risk by lowering their number of sexual partners.

interventions designed to decrease mortality risks, such as malaria, could have significant effects on HIV prevention.

Transvestism, along with six other sexual behaviours, will be struck from Sweden’s official list of medical diagnoses starting on January 1st, 2009

The other diagnoses which will soon disappear from the disease registry include fetishism, fetishistic transvestitism, sadomasochism, gender identity disorder in youth, and multiple disorders of sexual preferences. Holm said that the changes emphasize that these behaviours are not illnesses in and of themselves, nor are they something perverse.

it's not sex education which is important, but culture and parent-child relationships

In all countries with low levels of teenage pregnancies and sexual infections, adults are more accepting of sexual activity among teenagers. However, these countries also give clear messages that sex should occur within committed relationships and that teenagers should protect themselves against pregnancy and infection.

Now a new book on this not-so-new subject is drawing fire in some quarters for its conclusion: That hookups can be damaging to young women, denying their emotional needs, putting them at risk of depression and even sexually transmitted disease, and making them ill-equipped for real relationships later on.

Laura Sessions Stepp, author of "Unhooked" and a writer for The Washington Post

"I argue that we shouldn't look at this from a moralistic viewpoint — as in, our youth is in decline — and we shouldn't celebrate it either, in a 'Sex in the City' light," says Bogle, who hasn't read Stepp's book. She also believes that it's wrong to assume women aren't hoping for something more from their hookups. "It's a system for finding relationships — and there isn't really an alternate system," says Bogle. "It feels like it's the only game in town, and if you don't do it, you're left out." She did find that after college, there was a transition back to traditional dating.

Jongeren kijken steeds meer naar porno maar krijgen nauwelijks seksuele voorlichting. Het onderwijs moet hen in staat stellen al hun onzekerheden te delen, schrijft Myrthe Hilkens.

Bijna de helft van de Nederlandse jongens tot 25 jaar denkt dat de pil onvruchtbaar kan maken en eenderde van hen weet niet dat jezelf goed wassen je niet beschermt tegen het oplopen van soa’s of hiv (bron: Seks onder je 25ste, Rutgers Nisso Groep, 2005).

Bijna 20 procent van de vrouwen tot 25 jaar zegt weleens tot seks of een seksuele handeling gedwongen te zijn, zo blijkt uit het onderzoek Seks onder je 25ste dat de Rutgers Nisso Groep in 2005 presenteerde.

10 november 2008

10 november 2008

Minister Rouvoet (Jeugd en Gezin) wil een maatschappelijke discussie over de in zijn ogen ‘losgeslagen seksmoraal van de jeugd’.

En juist in deze leeftijdsfase, tussen 16 en 22 jaar, krijgen ze te maken met relaties, seksualiteit en huwelijksdwang. Velen voelen een spagaat tussen de westerse wereld en de cultuur van hun ouders.

Van de 38 casussen gaat het om onder meer Turkse (13), Marokkaanse (8) en Pakistaanse (5) families. In 28 verhalen gaat het om een heimelijke of niet-geaccepteerde vriend, bij 15 leerlingen om uithuwelijken. In 10 gevallen werden leerlingen concreet bedreigd, 15 deelnemers kregen te maken met psychisch geweld, vaak van familieleden. Bij 8 jongeren liep het zo uit de hand dat de leerling elders moest gaan wonen.

A third of 16 to 35-year-old men and 23% of women questioned said they drank to increase their chance of sex.

Young people were also more at risk of unsafe sex while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the study found.