Psychological features and teenage sexual behavior

The paper presents the results of an empirical study on the personality traits of sexually active teenagers. The research identified the personality traits of teenagers who are inclined to look for sexual relations. The research focused on the following: motivation and values, implicit representations about sexual contacts, parent-child relations, and self-concept. The study comprised 465 individuals including 405 school students aged 14-16 and 60 mothers of the teenagers examined. The results demonstrate that teenagers' refusal to begin sexual life, provided they have this opportunity (i.e. a partner), is linked to their subjective perception of the basic values reflected in their consciousness. The research also focused on the features of teenagers' implicit representations with regard to sexual intercourse. This allowed to identify the role of sexual intercourse in teenagers' life. The factors regulating sexual relations in the age under study have been revealed. The research shows that teenage sexual intercourse is mainly driven by cognitive motives combined with the hedonistic (boys) and communicational/social ones (girls). Emotionally distant parents are another factor triggering sexual relations. The negatively critical attitude to sexual partners was also displayed, especially by girls. The attitude was expressed by teenagers even where they initiated sexual intercourse themselves, without been pressured into it by their partners. The study has an applied character and enables effective preventive and corrective work with sexually active teenagers.

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