Sex, Not only for Reproduction Throw away those abstinence rings and listen up teens! From ages twelve and up, us “young adults” have had adults pestering us to death about sex and all the drawbacks of having it. Well, to hell with that nonsense, sex isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be. Adults are quick to mention gonorrhea, syphilis, and of course that unwanted pregnancy. Yet what they fail to mention is the facts. In reality sex has many known health benefits that can boost a teen’s happiness and overall self-esteem which in turn helps relieve the stress from a teen’s everyday life. As many teens would attest to, the mixing of school and growing up is cause for disaster or more plainly put: stress. A study from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University found that stressed teens are more likely to try alcohol and tobacco. “Stressed teens find ways to unwind. In the high-stress group, 52% had tried alcohol; in the low-stress group, 29%.Thirty-one percent of the highly stressed teens had tried tobacco; 13% of low stress teens had” (Peterson). As my parents have often spewed to me, drugs and alcohol are highly addictive and are in no way something I should be meddling with. Drugs and alcohol have an outstandingly higher rate of deaths than sex does and as far as I know there are no fatalities from “sexing and driving”; if there is such a thing. Sex is scientifically proven to be a more efficient way of eliminating stress. “A big health benefit of sex is lower blood pressure and overall stress reduction, according to researchers from Scotland” (Doheny). All this in turn means that teens are less likely to try coke, meth, vodka, Captain Morgan, and all those other drugs and drinks. If adul... ... middle of paper ... ...sult could help make America a healthier and smarter America. Reference Page Doheny, Kathleen. "10 Surprising Health Benefits of Sex." WebMD - Better Information. Better Health. Ed. Louise Chang. WebMD, 30 Mar. 2009. Web. 28 July 2010. . Anitei, Stefan. "Why Should We Have Sex? 20 Good Healthy Reasons - It's Not Only about Reproduction - Softpedia." Latest News - Softpedia. Softpedia, 24 Nov. 2007. Web. 05 Aug. 2010. . "Is Sex Good Exercise?" HealthCentral.com - Trusted, Reliable and Up To Date Health Information. Health Central, 12 Dec. 2000. Web. 06 Aug. 2010. .
As teenagers many of us don’t understand the importance of abstinence especially now that we have media influence and peer pressure but the truth is that being bullied and being grief stricken is not cool. Disadvantages of not practicing abstinence are transmission of diseases, such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, genital herpes and HIV/A...
"Teen Pregnancy Prevention Focusing on Evidence: Ineffective Abstinence-Only Lessons Being Replaced with Science." The Nation's Health Apr. 2010: 1+. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Apr. 2012.
[5] Leboeuf, Adrian. “UCSB Researchers Study Advantages of Sexual Reproduction” Daily Nexus, volume 82, issue #28
Today’s young Americans face strong peer pressure to be sexually active and engage themselves in risky behaviors (Merino 100-109). Anyone deciding to have sex must first think about all the risks involved. Kekla Magoon, author of Sex Education in Schools, says that “half of all teens aged 15 to 19 years old in the United States have had sex” (Magoon 64-65). It is currently not required by federal law for schools to teach Sex education and those few schools that do teach Sex education have the decision to determine how much information is allowed. Advocates from both sides of the Sex education debate agree that teens need positive influences in order to make practical decisions (Magoon 88-89). Opponents of Abstinence-only education believe it fails because it does not prepare teens for all the risks of sex (Magoon 64-65).
The “talk” about sexuality has never been a topic many like to discuss with tweens or teens, but it has to be addressed sometime during their lifetimes. Sex is a natural experience that is used for reproduction and the building of an emotional connection. However, many teens engage in pre-marital sex and have no knowledge about protecting themselves. Sexual education teaches about human sexuality and how abstinence should be practiced to prevent sexual transmitted diseases (STDs) and unplanned pregnancies. Yet, sexual education classes are mostly for those in college.
The exposure of drug use and its influence is distinct between the age groups of those in their early childhood, middle, adolescent and adult years. In the early years of childhood, it is essential to keep clear of anything related to drugs since it can affect an individual’s learning, mental health and behaviour throughout their lifetime. The period of adolescence is probably the most sensitive one as behaviour during these years is highly predictive of later drug abuse (Guo J, Hawkins JD, Hill KG, Abbott RD. Childhood and adolescent predictors of alcohol abuse and dependence in young adulthood. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 2001;62(6):754-762.). This may be because they spend more time with their peers as well as being prone to hormonal changes, shift in sleep cycle and their cognitive maturation is still developing (Source: Tarter RE. Etiology of adolescent substance abuse: a developmental perspective. American Journal on Addictions 2002; 11:171-191.) The combination of factors highlights the importance of harm reduction at this time. Even though drugs and its abuse is most likely to be prevailed through an individual’s lifetime, their age, especially their early childhood experiences, significantly impacts this
...le promiscuity." Nature Genetics 36.12 (2004): 1326-1329. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 24 July 2011.
According to one source, “Teens who consistently learn about the risks of drugs from their parents are up to fifty percent less likely to use drugs than those who don’t” (11 facts). This matters because when teenagers are more aware of the risk, they are less likely to use drugs, knowing what the causes are. Teenagers are known to put a great deal of energy into things they enjoy. According to a well-known source, “Research shows that teens put a great deal of energy into concealing drug and alcohol use” (Look for signs). This means, if the teenager enjoys using drugs, they are going to put as much energy as it takes to get these drugs.
The government likes to pretend that if high school students get taught the “abstinence-only” method they would never think of taking part in sexual activities. Statistically this is incorrect. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “56 percent of high school students are virgins”(Martin). For the 56 percent abstinence only is doing them well, but there are still 44 percent of high school students engaging in sex without knowing the precau...
We live in a society that drinks heavily, and this influences teens. Most Americans use alcohol to celebrate wedding anniversaries, to welcome the New Year, and to enjoy many other special events. Alcohol is a legal drug for people over the age of twenty-one. By the time most teens reach senior high school, nearly all will have faced a choice about whether or not to take a drink. Although this drug is illegal for teenage use a large percentage of teens use alcohol. Many teens die in automobile accidents, which could have prevented if they had chosen to say no. Each year it is blame in the deaths of more than four thousand teens (Claypool, p. 42). No crime kills more teenagers in America. Kids who are drinking regularly in high school seem to be fully aware of the penalties and laws against underage drinking, possession but don't care. They agree that driving while intoxicated is a key role in fatal car accidents, yet they still do it. Many teens also believe cold showers and coffee can sober up a person that is drunk Teens may drink for many different reasons. A big reason for teens to start to drink is because of problems in their family life. Teens could have a bad relationship with their parents or their parents could get in a fight or even get a divorce and this could cause a drinking problem among their child. Many experts agree that the main reason teens are becoming alcoholics is low self-esteem. Sometimes these children have been neglected or abused which makes them feel unwanted or they have been pressured and feel worthless if they fail. They have to deal with problems that he is too immature to handle, or worries about problems, which are problems at all. Many kids drink to make them feel older and mature. It makes you ...
After interviewing my teenage cousin whom has been in several altercations at home and school, enlightened me on the ways that teenagers in her age group gets involved in drug use. Kids start as young as ten years of age using, selling, and experimenting with drugs. My teenage cousin was expelled from public schools when she started experimenting with drugs. She was surrounded by many challenges when she enrolled in the alternative behavioral school. Many students, whom attend the alternative behavioral school use drugs, sell drugs, are on probation, have been arrested, engage in sexual activity and drink alcohol.
There are a myriad of cultural and societal risk factors that contribute adolescent alcohol and drug use. A risk factor is defined as “any attribute, characteristic or exposure of an individual that increases the likelihood of developing a disease or injury”. These risk factors can be identified through family history of substance use disorder, sense of inferiority, pleasure seeking, low self-esteem, unemployment, poor social support, desire to experiment and poor social support (Thomas, N. L., Naregal, P. M., Mohite, V. R., Tata, S. H., Karale, R. B., & Kakade, S. V. (2015).) Risk of drug abuse increases greatly during times of transition, such as changing schools, moving, or divorce. Additional peer risk factors include gang involvement or the reinforcement of negative norms and expectations within peer group, the lack of academic...
Sex education in our schools has been a hot topic of debate for decades. The main point in question has been whether to utilize comprehensive sex education or abstinence-only curriculum to educate our youth. The popularity of abstinence-only curriculum over the last couple of decades has grown largely due to the United States government passing a law to give funding to states that teach the abstinence-only approach to sex education. But not teaching our children about sex and sexuality is not giving them the information they need to make well educated decisions. Sex education in our schools should teach more than just abstinence-only because these programs are not proven to prevent teens from having sex. Children need to be educated on how to prevent contracting sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies and be given the knowledge to understand the changes to their bodies during puberty. According to the Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education: Kindergarten-12th Grade from the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), comprehensive sex education “should be appropriate to age, developmental level, and cultural background of students and respect the diversity of values and beliefs represented in the community” (SIECUS).
Though I am not a sexually active teenager, refraining from sexual involvement has been difficult. I have been in serious relationships where the desire to have sex has been complicated by emotional expectations. Abstinence is especially hard in a society that seems to promote sex, as long as it is "safe" sex. I feel that the support, which used to come from authority figures such as parents and educators, is crumbling because of the initiation of programs such as condom distribution. It is as though parents and schools have forgotten that some teenagers, for whatever personal reasons, do not desire to be sexually active. I do not minimize the need to educate teenagers about safe sex and the risks of sexually transmitted diseases, for I am ...
Few people deny the dangers of drug use, while many teens are curious about drugs. They should stay away from drugs because drugs affect our health, lead to academic failure, and jeopardizes safety. Drugs are used from a long period of time in many countries. The concentration of drugs has increased from late 1960’s and 1970’s. Drugs can quickly takeover our lives. Friends and acquaintance have the greatest influence of using drugs during adolescence.