Why Teens Fail Essay

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Why Adolescent Teens Fail to Remain Abstinent According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 47.8% of high school students in America have participated in the act of sexual intercourse (“Adolescent Sexuality”). Why do so many adolescent teens fail to stay abstinent in today’s world? Although it is still possible to remain abstinent until marriage, there are many factors that play into the loss of virginity at a young age, including social media, peer pressure, and one’s upbringing. Social media has affected teenagers in several negative ways, one of the largest effects being sexuality. “Research indicates that sexual messages contained in film, television, and music are becoming more explicit in dialog, lyrics, and behavior. In television programming aimed at teens, more than 90% of episodes had at least one sexual reference in it with an average of 7.9 references per hour,” asserts Jennifer Stevens Aubrey (“Adolescent Sexuality”). Adolescents are becoming more exposed daily to sexual …show more content…

According to Katie Couric and Roger Doyle, about 70% of parents with teenagers have discussed sex and sexual relationships with them; however, less than half of those parents have taught their teenagers to say “no” (“Adolescent Sexuality”). Furthermore, some parents who do not support their teenager having sex emphatically forbid them, instead of simply listening or giving unbiased advice (“Adolescent Sexuality”). “Fathers have a greater impact on daughters than they think, but fail to recognize it because they don’t believe they should be discussing sex with their daughters or simply leave it to the mothers” (“Adolescent Sexuality). Many adolescents fail to stay abstinent solely because they never were properly taught by their

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