Teen Sex Comparison

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Why Teens are Having Sex Colleen Mulhern Human Sexuality, American Military University December 3, 2011 Summary of Sociological Forum article Rankin and Little did research on why teens have consensual sex. This study was done in two different towns in New York, bother smaller in size. It was not completely diverse, because the majority of the participants were mostly white and from middle class families. The study was done on eighth graders from public schools. The study was done in two separate years with results being compared and contrasted for the different years. (Rankin & Little, 2001) The participants were asked a multitude of questions via manila envelopes containing questionnaires to maintain the children’s anonymity. The results of the survey when analyzed seemed to indicate that by and large the number one thing that affected the teens’ decision to have consensual sex was peer influence. Although at younger ages, parents had slightly more influence, but as they went upwards in their teen years, that feel to the influence of their friends. The influence of friends can be broken into two categories. First, and this has more to do with the boys, but it is a perception of what they think their friends are doing, not necessarily what is actually reality. For a boy it is considered a cool status to be sexually active. For a girl on the other hand, it can have the opposite effect, and she can be considered a slut. The second category is their friends’ opinion of them. Although the two concepts are closely merged, they were still put into separate categories. It was also interesting to note that girls who had a steady boyfriend were more likely to engage in sex, tending to reaffirm the old adage girls give sex to get love, and boys give love to get sex. Summary of Psychology Today article In the article I found online at the

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