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Adolescence and
Emerging Adulthood: A
Cultural Approach
Chapter 9
Dating, Love, & Sexuality
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Chapter Overview
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Sexual activity
Cultural standards with regard to
sex before marriage
Sexual scripts for males and females
Sexuality among gay, lesbian, and bisexual
adolescents
Problems in adolescence (e.g. contraception,
pregnancy, abortion, parenthood)
Sex education programs
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
The Art of Dating ….
Prior to the women’s
movement, dating
was much more
formalized and
gender roles were
much more sharply
drawn in the West.
Teens now are more likely to
go out in mixed-gender
groups without any specific
pairing up.
Boys and girls may go out
simply as friends.
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Developmental Patterns in Dating
The American Experience
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Most adolescent girls begin dating around age 12 or 13
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Most adolescent boys begin dating around 13 or 14
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By age 15 about 20% of adolescents say they have “gone
with” someone
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Dating before among American adolescents tends to
follow a developmental sequence of four steps:
1.
Adolescents in same-gender groups go to places where
they hope to find other-gender groups
2.
Adolescents take part in social gatherings arranged by
adults, such as parties
3.
Mixed-gender groups arrange to go to some particular
event together, such as a movie
4.
Adolescent couples begin to date as pairs in activities
such as movies, dinners, concerts and so on
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Why adolescents date
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Recreation
• Fun and enjoyment
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Learning
• Becoming more skilled at dating interactions
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Status
• Impressing others according to how often one dates and whom
one dates
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Companionship
• Sharing pleasurable activities with another person
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Intimacy
• Establishing a close emotional relationship with another person
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Courtship
• Seeking someone to have as a steady partner
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Constructing Ideas:
Dating in Emerging Adulthood
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Dating tends to change as
adolescents enter emerging
adulthood.
What quality to emerging adults look
for in the people they date?
(remember to differentiate between
males and females)
From your experience, recall differences between
your dates as and adolescent and emerging adult
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Dating Scripts
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Proactive Script
Males tend to follow this
type of script
Includes:
• initiating the date
• deciding where they will go
• controlling the public
domain (driving the car)
• initiating sexual contact
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Reactive Script
Females tend to follow this type
of script
Focuses on:
• Private domain (grooming &
dress)
• Responding to the male’s
gestures in the public domain
• Responding to his sexual
initiatives
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Sternberg’s Theory of Love
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Different types of love involve combining three
fundamental qualities of love in different ways
These three qualities are:
1. Passion
•
Involves physical attraction and sexual desire
2. Intimacy
•
Feelings of closeness and emotional attachment
3. Commitment
•
The pledge to love someone over the long run, through
the ups and downs that are often part of love
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Sternberg’s 7 Forms of Love
Forms of Love
Passion
Intimacy
Commitment
Liking
No
Yes
No
Infatuation
Yes
No
No
Empty Love
No
No
Yes
Romantic Love
Yes
Yes
No
Companionate Love
No
Yes
Yes
Fatuous
Yes
No
Yes
Consummate Love
Yes
Yes
Yes
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Applying Sternberg to Adolescence
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In most adolescent love relationships,
commitment is either missing or highly
tentative
The absence of long term commitment in
adolescence means that there are two principal
types of adolescent love: infatuation and
romantic love
Keep in Mind …..
In industrialized countries people are not likely to get married until they are
in at least their mid- to late twenties
Under these circumstances it is understandable that adolescents’ love
relationship would not involve commitment as much as passion or intimacy
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Adolescent Passion in
Non-Western Culture
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Of 186 traditional cultures representing 6 distinct
geographical regions around the worlds – it was
found that there was evidence that young people
fell passionately in love in all but one of the
cultures
However …. This does not mean that young
people in all cultures are allowed to act on their
feelings of love
On the contrary … romantic love as a basis for
marriage is a fairly new cultural idea
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Falling in Love
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Consensual validation
• People like to find in others an agreement, or consensus,
with their own characteristics
• Finding this consensus supports, or validates, their own
way of looking at the world
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People of all ages tend to have romantic relationships with
people who are similar to them in characteristics such as:
• Intelligence
• Social class
• Ethnic background
• Religious beliefs
• Physical attractiveness
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Attachment Styles
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Attachment styles between lovers have been
found to resemble the parent-child attachment
styles
• Secure
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Characterized by emotional support and concern for the
partner’s well-being
• Anxious-ambivalent
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Characterized by overdependence on the romantic partner
along with insensitivity to the partner’s needs
• Anxious-avoidant
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Involve keeping emotional distance from the romantic
partner and inhibiting self-disclosure
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Brown’s Model of Adolescent Love
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Bradford Brown (1999) has proposed a developmental
model of adolescent love that recognizes the important role
played by peers and friends
Brown’s model contains four phases:
1.
Initiation phase
•
2.
First tentative explorations of love which are usually superficial,
brief and often fraught with anxiety, fear, and excitement
Status phase
•
•
3.
Begin to gain confidence in their interaction skills with potential
romantic partners
Adolescents remain acutely aware of the evaluations of their
friends and peers
Affection phase
•
•
4.
Adolescents come to know each other better and express deeper
feelings for each other
Being to engage in more extensive sexual activity
Bonding phase
•
•
The romantic relationship becomes more enduring and serious –
partners begin to discuss the possibility of a lifelong commitment
This phase usually occurs in emerging adulthood rather than
adolescence
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
When Love Goes Bad
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How can adolescent
egocentrism and the
personal fable contribute to
feelings of breaking up?
Check out the chapter!
Find out about research on
adolescent relationships
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Breaking Up – Understanding Emerging Adults
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Based on a study of 200 college couples for 2 years
(Hill, Rubin, & Peplau, 1979)
• 45% of the couples had broken up
• Those who had broken up
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reported lower levels of intimacy and love
were less likely to be similar on characteristics such as age,
SAT scores and physical attractiveness
were less balanced (one partner indicated substantially
more commitment to the relationship than the other)
• Women were more likely to end the relationship
• Rejected men tended to be lonelier, unhappier and more
depressed than rejected women
• Rejected men found it harder than rejected women to
accept the end of the relationship and to stay friends
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Discussion Stop
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90% of people in most
societies eventually marry
How do young people
choose a marriage
partner?
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Choosing a Marriage Partner
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The Study: 10,000 young people in 37 countries
from all over the world (Africa, Asia, Eastern and
Western Europe, & North and South America)
The Findings:
Highest Ranking
Mutual attraction
High Rankings:
Dependable character
Emotional stability &
Maturity
Pleasing disposition
Lowest Ranking:
Religious & political
backgrounds
Low Rankings:
Good financial prospects
Having a lot of money
The sharpest cross-cultural division was on the issue of chastity
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Arranged Marriages
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Although romantic love is found in all cultures, it is not
considered the proper basis of marriage in all cultures
Marriage has more often been seen as an alliance between
two families rather than as the uniting of two individuals
The most important considerations in an arranged marriage
is the other family’s status, religion and wealth
Globalization is having an effect on how young people are
beginning to value individual chose and the pursuit of happiness
Today in most Eastern cultures the “semi arranged marriage” is
the most common practice
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Cohabitation
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In the U.S. as well as Northern Europe
cohabitation before marriage is now experienced
by at least two thirds of emerging adults
The percentage is highest in Sweden where nearly
all young people cohabitate before marriage
In the U.S. cohabitation tends to be brief and
unstable
In contrast, cohabitating couples in European
countries tend to stay together as long as married
couples
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Adolescent Sexual Activity
Sexual Activity
Masturbation
Males
Majority of boys begin
about age 13
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Necking and
Petting
90% by age 19
60% of 13 year olds had
kissed at least once
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20% reported touching a
girl’s breast
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By age 18, 77% reported
penile touching
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Sexual
Intercourse and
Oral Sex
Before 1965, 25% of boys
reported having intercourse
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After 1965, 54% of boys
reported having intercourse
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Females
33% of females reported
masturbating by age 13
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60% to 75% by age 20
73% of 13 year olds had
kissed at least once
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35% reported having their
breast touched
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By age 18, 60% reported
vaginal touching
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Before 1965, 10% of girls
reported having intercourse
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After 1965, 52% of girls
reported having intercourse
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Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Ethnic Differences
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The proportion of high school students in grades 912 who had intercourse is:
• Lowest for White adolescents (49%)
• Somewhat higher for Latino adolescents (58%)
• Highest for African American adolescents (73%)
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Research has indicated that Asian Americans are
considerably less likely to engage in sexual activity
in adolescence compared with any other major
American ethnic group
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Cultural Beliefs and Adolescent Sexuality
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Restrictive cultures:
• Place strong prohibitions on adolescent sexual activity before
marriage
• Strict separation of boys and girls in early childhood through
adolescence
• Some countries will even include the threat of physical
punishment and public shaming for premarital sex
• Usually more restrictive for girls than boys
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Semi-restrictive cultures:
• Have prohibitions but they are not strongly enforced and are
easily evaded
• If pregnancy results from premarital sex, the adolescents are
often forced to marry
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Permissive cultures:
• Encourage and expect adolescent sexuality
• Sexual behavior is encouraged even in childhood and the
sexuality of adolescence is simply a continuation of the sex
play in childhood
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
What do you think?
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Do you think the American
majority culture is
restrictive, semi-restrictive
or permissive?
Can you give examples of
other cultures that are:
• Restrictive?
• Semi-restrictive?
• Permissive?
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Sexual Scripts
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Different cognitive frameworks for
understanding how a sexual experience is
supposed to proceed and how sexual
experiences are to be interpreted
Examples:
• Boys are expected to “make the moves”
• Girls set the limits on how far the sexual
episode is allowed to progress
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Sexually Active Adolescents
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Characteristics of non-virgins
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Similar self-esteem as virgins
Similar overall life satisfaction as virgins
More likely to be early maturing
Tend to have lower levels of academic performance and
academic aspirations
Adolescents who have sex early (15 years old or
younger)
• Early users of drugs and alcohol
• More likely to be from single parent households
• More likely to have grown up in poverty
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Sexual Harassment
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Includes a wide range of behaviours from mild harassment
such as name calling, joke and leering looks to severe
harassment involving unwanted touching or sexual contact
It is estimated that over half of American women will
experience sexual harassment at some time during their
professional live
Date Rape is one form of sexual harassment that takes
place when a persons, usually a woman, is forced by a
romantic partner, date, or acquaintance to have sexual
relations against her will
• 15% of adolescent girls and 25% of emerging adult women
have experienced date rape
• Alcohol plays a big part in date rape on college campuses
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Sexual Harassment
Percentage of male and female students
having ever experienced various forms
of sexual harassment
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Sexual Harassment
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Adolescents
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The degree of confusion and anxiety is often multiplied
They are exposed almost entirely to heterosexual models of
dating, love and sex
The “presumption of heterosexuality” is part of their
socialization from parents, friends, school and media
It is important to note:
Distinguishing between having homosexual experiences and having a
sexual orientation is important.
A high percentage of adolescents and emerging adults (predominantly
males) report some kind of sex play but only about 2% of adolescents
become adults with a primarily homosexual orientation.
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual
Adolescents
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It is during adolescence that most gay, lesbian
and bisexual (GLB) people become fully aware of
their sexual orientation
Coming out
• beginning at an average age of 14 for gay males and a
year or two later for lesbians
• Involves a person’s recognizing his or her own sexual
identity and then disclosing the truth to friends, family
and others

Homophobia
• Fear and hatred of homosexuals
• Because of this phenomenon, coming to the realization
of a GLB identity can be traumatic for many adolescents
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Contraceptive Use and Nonuse

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Why do most sexually active
adolescents fail to use
contraception consistently?
Think about:
•
•
•
•
Infrequency of sex
Cognitive development
Personal fable
Embarrassment
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Contraceptive Use and Nonuse

Two types of countries have low rates of teenage
pregnancy:
• Those that are permissive about adolescent sex
• Those that adamantly forbid adolescent sex
Permissive Countries
Denmark
Sweden
Netherlands
Restrictive Countries
Japan
South Korea
Morocco
They have explicit safe
sex campaigns.
Adolescents are strongly
discouraged from even dating
Adolescents have easy
access to contraception
It is rare for boys and girls to
spend time alone together
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Birth, Abortion, and Pregnancy
Notice how high the
pregnancy rate is in
the U.S.
Compare this to
Canada where
sexual activity rates
are the same but
the pregnancy rate
is about half
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Facts about the “Facts of Life”
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About 30% of pregnancies to American
adolescents end in abortion
14% of adolescents miscarry
Of the children who are born, only about
5% are put up for adoption
…. That means
about 50% of adolescents raise their own
children (sometimes with the help of the
father but most often with the help of the
adolescent mother’s own mother)
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Teen Birth Rates
Black teens are twice
as likely as White
teens to get pregnant
In recent years, birth rates
have become highest of all
among Latina adolescents
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Discussion Stop

Do you think
adolescent mothers
eventually get back
on track and catch up
with their peers?
… let’s find out!
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
What about Mom?

Twice as likely to drop out of school
Less likely to go to college or become employed
Less likely to get married
More likely to get divorced if they get married

Do they catch up? (a sample of 300 mothers)
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• Five years after given birth teenage mothers still lagged
behind their peers in educational, occupational and
economic progress
• After 18 years
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25% were still on welfare
25% had succeeded in making it into the middle class
A majority had eventually completed high school
33% had completed at least some college education
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
What about Dad?

Being a teenage dad is related to a variety of
negative outcomes
•
•
•
•
•
•
More likely to become divorced
Lower level of education
Lower paying job
More prone to drug and alcohol use
More likely to violate the law
More feelings of anxiety and depression
Interesting Footnote:
Like adolescent mothers, the problems of adolescent
fathers often began prior to parenthood
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
What about Baby?

Children born to adolescent mothers face a
higher likelihood of a variety of difficulties in life
• Babies are more likely to be born premature
• Lower birth rate
• Premature and low birth rate are related to a variety of
physical and intellectual problems
• Greater likelihood of behavioral problems
• School misbehaviour, delinquency and early sexual
activity
It is important to note:
These problems are not just due to having an adolescent mother
but also due to the fact that most adolescent mothers are not
only young and unmarried but poor as well
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
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By age 24, one in three sexually active Americans
have contracted an STD
Two thirds of all STDs occur in people who are
under 25 years old
Two important characteristics of STDs
• Asymptomatic

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People show no symptoms of the disease
They are especially likely to infect others because
neither they nor others realize that they are infected
• Latency Period


There may be years between the time people are
infected and the time they being to show symptoms
During this time they may be infecting others without
either themselves or their partners being aware of it
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Chlamydia
• Most common STD
• Highest rates among 15 to 19 year olds
• Leading cause of female infertility

Gonorrhoea
• Caused by bacteria that thrive in the moist mucous membranes
of the body
• Very easily passed along during sex
• Females are at least twice as likely as males to become infected

Herpes Simplex
• Caused by a virus
• Has two variations: herpes simplex I and herpes simplex II
• Highly infectious (75% of persons exposed to an infected
partner will become infected)
• There is no cure for herpes
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Sexually transmitted diseases

HIV/AIDS
• Strips the body of its ability to fend off infections
• The body is highly vulnerable to a wide variety of illnesses and
diseases
• 90% of cases of HIV in the U.s. result from intercourse
between homosexual or bisexual partners
• Outside the U.S. HIV/AIDS is spread mainly between
heterosexual partners
• Has a long latency period (tend to by asymptomatic up to 5
years)
• AIDS is the leading cause of death worldwide among persons
25 to 44 years old
• 10 of every 11 new HIV infections worldwide come from Africa
• The mortality rate for people who have AIDS remains
extremely high
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Sex Education


Americans agree that rates of premarital
pregnancy and STDs in adolescence are serious
problems that must be reduced
However there is vehement disagreement about
what is the best solution
• One side: comprehensive sexuality education
• Other side: abstinence promotion
You be the judge!
What do you think is the better solution to
the problems of teen pregnancy and STDs?
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Sex Education
10 characteristics that make programs work
1.
Focus narrowly on
reducing one or more
sexual behaviors
6.
Model and provide
practice in negotiation
and refusal skills
2.
Base the program on
theoretical approaches
for other risky behaviours
7.
Use a variety of teaching
methods
8.
Incorporate behavioral
goals specific to age,
culture and sexual
experience
9.
Run the program over a
sufficient period of time
3.
Give a clear message
about sexual activity and
contraceptive use
4.
Provide basic, accurate
information about risks
and methods
5.
Include activities that
teach how to deal with
social pressures
10. Train teacher, youth
workers and peer leaders
who believe in the
program
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. Copyright © 2004 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.