Adolescent Sexuality and Use of Contraception
It is a fact that adolescents are sexually active. A recent study found out that 86% of the reduction in teen pregnancy could be ascribed to the use of contraceptive while the remaining 14% were attributed to increased abstinence. The paper will discuss adolescent’s sexuality and the use of contraceptives. The paper starts by summarizing a scholarly article “Adolescent sexuality and use of contraceptive” by professors Rebecca Allen as step 1 and Michelle Forcier and another article from the media Psychology Today “Yes Your Teenager Is Having Sex… But It’s Not That Bad” by Kathryn Stamoulis as step 2. The paper will then analyze by comparing the two articles from step 1 and step 2 and argue which one of the two the scholarly article is the best and conclude the paper from insights learned from these two articles.Adolescent Sexuality and Use of Contraception
The article “Adolescent Sexuality and the Use of Contraception” gives insight to the sexual health needs of adolescents while reviewing the current perception on the topic based on researches which have been carried out as well as the naturalistic observations of the authors. The article is written by two experienced specialists in the field of adolescent sexuality: Dr. Allen and Dr. Forcier. The article was published at the srm-ejournal.com on February, 2011. The srm-ejournal.com is a website that is promoted by American Society for Reproductive Medicine. The website provides a forum where a panel of experts gives insights on diagnosis and treatment of various diseases touching on reproduction, sexuality and menopause. The article hypothesizes that sexuality and sexual relationship are important sexual elements of the adolescent development and that it is widely practiced amongst adolescents despite being categorized as “at risk”. The study focuses on adolescents especially in the age bracket of 15-19 years.
The study revealed that 46% of teens in the United States are reported to have had sex at least once; 20% of the above reported to have engaged in sexuality at a much younger age of below 15 years. However, the use of contraceptive was found to be high, that is >85%. This translates to 750,000 of the above getting pregnant with 82% being classified as unwanted. 59% give a birth, 27% have abortions and the rest experience miscarriages. These figures are much higher compared to the figures in other developed countries, such as Britain, Sweden and France. The use of contraception was cited for the difference. Confidentiality of the information that is provided by the youth is cited as an important factor towards encouraging the adolescents to seek help.
The research concluded that sexual exploration and sexuality among the teens is a natural development component. Therefore a forum for counseling and guidance on the use of contraceptives is important in their heath visits. This will help to bring down the number of unwanted pregnancies and guide them on preventing STIs (source one).Adolescent Sexuality and Use of Contraception