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Adolescent Sexuality

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Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology

Introduction

The field of adolescent sexuality has often been marked by debates about how much, at what age, and with what restrictions young people should learn about and engage in sexual activity. Research in the area of adolescent sexuality has aimed, in large part, to explain the prevalence, outcomes, contexts, and predictors of sexual activity in teens. Focus has often been on sexual risk and heterosexual intercourse, specifically the age of first intercourse, rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unintended pregnancy, as well as other associated behaviors such as alcohol and drug use (Zimmer-Gembeck & Helfand, 2008). Over the last 30 years, however, there has been a increasing interest in examining sexuality as a normative developmental experience which includes not only questions regarding sexual activity but further elaboration of girls’ and boys’ sexuality – including gender and sexual identity development, body image, how sexuality is experienced, how it is...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Psychology and Women’s Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Sara I. McClelland

  2. Hunter College School of Social Work and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, 129 East 79th Street, New York, NY, 10075, USA

    Deborah L. Tolman

Authors
  1. Sara I. McClelland
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  2. Deborah L. Tolman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sara I. McClelland .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Thomas Teo

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McClelland, S.I., Tolman, D.L. (2014). Adolescent Sexuality. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_519

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_519

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5582-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5583-7

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