Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to legal adulthood. Adolescence is usually associated with the teenage years, but its physical, psychological or cultural expressions may begin earlier and end later. For example, puberty now typically begins during preadolescence, particularly in females. Physical growth and cognitive development can extend into the early twenties. Thus, age provides only a rough marker of adolescence, and scholars have found it difficult to agree upon a precise definition of adolescence.
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions that place special value and significance on this state, predominantly towards unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth.
Virginity pledges are commitments made by teenagers and young adults to refrain from sexual intercourse until marriage. They are most common in the United States among Catholic and Evangelical Christian denominations.
In sociology, a peer group is both a social group and a primary group of people who have similar interests (homophily), age, background, or social status. The members of this group are likely to influence the person's beliefs and behaviour. Peer groups contain hierarchies and distinct patterns of behavior. In a high school setting for example, 18 year olds are a peer group with 14 year olds because they share similar and paralleled life experiences in school together. In contrast, teachers do not share students as a peer group because teachers and students fall into two different roles and experiences.
Premarital sex is sexual activity practiced by people before they are married. Historically, premarital sex was considered a moral issue which was taboo in many cultures and considered a sin by a number of religions, but since about the 1960s, it has become more widely accepted, especially in Western countries. A 2014 Pew study on global morality found that premarital sex was considered particularly unacceptable in "predominantly Muslim nations", such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, and Egypt, each having over 90% disapproval, while people in Western European countries were the most accepting, with Spain, Germany, and France expressing less than 10% disapproval.
Public displays of affection (P.D.A.) are acts of physical intimacy in the view of others. What is an acceptable display of affection varies with respect to culture and context.
The demographics of sexual orientation vary significantly, and estimates for the lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) population are subject to controversy and ensuing debates.
The General Social Survey (GSS) is a sociological survey created and regularly collected since 1972 by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. It is funded by the National Science Foundation. The GSS collects information and keeps a historical record of the concerns, experiences, attitudes, and practices of residents of the United States.
The conflict tactics scale (CTS), created by Murray A. Straus in 1979, is the "most widely used instrument in research on family violence." There are two versions of the CTS; the CTS2 and the CTSPC. As of 2005, the CTS has been used in about 600 peer reviewed scientific or scholarly papers, including longitudinal birth-cohort studies. National surveys conducted in the USA include two National Family Violence Surveys, the National Violence Against Women Survey (1998), which, according to Straus, used a "feminist version" of the CTS in order to minimize data on female perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV), and the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. A major international survey to use the CTS was the 2006 International Dating Violence Study, which investigated IPV amongst 13,601 college students across thirty-two different countries.
Adolescent sexuality is a stage of human development in which adolescents experience and explore sexual feelings. Interest in sexuality intensifies during the onset of puberty, and sexuality is often a vital aspect of teenagers' lives. In humans, sexual interest may be expressed in a number of ways, such as flirting, kissing, masturbation, or having sex with a partner. Sexual interest among adolescents, as among adults, can vary greatly, and is influenced by cultural norms and mores, sex education, as well as comprehensive sexuality education provided, sexual orientation, and social controls such as age of consent laws.
The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a multidisciplinary and cross-national panel database of micro data on health, socio-economic status and social and family networks. In seven survey waves to date, SHARE has conducted approximately 380,000 interviews with about 140,000 individuals aged 50 and over. The survey covers 27 European countries and Israel.
Teen dating violence is the physical, sexual, or psychological / emotional abuse within a dating relationship among adolescents. Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been a well examined and documented phenomenon in adults; however, there has not been nearly as much study on violence in adolescent dating relationships, and it is therefore not as well understood. The research has mainly focused on Caucasian youth, and there are yet no studies which focus specifically on IPV in adolescent same-sex romantic relationships.
In research of human subjects, a survey is a list of questions aimed at extracting specific data from a particular group of people. Surveys may be conducted by phone, mail, via the internet, and sometimes face-to-face on busy street corners or in malls. Surveys are used to increase knowledge in fields such as social research and demography.
SHARE-Israel is the Israeli component of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, a multidisciplinary and cross-national panel database of micro data on health, socio-economic status as well as social and family networks of individuals aged 50 or over.
The relationship between the environment and sexual orientation is a subject of research. In the study of sexual orientation, some researchers distinguish environmental influences from hormonal influences, while other researchers include biological influences such as prenatal hormones as part of environmental influences.
The Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project (MDICP) was originally developed as a sister project of the Kenya Diffusion and Ideational Change Project (KDICP), but with a larger sample and greater geographical dispersion. Both the KDICP and the MDICP aimed to examine the role of social interactions in changing demographic attitudes and behavior. The first two waves of the MDICP focused on two key empirical questions: the roles of social interactions in (1) the acceptance of modern contraceptive methods and of smaller ideal family size and (2) the diffusion of knowledge of AIDS symptoms and transmission mechanisms and the evaluation of acceptable strategies of protection against AIDS. Beginning with the third wave in 2004, the MDICP expanded in several directions: (1) A sample of adolescents was added to the base sample of ever-married women and their husbands, (2) Biomarkers for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections were collected from all respondents who consented, and the results were provided to those who requested them, (3) GPS coordinates were collected for all sampled households.
The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) is a longitudinal birth cohort study of American children in urban areas, run by Princeton University and Columbia University with the University of Michigan. It uses a stratified random sample technique and an oversample of non-marital births. Baseline data collection ran from 1998–2000, with interviews with both biological parents shortly after the child's birth. Follow-up interviews were conducted when the child was one, three, five, and nine years old. Fifteen year interviews began in February 2014.
Adolescent sexuality in Canada is not as well documented as adolescent sexuality in the United States; despite the proximity of the two nations, Canada has its own unique culture and generalizations about Canadian adolescent sexuality based on American research can be misleading. Because of this, several surveys and studies have been conducted which acquired information on Canadian adolescent sexuality. Surveys which provide this information include the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY). According to information drawn from the Canadian Community Health Survey and the National Population Health Survey, in 2005 43% of teens aged 15 to 19 reported that they had had sexual intercourse at least once.
A hookup culture is one that accepts and encourages casual sex encounters, including one-night stands and other related activity, without necessarily including emotional intimacy, bonding or a committed relationship. It is generally associated with Western late adolescent sexuality and, in particular, United States college culture. The term hookup has an ambiguous definition because it can indicate kissing or any form of physical sexual activity between sexual partners. The term has been widely used in the U.S. since at least 2000. It has also been called nonrelationship sex, or sex without dating.
Lisa M. Diamond is an American psychologist and feminist. She is a professor of developmental psychology and health psychology at the University of Utah. Her research focuses on sexual orientation development, sexual identity, and bonding.
