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Psychological effects of adolescent sex
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The psychological effects of adolescent sex relates to the mental health of adolescents who have engaged in sexual conduct. Psychological effects For teens, "having sex changes you. It is emotionally powerful and there are risks involved."<ref name="saltz"/> "Sex simply does not come without emotional strings for the majority of American adolescents, especially girls." "Overall, for either gender, teens who are not sexually active are markedly happier than those who are active."<ref name=waveii/> "Early sexual activity—whether in or out of a romantic relationship—does far more harm than good."<ref name="Sax"/> There is no data to suggest that sexually active teenagers actually exhibited better emotional health, happiness, heightened respect between genders, a more mature sense of responsibility, or an improved ability to make lasting, intimate relationships. "It's just not there--not in the survey data, the interviews, or other published studies." Many teens "do a good deal of mental labor and normative affirmation" to convince themselves that sex during the teenage years is a good idea, despite it being "a period of relational instability and immaturity." "Arousal may come naturally during adolescent development, but sexual happiness does not." Dr. Drew Pinsky has also said "All of us want young people to make better choices, to delay their sexual contact, to make sure that they fully understand the implications of those choices -- which of course, they never do."<ref name="wistv"/> "Sex is far from a simple pleasure. The emotional pain that lingers after poor sexual decision making, at any age, is evidence of the complex morality inherent to human sexuality. The sexual human begs for something better and more lasting than hooking up or satiating a partner's will." Relationships Teens lack "secure and stable romantic relationships," and while this might not be necessary for satisfying sex, " it does make for emotional health and deeper sexual contentment." Most adults don't want anyone, especially teens, to have "sexual relationships laregely divorced from real intimacy, security, love, and commitment." Society, however, is "threatening to not only accept such half-baked relationships, but even encourage them." "Sex without security tend to damage people on the inside." Production of oxytocin increases during the adolescent years,<ref name="Healy"/> and it is key to monogamy and long-term attachment.<ref name="brain chems"/> Oxytocin is "nature's way of weaving people together."<ref name="social animal"/> Girls have more of it and may be more sensitive to it.<ref name="large"/> Psychologists theorize that oxytocin will make them care about relationships and feel connections with others more intensely than boys.<ref name="large"/> This is "a logical explanation for why girls are in turmoil after a hook up and boys are not".<ref name="stepp"/> Boys are more likely to compartmentalize moral claims about sex and less likely to understand sex as "optimally involving relational commitment." Brain development The earlier onset of puberty for children is putting pressure on children and teens to act like adults before they are emotionally or cognitively ready, and thus are at risk to suffer from emotional distress as a result of their sexual activities.<ref name="sex lives" /><ref name="Garn"/><ref name="Caspi"/><ref name="Stattin"/><ref name="USATodayTeens"/><ref name="oconnell"/> While teens may be sexually mature, they are "in a constant state of emotional maturation and development." Adolescents "often haven't achieved the emotional, even neurological, maturity necessary for making autonomous and self-aware sexual choices."<ref name="oconnell"/> Emotional, social and cognitive development continues well past adolescence.<ref name="Gruber"/> As the frontal lobe of the brain, which houses complex thinking, understanding cause and effect, controlling impulses, and judgment, is not fully developed until a person is in their 20s, "teens are less prepared to think about 'if I do this today, what will happen to me tomorrow?'"<ref name="saltz"/> With their still-developing brains, teens do not yet possess the ability to either fathom the physical and emotional consequences of sex or to deal with them once they happen.<ref name="risky"/> In one study, among those who had had both oral and vaginal sex, 60% reported at least one negative effect, such as feeling used, getting pregnant, contracting a sexually transmitted infection, or feeling bad about themselves.<ref name="UCSF"/> Psychological problems and emotional distress "We tend to focus on the health consequences of having sex, like pregnancy and STIs, but we also need to talk to about all the emotional consequences," experts say.<ref name="UCSF"/> Disease and illness related sexual activity is epidemic, but "the psychological outfall isn’t far behind."<ref name="sadd"/> Having a first sexual encounter before 15 has been found to be correlated with higher rates of mental illness.<ref name="cox"/> Sex for teens is not "without risk. It can take a toll on the soul, dehumanizing unsuspecting students who tumble too soon into the world of hooking up, not knowing enough about sex or themselves to avoid getting hurt."<ref name="McDonough"/> Despite "societal shifts in sexual standards, human development remains pretty much the same. Kids are still emotionally vulnerable and volatile - more so if they are sexually active".<ref name="McDonough"/> Teens are not in the dark about sex itself, "they're in the dark about the implications of . They're in the dark about the emotional reality, they're in the dark about the biological reality, they're in denial about this thing that has become a drug in our culture, rather than an expression about intimate relations."<ref name="wistv"/> He continued, "It's too far the other way: It's not that they don't know about it, they know everything, but at the same time, they know nothing. And that's the problem. So the human piece is left out, the human reality is taken away, it's all thought of very casually."<ref name="wistv"/> Researchers have found that cutting is linked to higher levels of risky sex among teenagers. "Habitual cutting is a way of managing intense emotional distress. It makes sense that the level of impulsivity and risk taking would also be higher in these teens." Cutting, even once, is "a warning sign that they are overwhelmed in some way."<ref name="cutting"/> Depression and suicide Longitudinal research has shown "a significant association between teenage sexual abstinence and mental health."<ref name="Bogart"/> In a broad analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, researchers found that engaging in sex leaves adolescents, and especially girls, with higher levels of stress and depression.<ref name="depress"/> "Depression, anxiety and increased stress accompany the abuse of alcohol and drugs also observed in sexually promiscuous teens."<ref name="McDonough"/> Research has found "a dramatic relationship" between sexual activity among adolescents and "multiple indicators of adolescent mental health. Risk for depression is "clearly elevated" for the sexually active of either gender.<ref name="Hallfors"/> Boys who have had sex are more than 8 times as likely to attempt suicide (6%) as virgins (0.7%), and sexually active girls are almost three times as likely (14.1% versus 5.1%).<ref name=waveii/> Compared to abstainers, membership in any of the risk clusters was associated with increased odds of depression, serious thoughts about suicide, and suicide attempts."<ref name="Hallfors"/> Sexually active girls are more vulnerable to depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempt than sexually active boys, but there is little difference between boys and girls who are not sexually active.<ref name="Hallfors"/> “Teenage sexual activity routinely leads to emotional turmoil and psychological distress. to empty relationships, to feelings of self-contempt and worthlessness. All, of course, precursors to depression.”<ref name="meek ep"/> Experts recommend that sexually active adolescents be screened for depression and be "provided with anticipatory guidance about the mental health risks of these behaviors."<ref name="depress"/><ref name="Hallfors"/> Experts recommend that parents and health professionals help teens prepare for and cope with the emotions attached to sex.<ref name="UCSF" /> Casual sex For teens, "sexual relationships have been decoupled. We don't speak of young Americans as having premarital sexual relationships; instead we say that they have premarital sex. Casual attitudes amongst adolescents toward sex and oral sex, in particular, "reflect their confusion about what is normal behavior."<ref name="USATodayTeens"/> When taking part in hookups, "the kids don't even look at each other. It's mechanical, dehumanizing."<ref name="NYT Teenage Face"/> When speaking with researchers about their sex lives, most boys fail entirely to mention their partners' emotions, and "very few expressed concern about how his sexual partner felt." Especially among younger teenagers, casual sex is associated with depression.<ref name="lewis"/> This impersonality is harmful to both girls and boys; however, girls are especially at risk of becoming victims in casual sexual relationships.<ref name="gender"/> Studies show "what many teens come to find out on their own: Even if sexual activity seems casual, it often is not. A casual hookup on a Friday night might not feel that way a month down the road."<ref name="UCSF"/> When having casual sex teens are "pretending to say it's just sexual and nothing else. That's an arbitrary slicing up of the intimacy pie. It's not healthy."<ref name="USATodayTeens"/> Depression, alcohol abuse, anorexia, and emotional disturbance can all afflict adolescents as a result.<ref name="stepp"/> When adolescents engage in casual sexual relationships, they proceed toward adulthood with a lack of understanding about intimacy.<ref name="USATodayTeens"/> Experts worry that "if we are indeed headed as a culture to have a total disconnect between intimate sexual behavior and emotional connection, we're not forming the basis for healthy adult relationships."<ref name="USATodayTeens"/> Physician Bernadine Healy states, "Both as doctor and mother, I can't help but believe that our anything-goes society, in which impulses are immediately satisfied and sex is divorced from love and bonding, is simply not healthy physically, emotionally, or spiritually."<ref name="Healy"/> Males and females experience sex differently.<ref name="Lukas"/> Males are more able to shrug off a one-night stand, but "girls are more confused afterward... and in general suffer a loss of self- esteem."<ref name="Lukas" /> When girls hook up they "don't count on... oxytocin, a chemical produced in the brain to promote feelings of connection and love. Oxytocin is most commonly associated with breast-feeding; it's what helps a mother bond with her infant."<ref name="stepp"/> Known as "cuddling hormone" or "hormone of love,"<ref name="cuddle"/> oxytocin is also produced during sex, causing the partners to form emotional attachments with one another. "The more intense the sex, the more oxytocin."<ref name="stepp"/> Males also get a bigger dose of testosterone, which suppresses the oxytocin."<ref name="stepp"/> This is "a logical explanation for why girls are in turmoil after a hook up and boys are not".<ref name="stepp"/> Oral sex Teens believe that oral sex is less risky to their emotional and physical well being than vaginal sex,<ref name="mednews"/> but experts at the University of California do not believe this conclusion is warranted.<ref name="uc" /> They found that oral sex, as well as vaginal sex, was associated with negative consequences.<ref name="uc" /> With regards to oral sex, it is almost always the boys who receive it and the girls who give it.<ref name="atlantic"/><ref name="Couric"/> When girls provide oral sex "they do so without pleasure, usually to please their boyfriend or to avoid the possibility of pregnancy."<ref name="Body Project"/> This paradigm has entitled boys and disempowered girls,<ref name="NYT Teenage Face"/> putting girls at a disadvantage.<ref name="salon"/> Adolescents who engage in oral sex but not intercourse report fewer problems with sexually transmitted diseases, guilt, and their parents, but also less resulting pleasure, self-confidence or intimacy with their partners.<ref name="UCSF"/> Of adolescents engaging in oral sex only, girls were twice as likely as boys to report feeling bad about themselves and nearly three times as likely to feel used.<ref name="UCSF"/> Boys who engaged in oral sex were more than twice as likely as girls to report feeling more popular and confident.<ref name="UCSF"/> Psychological effects specific to girls Girls are "at particular risk for experiencing negative social and emotional consequences of having any type of sex," including oral sex.<ref name="uc"/> "Early sex is a threat, and it remains a greater threat to girls than to boys."<ref name="Healy"/> "Just because a girl has matured physically, doesn’t mean she’s socially or psychologically mature."<ref name="too soon"/> Additionally, early sex poses a greater physical threat for girls than for boys.<ref name="Healy"/> Adolescent girls are especially vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections.<ref name="Cates"/> Some research suggests that females are not biologically or evolutionary equipped to handle casual sex.<ref name="hurt"/> Girls are more than twice as likely as boys to say they felt bad about themselves and more than three times as likely to say they felt used as a result of engaging in sex<ref name="UCSF"/><ref name="McDonough"/> or hookups.<ref name="UCSF"/><ref name="gender"/> The hormone oxytocin, released during sex, affects women differently than men, so that "when women think they can have sex and walk away just like guys do, they're having to suppress thousands of years of evolution that tells them to cuddle, stay in bed, and look forward to tomorrow. When they get up and walk out, they feel depressed and don't know why."<ref name="hurt"/> "Young teen girls who engage in sexual activity to win the approval of a boy may find themselves disappointed when the relationship ends and may be at odds with their own value system."<ref name="gt"/> The American Psychological Association task force in 2007 found that an early emphasis on sexuality stunts girls' development in other areas.<ref name="truth"/> "When kids are about defining themselves, if you give them this idea that sexy is the be-all and end-all, they drop other things."<ref name="truth"/> Girls who participate in group sex are more likely to smoke cigarettes, get an STD, and be victims of dating violence.<ref name="coerced"/> Casual sex In a study of casual sex among adolescents, many girls believed they could have a purely sexual experience with no emotional ties, and they believed it was sexist to assume otherwise. However, the study found that both the girls and the boys who were hooking up often really were depressed and didn't feel very good about themselves.<ref name="Denizet-Lewis"/> "All the experts who talk about teen sexuality maintain that... it's impossible" for girls to enjoy meaningless sex as much as boys.<ref name="Denizet-Lewis"/> Girls will "inevitably regret what they did."<ref name="Denizet-Lewis" /> Girls "particularly are suffering from the new regime and are having some lasting problems" as a result of it.<ref name="Lukas"/> When asked if girls and women really wanted casual sex as much as men did, Dr. Drew Pinsky said he had spoken to them "by the thousands" and that they absolutely did not.<ref name="loveline"/> The only reason they engaged in it, he said, was because they thought it was what they need to do in order to get the guy. The current paradigm of casual sex has left females "ambivalent, unhappy and uncomfortable."<ref name="loveline"/> Regret, depression, and mental illness While teens may believe that their sexual activities are fine at the time, they may feel very differently in time and regret the choices they made.<ref name="Lukas"/> Research shows that 2/3 of sexually active girls wish they had waited longer before having sex.<ref name="Lukas"/> Of seniors in high school, 74% of girls regret sexual experiences they have had.<ref name="The Truth about Sex by High School Senior Girls"/> Girls are more than twice as likely as boys to say they felt bad about themselves and more than three times as likely to say they felt used as a result of engaging in sex.<ref name="McDonough"/> For girls, even modest involvement in sexual experimentation elevates depression risk.<ref name="depress"/> Sexually active teenage girls are more than twice as likely to suffer depression compared to those who are not sexually active.<ref name="Sabia"/> More than 25% of sexually active girls are depressed all of the time, most of the time, or a lot of the time, but more than 60% of girls who are not sexually active are never depressed.<ref name="waveii"/> Sex therapists have found that the roots of sexual issues facing adults often date back to regretful teenage experiences.<ref name="UCSF"/> Research has also found that being abstinent in the teen years was associated with better mental health at age 29.<ref name="Bogart"/> Girls who were virgins at age 18 were also less likely to have a mental illness at age 40.<ref name="Finger"/> Dating violence Girls who have engaged in sexual intercourse are five times more likely than their virgin peers to be the victim of dating violence.<ref name="violence"/> Girls who were intentionally hurt by a date in the past 12 months are at a "significantly elevated risk for a broad range of sexual health concerns and for pregnancy."<ref name="violence"/> Girls who have been victims are also twice as likely to report high levels of multiple sexual partners.<ref name="violence"/> Effects on relationships Teens are "in the dark about the implications of . They're in the dark about the emotional reality, they're in the dark about the biological reality, they're in denial about this thing that has become a drug in our culture, rather than an expression about intimate relations."<ref name="wistv"/> When engaging in sexual acts the body produces oxytocin, a chemical produced in the brain to promote feelings of connection and love. It is known as the "cuddling hormone" because it helps mothers bond with their babies.<ref name="love tip"/> "The more intense the sex, the more oxytocin" is released.<ref name="stepp"/> Research has found that it is released in both men and women after orgasm<ref name="carm1987"/><ref name="Carmichael"/> <ref name="brain chems"/> and it is key to monogamy and long-term attachment.<ref name="brain chems"/> Areas of the brain rich in oxytocin light up when people who have been in love for decades were shown a photo of their beloved.<ref name="brain chems"/> Production of oxytocin increases during the adolescent years. For girls, who have more of it and are more sensitive to it,<ref name="Healy"/> oxytocin will make them care about relationships and feel connections with others more intensely than boys.<ref name="large"/><ref name="Blades"/> After an orgasm, women receive a "seriously intense surge" of oxytocin.<ref name="Blades"/> That surge of oxytocin produces a strong connection to the boy for girls, so that is "a logical explanation for why girls are in turmoil after a hook up and boys are not".<ref name="stepp"/> Boys also get a dose of oxytocin, which can rise to as much as 500% of their normal levels,<ref name="amen"/> so when "a man ejaculates, he bonds utterly with" his partner.<ref name="Gurian"/> However, males also get a bigger dose of testosterone which overpowers the oxytocin.<ref name="stepp"/> When a male has sex and orgasms, he gets that hit of oxytocin that takes him to a level similar to hers, so he will exacerbate the problem by saying, "I love you you're the best." His oxytocin goes down in a couple of hours, as testosterone floods in and mitigates the oxytocin level. But she has this oxytocin that rages for days and days, and she thinks he's in love with her. I think that's why we have so much depression after these romantic and sexual breakups.<ref name="hugmonkey"/> Middle school relationships Students who date in middle school have significantly worse study skills, are four times more likely to drop out of school, and abuse alcohol, tobacco and marijuana twice as much as their single classmates. "At all points in time, teachers rated the students who reported the lowest frequency of dating as having the best study skills and the students with the highest dating as having the worst study skills."<ref name="MS"/> "A likely explanation for the worse educational performance of early daters is that these adolescents start dating early as part of an overall pattern of high-risk behaviors."<ref name="Orpinas"/> Teenage relationships Even when teens are in a romantic relationship, sexual activities can become the focus of the relationship. Not only are such relationships less sustained, they are often not monogamous and they have lower levels of satisfaction than relationships that do not have sexual activities as their focus.<ref name="USATodayTeens"/> The "early initiation into sexual behaviors is taking a toll on teens' mental health" with dependency on boyfriends and girlfriends, serious depression around breakups and cheating, and suffering from a lack of goals as possible results.<ref name="risky"/> Adult relationships When adolescents engage in casual sexual relationships they do not develop skills such as trust and communication that are key ingredients in healthy, long-lasting relationships.<ref name="USATodayTeens"/> In purely sexual relationships, adolescents pick up "a lot of bad habits" and don't learn "to trust or share or know how to disagree and make up."<ref name="stepp"/> They become jaded and as a result later in life, they have trouble forming adult relationships.<ref name="NYT Teenage Face"/> "They don't learn to build that emotional intimacy before they get physically intimate. In the long term, that develops bad relationship habits."<ref name="USA Today Hookups"/> Experts worry that when teens have sex before they're ready then they undervalue the experience and that leads to a cynical view later on. "hey can develop a kind of negative attitude about life in general, that things aren't that special and they aren't that wonderful and what's the big deal about a lifelong commitment and a family commitment? They're disappointed, probably because they weren't mature enough to understand the meaning of it, and it's kind of made them kind of cold to the idea of commitment in other ways."<ref name="caution"/> Those who lose their virginity in their 20s or later are more likely to find happiness in romantic relationships later in life than those who lose it during their teenage years. “Individuals who first navigate intimate relationships in young adulthood, after they have accrued cognitive and emotional maturity, may learn more effective relationship skills than individuals who first learn scripts for intimate relationships while they are still teenagers.”<ref name="Harden"/> When a man achieves orgasm his oxytocin levels can rise up to 500% of their normal levels.<ref name="amen"/> "When "a man ejaculates, he bonds utterly with" his partner.<ref name="Gurian"/> By the time a young man has reached his early twenties, his girlfriend or his wife will become his primary emotional caregiver.<ref name="Adolescent Romantic Relationships: A Developmental Perspective"/> By having casual sex while he is younger, however, he will learn to suppress the natural bonding mechanism that comes with sex and oxytocin. If this happens, he may not be able to establish an emotional relationship with a woman, who does view sex as connected to intimacy, and will be more likely to become depressed, commit suicide, or die from illness.<ref name="JMF"/> Other effects School work The context of sexual relationships may determine whether the sex is harmful or not to a young person's GPA, as well as to their chances of dropping out of school.<ref name="Love makes teen sex less academically harmful, study says"/> For teens, "sex outside of a romantic relationship may exacerbate the stress youths experience, contributing to problems in school." However, teen sex, on its own, is "not going to derail educational trajectories."<ref name="autogenerated1"/> On the other hand students who hook up and have casual sexual encounters are more likely to do poorly in school and get lower grades. They also care less about school and get in more trouble. Boys who hook up have GPAs that are .3 lower than virgins and girls who have casual sex have GPAs that are .16 lower. They also get suspended or expelled more and had lower expectations of going to college.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> All kids who have sex, even if they are in a relationship, are more likely to skip school or just drop out altogether.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> Additionally, adolescents who start having sex before they reach age 16 are much less likely to go to college.<ref name="timing"/> Marriage Women who first have sex as teenagers are much more likely to divorce, especially if their first time was unwanted or if they had mixed feelings about it.<ref name="Paik"/> Among sexually active girls, two-thirds say they feel this way.<ref name="teens2002"/> Girls who lost their virginity before the age of 16 are also more likely to divorce than those who lose it later.<ref name="Paik"/> Of women who had sex for the first time as teens, 30% divorced within five years, and 47% divorced within 10 years of getting married. The divorce rate for women who delayed sex until adulthood was far lower: 15% at five years, and 27% at 10 years.<ref name="Paik"/> "There are down sides to adolescent sexuality, including the increased likelihood of divorce," according to Anthony Paik, associate professor of sociology at the University of Iowa.<ref name="Paik"/> Researchers believe "that the early sexual experience leads to the development of behaviors or beliefs that promote divorce."<ref name="Paik"/> Outside influences Family Teens who frequently did “things like eating dinner together as a family or engaging in fun activities or religious activities together” were less likely to have sex, had fewer sexual partners, and had less unprotected sex.<ref name="Sibling"/><ref name="dads"/> One additional family activity per week reduces the likelihood of sexual activity by 9%.<ref name="devoted"/> Family activities were "centrally important supports for children, providing opportunities for emotional warmth, communication, and transmission of values and beliefs.”<ref name="Sibling"/> However, "negative and psychologically controlling" parenting such as "criticizing the ideas of the adolescents, controlling and directing what they think and how they feel," increased the probability of adolescents having sex.<ref name="Sibling"/> Girls who have positive relationships with their fathers wait longer before they have sex.<ref name="fathers"/> Girls rely on their fathers attention until they transfer it to a boyfriend. Other research shows that kids whose fathers are involved report less sexual activity than on average,<ref name="dads"/> and less risky sexual behaviors when they do.<ref name="devoted"/> Girls who grew up in homes without their father are significantly more likely to have premarital sex than girls who are raised by both parents.<ref name="autogenerated2"/> In addition, teens who lived with stepparents or in a single-parent household had notably higher levels of risky sex behavior than did kids who lived in stable and biological-parent families.<ref name="dads"/> At a summit in Detroit on girls and sexual attitudes it was revealed that some "girls in that same age group are 'dating' men as old as 30 because the men can give them things - love, money, presents - that their parents cannot."<ref name="ROCHELLE"/> In current times "Adults condone a variety of sexual misbehaviors, from harassment to assault" which can give a ones daughter or son the wrong idea about what is correct/acceptable and what is not when it comes to sex.<ref name="Scheible"/> Friends Both boys and girls feel pressure from their friends to have sex. The perception adolescents have of their best friends' sexual behavior has a significant association with their own sex behavior.<ref name="Prinstein"/> Sexually active peers have a negative effect on adolescent sexual delay, however responsive parent-adolescent sex discussions can buffer these effects.<ref name="Fasula"/> Adolescents who reported sexual activity had high levels of reputation-based popularity, but not likeability among peers; however, sex with more partners was associated with lower levels of popularity.<ref name="Prinstein"/> See Also
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