HC Youth and Sexuality
Introductory 1
HC1 - Psychosexual development in children and young people 2
HC2a - The biology of sexuality 3
HC2b - Youth, sexuality and gender 5
HC3a - LGBT youth and sexuality 7
HC3b - Intersectionality in sexuality research 7
HC4 - The impact of the social environment on young people’s sexuality 8
HC5a - Challenges in sexual health: contraception, unintended pregnancy and
abortion 12
HC5b - Challenges in sexual health: Sexual problems and sexual desire 13
HC6a - Sexual violence and sexual consent 15
HC6b - Predictors and consequences of the sexual double standard 16
Articles 18
Overview: theories, hypotheses and models 34
,Introductory
Sexuality can be a lever in adolescent development:
● Independence from parents.
● Development of personal morality and identity.
● Development of meaningful intimate relationships.
● Crucial in finding balance between autonomy and connectedness.
● The first steps in terms of exploring desires and boundaries (consent).
- Concepts related to sexuality: sex or sexuality, sex and gender, sexology and sexual health.
The first scientific developments (1900-1940) went from religious-moral to medical psychiatric.
● German psycho-analysts, like Freud and Von-Krafft-Ebing, layed foundation for
sexology, who often considered female desire as deviant.
● Sexology became a science and began the research on homosexuality.
Alfred Kinsey moved the field from medical to interdisciplinarity. He began to make a
taxonomy (classify) of human sexual behaviors and saw homosexuality as a scale.
- John Money did groundbreaking clinical empirical studies on gender identity development
among intersex children.
● He introduced the term ‘gender’ in 1955: all those things that a person says or does
to disclose himself or herself as having the status of man or woman. It includes, but
is not restricted to, sexuality in the sense of eroticism.
In 1966, the human sexual response cycle was discovered by looking at people having sex.
It’s a natural physiological process, which can be blocked by psychological inhibitions.
- In the 70’s, attention for sexual violence and equality began to grow, because
of the emergence of social-constructist perspectives.
● The Freudian idea of ‘sexual instinct’ was dismissed.
● In 1974, homesexuality was no longer a mental disorder, which
increased awareness about what is ‘normal’ and sexual ‘deviance’.
● Later on, from 1996, the full anatomy of the clitrois was discoverd.
The meaning of sexuality became: the product of societal regulation, norms, meaning, and
the freedom/right to express themselves.
- Sexual behavior and social behavior became the same, but this is sensitive for
interpersonal and intrapsychological cultural scripts.
Some myths maintaining sexual inequalities (between hetero cisgender men and women):
● Men are from Mars, women from Venus: Of 30 sexual behaviors, only 4 moderate
differences, and 80,26% overlap.
● Penis and vagina are important for reproduction and therefore for sexual pleasure:
Penis-in-vagina sex does not facilitate women’s orgasms.
○ There is an orgasm gap: in heterosexual relationships, women have fewer
orgasms than men (women in lesbian relationships have more orgasms).
- Women sometimes experience pain during intercourse, in men this is rare.
● When pain is expected, it impairs arousal which causes more pain.
- A lot of sexual coercion and sexual violence is accoring among females.
Men and women are similar in the capacity to experience sexual pleasure, because of the
similar responsivity to sexual stimuli, sexual desire and sex drive/hormones.
- But: men and women have different opportunities for sexual pleasure (in hetero
relationships) due to: gendered scripts, coital imperative (penetration = core in rela).
> Pleasure for all, inclusion, focus on similarities → health benefits + < gendered scripts.
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,HC1 - Psychosexual development in children and young people
Five principles of sexual development:
1. Sexual development is a life-long process.
2. Sexual development is multidimensional.
3. Sexual development is context-related.
4. Interaction between individual and context.
5. Sexual development has many pathways.
Those who start early performing sexual activities, run greater risks, because:
● They begin even though they have less access to information.
● They know less about sex, STDs and contraceptives.
● They are less protected against pregnancy and STDs.
● They are more likely to be persuaded or forced the first time.
- Starting early is more likely to be a positive experience if:
● The profession is step-by-step.
○ Benefits: greater control over each step, better prepared and better protected.
● You’re expecting a sexual debut.
● It’s about autonomous decision making.
● There is open communication with important others.
You can be ‘too late’ depending on the reason, but it’s sometimes the result of less social
competence. It could result in societal, interpersonal and emotional difficulties.
- But there are many exceptions to ‘typical’ sexual development, which is not
necessarily problematic.
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, HC2a - The biology of sexuality
There are different kinds of sex. Firstly, you have chromosomal sex, which defines the
gonads and consists of 23 chromosomes (most of the time).
● The last chromosome decides the sex: phenotypically females have XX and
phenotypically males have XY.
○ A misconception is that men are superior due to the Y chromosome
with more information on it. But the Y chromosome is not that powerful.
We start with bipotential gonads, which typically result in ovary or testis formation.
● Gonads with both testicular and ovarian aspects are called ovotestes. People
with these gonads are intersex.
After 6 weeks of gestation, the internal and external genitals are alike, despite the gonads.
● The wolffian ducts are male and the mullerian ducts are female. One of these ducts
will (most often) develop.
● After 15 weeks, there are ovaries and testes and beginnings of the development of
external genitals from the genital tubercle or fold.
- Chromosomes → gonadal sex → hormones shape the body and brain (morphological) →
behavioral sex
Two hormonal effects:
● Organizational hypothesis: Steroid hormones (testosterone, estrogen etc.) affect the
structure of brain and body in Utero.
○ These determine whether you develop a penis or vulva and the look of it. It
also affects the brain, but the differences between baby brains are small.
○ Once our body is organized, it can’t be changed (so male or female), but
humans are more complex → can shift/change over time.
● Activational effects: Steroid hormones affect morphology and activate psychological
effects during puberty. First, organizational components are needed for the
activational components to work.
○ There are also social influences, hormones don’t shape our whole life
A misconception about the hymen is that it’s supposed to break and bleed when losing
virginity. This is inaccurate; you don’t always bleed because it can already be stretched due
to other circumstances. Four types:
● Normal hymen
● Imperforate hymen: cover over vagina
● Microperforate hymen: small hole
● Septate hymen: more painful in penetration
The penis has a similar structure to the clitoris. Its urethral opening is the conductor of both
pee and ejaculate, but this cannot happen at the same time.
Someone who is intersex is born with a body that is not entirely male or female, but you can’t
always tell from appearances. It’s not always known and there are different forms.
- Various hormonal and genetic factors can contribute to genitalia that have incomplete
structures or that are between a penis and vagina/clitoris:
● Hypospadias: penis doesn’t form fully, looks like a vagina
● Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: too many masculine hormones in the utero, this
results for a XX fetus in a big (penis-like) clitoris.
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