Room 519-B | Sexuality and Gender Thursday, July 14, 2005 Time: 8:30 AM-9:30 AM |
Sexual health and adolescence: myths, realities and needs.
Millan Alvarez, Paulina*,1, Alvarez-Gayou, Juan Luis1, 1 Instituto Mexicano de Sexologia, Mexico
ABSTRACT- Introduction/Objectives Adolescence, defined by various authors as a period of transition to adulthood, involves pshysical, psychological, and cognitive changes, directed towards the search for a personal identity within the society in which a person lives. In this period of our lives, sexuality plays an important role which will be influenced by the education, culture, and society a person has lived in. Mexico has seen a gradual growth of sexual permisiveness during this last decade, but is still fighting religious and cultural restrictions that its young population have been trying to reconcile. Subjects/Method In this study, a survey was conducted (with both qualitative and quantitative data) in 3800 adolescents from different parts of Mexico to know if they had had sex and why, if they had masturbated and why, if they had receiver information about sexuality and who from, if they had used a condom or a contraceptive method, among other data. Main body/Results/Conclusions From the total number of subjects, 52% were men and 48% were women, with and average age of 15.4. This research is an update of other studies conducted by different researchers over the past decades, and it also contributes with new data on topics scarcely studied before. When asked about their sexual activity, 24.3% of the participants said they had had sex at least once (35.5% of them were women and 64.6% were men). In the group of adolescents who have had sex, 45.5% say they use condoms 100% of the time, while a 16.8% say they never use it. In the gruop of people who have not had sex, 36% of women and 59.1% of men say they have had other types of erotic encounters. Masturbation is a common practice for the majority of men, while it is not at all common for women. Even though 96.7% of these participants have received information about sexuality form different sources, many express doubts and show misinformation on the topic. It is undeniable, from the subjects answers to some questions, the presence of a very different education: women center thier answers on topics such as love and traditions, while men talk about desire and less about their feelings.
Key words: Gender, adolescence, Mexican, condom, masturbation