• Rapid physical changes
• Sexual desires begin
• Confuse self image w/ body image
• controlled by parents and school
• Conform to peers
• Egocentric & narcisistic
• Lack impulse control
• Can't delay gratification
• Imaginary audience - everyone's looking at them
• Concrete thinkers limited ability to see future
• Make irrational decisions

Middle Adolescence (15-17)

• Challenge authority
• Risky behavior &  experimentation
• Seeks independence & peer group identity
• Wants to be seen as an adult
• Personal Fable
• Idealistic
• Develop emotional attachment to GF then to BF
• Self disclosure-figure out who trust
• Formal operations in thought

Personal Fable

• Huge sense of self importance
• They are special, unique, invincible
• No one can understand how they feel

Late adolescence  

(18 -19)

• Confident
• Looks toward the future
• Formal operations
• Develops self control
• Accepts consequences of behavior

Formal operations 

Pre-Marital Sex Statistics

   1/2 of high school teens

14 % < 15

            38 % 15-17

    70 % 18-19

    14 % have 4 or more partners

(most 1-2 partners by end of HS)

Premarital Sex

Fantasize and glamorize “falling in love”

Flooded with sexual innuendo

•   Sex is spontaneous, passionate, w/o commitment
•   Don’t show actors taking steps to prevent pregnancy or STDs
•     No negative consequences

¨  

  “Virginity”: 

oral sex is not really sex, no bad reputation, no consequences or pregnancy

¨     Risks: STD, HIV

Contraception: inconsistent users, no condoms every time, can’t afford it, can’t drive to get it, and concern for confidentiality