Teaching Teens About Genital Herpes - Friends Are Key To Teens Views On Sex

American teens' attitudes toward sex and other issues are strongly influenced by their peers. What can parents do to influence the attitudes their teenagers have on sexual behavior and how can they teach them that a careless view on sex can have lifelong consequences?

Genital Herpes – How friends influence teens

Researchers at the University of Illinois, Chicago, compared sexual attitudes and behaviors among 1,350 male and female students, aged 15 to 18, from across the United States.

The study found that teens whose friends had intercourse without a condom were more likely to have intercourse without a condom over the following year. Teens with friends who believe that sex can have undesirable consequences were less likely to have intercourse without a condom over the following year.

The effect of friends' attitudes on sexual behavior was stronger in girls than in boys.

"This study has two implications for prevention. First, it supports the use of adolescent leaders for preventive interventions. Second, it suggests that interventions that use attitude change to change behavior may be more effective among females than among males," lead author David B. Henry, an associate professor of psychiatry, said in a prepared statement.

The findings are published in the May/June issue of Child Development.

Another study conducted by the Kaiser Foundation found that teens are growing up in an extraordinarily complex and difficult world, and face a range of pressures to smoke cigarettes, drink, experiment with drugs, get involved in gangs& and have sex. Most teens today will have sexual intercourse by their eighteenth birthday.

Even though teens are doing a better job of using contraception, pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) remain major concerns: three million teens-about one in four sexually experienced teens-get a STD every year. One in four Americans newly infected with HIV is under 22 years old. And, almost one million teen girls become pregnant every year, and about half a million give birth.

By the time a teen has sex for the first time, many are still not adequately prepared: a majority (58%) of those who are sexually experienced report not using contraception every time they have sex, and more than a third have never talked with a sexual partner about birth control (34%) or STDs (40%). About one in five of those who talked about either contraception or STDs did so only after having sex.

Almost half (44%) of teens say they know a lot about what's happening in their peers' love lives-that is, who they're interested in, what's going on in their relationships, and how much happens sexually. Another 38% say they have "some" knowledge of what's going on, while only 17% say they know little or nothing of this. Teen girls (50%) and older teens (50% of those 17-18) are especially likely to know a lot about what is going on in their friends' love lives.

Teens also report worrying a lot about pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and other STDs. Whether or not they are sexually experienced, most teens say their peers are extremely worried about pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and other STDs; very few say these are issues that do not concern them. At least four in ten teens say the teens they know are very concerned about pregnancy or about getting an STD. HIV/AIDS is one of the biggest sexual health concerns facing teens: over half of teens say the teens they know are very concerned about the disease.

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Teaching Teens About Genital Herpes - Friends Are Key To Teens Views On Sex

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