Adolescence is a time when individuals define themselves. Learning to be comfortable with their bodies, accepting their new physical responsiveness, trying out new social behaviors, and noticing the way others respond to this special facet of their personalities...can be a confusing affair.

Adolescents behave in sexually exploratory ways. They aim at self-definition. Teens use sex as one way of searching for their own values, attitudes, and styles of behaving as males and females.

Teens feel the social pressures to become sexually active before they become emotionally, intellectually, or financially ready. For many adolescents, sexual activity becomes a way to solve problems that have nothing to do with sex. Some teens use sex to express anger. Becoming sexually active can also be a defense against loneliness. Another way in which adolescents become sexually active, as a way to solve nonsexual problems, is through molestation, rape, or incest.

Peer pressure acts as an important influence encouraging young people to become sexually active. Teens look to the group to set rules for correct social behavior. Many teens listen to their friends talk and feel left out if they do not start having sexual relations. Having sex seems like the thing to do.

  

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