Sexuality in adolescence and emerging adulthood

Sexuality in adolescence and emerging adulthood

Introduction

Adolescence is a midway stage of human development both physically and psychologically that occurs between the age of puberty and adulthood. The teenage years can be defined as being the age of adolescent. However, adolescence begins much before the individual has the reach the teenage years. This age is accompanied with feelings of longing for a desired partner that involves a relationship that maybe physical. During this period, individuals discover their sexual orientation and are prone to taking rash and immature decisions.

The emergence of adulthood is accompanied by the end of adolescence period and age for this differs from country to country and society to society. In this age, most of the individuals are well experienced in sexual matters and have acquired the ability to take decisions that would be beneficial to their lives.

Discussion

Sexual development in adolescence starts in the preteenager years and continues as an individual turns into an adult. Sexuality is accompanied with the release of hormones by the body that results in outwards changes in the body. These changes include the growth of hairs in the arm pits of boys and girls, the development of breasts in girls and the appearance of facials hairs in boys.

However, there is a lot more involved other than just physical changes as an individual grows from an adolescent to an adult. An individual's emotions, way of thinking and needs and wants undergo change as well. The individual will feel strongly attracted to others, and this could be for some from the opposite sex, someone from the same sex or both. The individual may also want to be physically close to someone and usually would try developing friendship with other teenagers.

These physical attractions change at times and the time period of development usually differs for each individual. It could be that an individual finds strong attraction for a member of the opposite sex but after some time develops stronger feelings of attraction for some one of the same sex. However, with time most of the individuals are able to identify themselves in the society as being homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual. At times, individuals may have trouble identifying their sexual orientation when they are homosexuals or bisexuals. This could stem from the fact that they are conscious of how this could affect their standings in the society if such orientations are unacceptable to their parents, families, relatives or friends. In such cases, it would be beneficial for teens to talk to a trusted adult in this regard (Benson, 2012).

The early years of puberty are marked with a desire to experience sexual activity. This may occur before a teenager becomes fully aware of the consequences that are incurred on account of having sex by him or her or others. Though teenagers may take rash decisions, which they may turn out regretting in the later part of their lives, but as they grow more and more mature they acquire the capability to make better ...