Development of Sexual Behavior

Stages of Development: Adolescence

Erotic Behavior 2

For many females and males, adolescence is the time of their first sexual contact with another person. It is a time when they “fall in love” and discover the “true” significance of some of their physical responses. The “sexual” meaning of the preceding gender role scripting also reveals itself: The behavioral differences that have been cultivated in girls and boys now appear in a new light and reinforce the mutual attraction between female and male adolescents. As a result, they become capable of - and interested in - deliberate interpersonal erotic behavior.
However, adolescence is also the “classical” period of “script confusion”, i.e. a time when young people must choose between many competing sexual scripts. Simultaneously, they have to deal with other issues  - the gradual emancipation form their parents, the lack of experience in approaching the other sex, a curiosity about the details of human sexual anatomy and physiology, a desire for more personal freedom and a rebellion against restrictions, a growing distrust of all authority, the wish to find one’s “proper place in the world” and to plan for the future, the need to be accepted by one’s peers while striving for one’s own independence, etc. In short, adolescents must develop new social skills and learn a great deal about themselves and the world at a time.when their bodies are undergoing significant changes.
Thus, in our modern world, adolescence is a trying period for young and old alike. Parents and other adults usually discourage any early sexual experimentation, because they want to protect the young, but these often feel overprotected and even oppressed. In any case, most of them soon have their first sexual intercourse with or without adult approval.