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Psychosexual issues in adolescent contraception - PubMed

Review

. 1982 Jan-Mar;10(1):27-47.

  • PMID: 6753037

Review

Psychosexual issues in adolescent contraception

J G Greer. Public Health Rev. 1982 Jan-Mar.

Abstract

PIP: This paper reviews the psychosocial and developmental research focusing on adolescent contraception. Specific emphasis is on the interrelationship of psychosexual development and culture in preventing or exacerbating problems. Attention is directed to the following: program policy and planning; major literature reviews on adolescent sexuality; female development and early coitus; the male partner; the competent adolescent contraceptor; and directions for future research (psychological sequelae of early coitus in girls, factors affecting delay of 1st coitus in girls, and the promotion of competent contraceptive behavior). In the less developed countries, efforts to delay 1st birth and increase birth spacing must form part of the overall strategy to upgrade the survival rates and health of infants. Ancillary to such urgent public health policy concerns is the current worldwide spread of the modern feminist social movement, generating pressures to make education and work opportunities available to female adolescents in the 3rd world. Adolescent pregnancy in the developed countries is not a major world health problem; prenatal care and adequate nutrition are feasible for the pregnant teenager. Yet, no cultural supports exist for such mother-infant dyads, and such pregnancies are viewed, particularly by educated women, as reversing a developed nation's social progress. There has been a growing effort in the US to implement contraceptive programs directed at the sexually active female adolescent between menarche and age 18. Issues other than availability of abortion and contraceptive supplies are also operating. Developmental level of the public health service user and specifically psychosexual developmental level, is a factor which must be considered in program policy and planning. Developmentally, the logical course of introduction to sexuality for young females would be solitary masturbation, heterosexual mutual masturbation, and coitus. Cultures at ease with bisexuality would acknowledge homosexual mutual masturbation as part of the development continuum. It is not really known what percent of responsibility for the 1st coital contact belongs to the male adolescent partners versus their female partners. Despite the obvious role of the adolescent male in early coitus, parents, even conscientious ones, rarely lecture their sons about any associated problems except venereal disease. Psychological factors in successful contraception are a major issue with the youngest age group. Locus of control has been identified as a major predictor of contraceptive success by several researchers.

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