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Sex, drink and teenage roles... how boys force girls to give way
IT'S not news that men and women can have vastly differing attitudes to sex, but health professionals have been probing those attitudes in young teens in an attempt to understand their links with pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease and abuse of alcohol in socially deprived areas of South Yorkshire.
Researchers from Sheffield University say their analysis of groups of sexually active 14-16 year-olds in areas with high teen pregnancy rates showed considerable differences between the way boys and girls look at sexual scenarios.
Researchers interviewed youngsters who attended outreach sexual health clinics accessed via youth clubs, and set out before single-sex groups various hypothetical scenarios where sex might be part of the equation.
For example, one scenario discussed involved a boy and girl of 15 who had been going out together for a few months but were not having sex. The boy wanted to have sex, and tells his male friends that it is already happening.
Another fictitious situation involved three girls having a sleepover while parents are away. Three boys join them, two of the lads being boyfriends of two of the girls. The third girl feels pressurised into having sex with the other boy, who is not her boyfriend, because that's what her friends are up to.
Conversations about these scenarios provided the researchers with valuable insights into how the young teens regarded sex and perceptions of each other's behaviour in potentially sexual situations.
Mark Hayter, a senior lecturer in nursing, who carried out the study with Christina Harrison, a sexual health specialist nurse from Doncaster Primary Care Trust, said: "Male and female attitudes clearly differed. The girls' responses were more empathic and complex because they face more complex social pressures when it comes to having sex.
"The young men appeared to follow behaviour patterns that included pressuring girls to have sex, often with the use of alcohol.
"We also noticed that the boys often used aggressive language about relationships – an element that was missing from the girls' groups. For example, they suggested that a girlfriend who slept around would probably pay a physical price, and that using tactics like getting a girl drunk were acceptable."
Dr Hayter said: "In one of the boys' focus groups there was even a suggestion that it was OK for a boy to force his girlfriend to have sex and the group started trying to differentiate between 'just a bit of pressure' and 'proper rape'."
"The girls who took part in our focus groups were more likely to see their partner's point of view and were more aware of the complex nature of relationships than the boys."
The research team concedes that the focus group situation could have encouraged the boys and girls to conform to stereotypical behaviour, but pointed out how, in the real world, teenagers' behaviour is shaped by the sort of peer pressure displayed during the discussions.
Dr Hayter said: "Studies from the USA, Europe and Asia all indicate that adolescence is a time of sexual vulnerability. The UK certainly reflects this trend, and has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections in Europe. In some areas it is common to see pregnancy rates of up to 19 per 1000 in the 13-16 age group."
Dr Hayter said boys showed much more simplistic attitudes to sexual scenarios, while girls felt the twin but conflicting pressures both to have a boyfriend and possibly have sex, yet be mindful not to acquire a reputation of being sexually available, with all the negative ripples that could cause.
He said boys' language, including such observations as "They're not shy when they're drunk, are they?" and references to alcohol as part of a strategy for softening-up a girl to have sex reflected a worrying male attitude.
"One of the key messages from the research is that we don't take seriously enough the connection between alcohol abuse and sexual behaviour," says Dr Hayter.
"All the sexual health education in the world is not going to work unless it goes hand in hand with education about alcohol awareness. The study suggests the usefulness of having someone in a sexual health clinic who specifically targets young people who come for emergency contraception after sex has taken place while drunk.
"This really is a social problem. Anecdotally, we know that one of the factors in early unprotected sex is alcohol, and while alcohol abuse gets worse, then sexual health and teen pregnancy will get worse,too. We should be questioning how we, as a culture, regard alcohol."
Researchers conclude that nurses in sexual health clinics should work to strengthen self-esteem in young girls and teach them how to respond to the social pressures they face around sex, while encouraging young men to empathise more with their female partners.
It would also be helpful if parents thought more about how they talk to their sons about sex and relationships, says Dr Hayter.
The study is published in the latest edition of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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