Sexuality in the first teenage years: A research of teenagers between 13 and 14
Davinia Heras Sevilla, Fernando Lara Ortega.

SUMMARY

Objectives: The objective of this questionnaire is to find out the knowledge and the attitudes that these teenagers have about sexuality and also to determine their main demands and their main educative necessities.

Design: Data analysis, (data having been obtained from a questionnaire, with the statistic package SPSS 15.0, using the study of frequencies along with the evidence of average data.

Location: High School Public in the city of Burgos.

Participants: The sample is constituted by 247 teenagers of both sexes who go to secondary school and are between 13 and 14 years old (2º and 3º of "ESO": Secondary Education).

Main Measures: By means of a questionnaire which contemplated: social and demographical variables, knowledge and attitudes towards human sexuality, ways of avoiding pregnancy, sexual role and questions about sexuality.

Results: The "T test" of comparison of measures applied to the Double Standard Scale reveals that male teenagers between 13 and 14 have a greater support for the double traditional Standard (p< 0,01), and female obtain lower markings (M= 2,50; DT= 0,52), being M= 2,80; DT= 0,50 that of male teenagers.

Conclusions: Nowadays there still exist differences in the idea that boys and girls have about sexuality. Male teenagers present a greater ´support´ to the traditional sexual standard, having the idea that the main sexual role in girls must be a passive one. Moreover, girls have some significantly negative attitudes towards masturbation.

KEY WORDS

Adolescence, sexuality, masturbation, sex education, attitudes and sex roles.