DEBORAH P. WELSH, SHARON S. ROSTOSKY AND
MYRA CHRISTEN KAWAGUCHI
Adolescent girls’ sexuality is of great interest and concern to developmental researchers, theorists, policymakers, educators, health care providers, parents, and adolescents themselves. One reason for this interest is that adolescence is a crucial time when many biological, psychological, and social changes occur. These changes, and their interaction within a cultural context, have important ramifications for girls’ developing sense of sexuality. For example, puberty, the biological hallmark of adolescence, represents the greatest physical change since birth. The attainment of reproductive maturity has numerous social, cultural, and psychological meanings that, reflexively, impact on the experience of puberty and provide the link between reproductive maturity and sexuality for adolescent girls (Brooks — Gunn & Reiter, 1990; Buchanan, Eccles, & Becker, 1992). Another change is adolescents’ newly acquired cognitive ability, formal operational thought, [9] [10]
which permits girls to think abstractly and to take others’ perspectives (Piaget & Inhelder, 1958; Selman, 1980). These new cognitive skills allow for more complex interpersonal relationships and facilitate the develop ment of intimacy and identity (Erikson, 1968; Sullivan, 1953). These changes occur within a cultural context that imbues them with meaning and significance. One aspect of this context is the mass media, which targets adolescent consumers through soap operas, television sitcoms, mov ies, videos, song lyrics, and teen romance novels, both reflecting and con structing adolescence as a particularly meaningful time for the development and exploration of sexuality.
A second reason for the growth in interest in adolescent girls’ sexu ality stems from the cultural constructions of womens’ sexuality. Womens’ sexuality has historically been the target of cultural and political concern (Foucault, 1978). Over the past 25 years in the United States, however, women’s sexuality during the adolescent period of life in particular has served as the target of research interest. This interest has primarily centered on the most visible aspect of girls’ sexuality, pregnancy. Popular notions of adolescent pregnancy, and therefore sexuality, as an epidemic, sweeping the country, and endangering future generations, have sparked an avalanche of studies and programs designed to illuminate and eradicate the “problem”
This problem-oriented approach has largely ignored developmental theory regarding sexuality. As a result, attempts to understand sexuality have led researchers down a path quite divergent from theory. Developmental theorists have consistently defined sexuality as a fundamental aspect of personal identity, the formation of which is posited to be one of the most important developmental tasks of adolescence (Erikson, 1968; Jossel son, 1987; Marcia, Waterman, Matteson, Archer, & Orlofsky, 1993). Sex uality is construed as a multifaceted component of identity that includes behavioral, affective, and cognitive features. Empirical researchers, however, have sought to understand adolescent sexuality by focusing almost exclusively on behaviors, primarily sexual intercourse and contraceptive practices (see Katchadourian, 1990; Miller & Moore, 1990, for reviews) through an epidemiological or problem-oriented approach, the aim of which is to prevent undesirable sequelae of these behaviors.
In this chapter, we address some of the results of this divergence of research from theory. Specifically, we first “unpack” some of the underlying assumptions that have guided research on adolescent girls’ sexual behavior, and describe the existing framework for understanding adolescent girls’ sex uality that has been based on these assumptions. We then present a frame work for understanding the development of girls’ sexuality from a norma tive perspective that is based on developmental theory. We take the position that sexuality includes both the sexual behaviors and the feelings of adolescent girls, as well as the developing sense of oneself as a sexual being. This new framework focuses on the subjective meaning of sexual behaviors and of girls’ developing sense of themselves as sexual beings. We posit that any analysis of the meaning of adolescent sexuality can only be understood within a context that examines the role of ecological variables and personal characteristics of adolescents. We then present a selection of personal and ecological variables, discuss how they have been studied within the existing framework, and pose questions or make suggestions regarding the role of these variables in the new framework. Finally, we discuss implications of this normative framework.