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Introduction
The majority of teenagers in the USA begin their adolescence in a state of sexual abstinence and end it sexually active (Martinez et al. 2011). While fewer than one in eight 15-year-olds have ever had sex, 70 % of 19-year-olds have had vaginal sexual intercourse (Abma et al. 2004). These before and after points are known, but there is much about adolescents’ abstinence behavior and meaning-making that is not. This entry will summarize what is known about abstinence in the lives of teenagers while highlighting gaps in knowledge and areas of controversy.
Overview
The majority of teenagers in the USA begin their adolescence in a state of sexual abstinence and end it sexually active. These before and after points are known, but there is much about adolescents’ abstinence behavior and meaning-making that is not. This entry summarizes the state of scientific and scholarly knowledge about abstinence in the lives of teenagers. It places abstinence in its...
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References
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Masters, N.T. (2016). Abstinence. In: Levesque, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32132-5_341-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32132-5_341-2
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