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Abstract
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"…adolescents are less satisfied with their romantic relationship, but not necessarily their sexual relationship, with online partners compared to those with partners met on-line."
With this observation, Blunt et al. (this issue) contribute to a more refined, clinically relevant research agenda for adolescents' sexual well-being. I shall make other comments later about the results described in this article. The authors themselves do not directly address “sexual well-being” but I believe their work contributes precisely to this topic. A sexual well-being perspective could supplant an outmoded—but still widely taken—sexual risk perspective that does not countenance the possibility of healthy sex (other than abstinence) during adolescence. A sexual well-being perspective is based in notions of well-being as a developmentally appropriate outcome of the multiple types of experiences of sexuality possible during adolescence.
I have focused on sexual well-being rather than the more widely used phrase “sexual health” to incorporate relevant dimensions of well-being in addition to health: personal security; attachment to others; appropriate functioning; self-determination; and respect for self and others...
Language: en |