Acessibilidade / Reportar erro

Young people's sexual experience

The rise in teenage pregnancy and young people's vulnerability to HIV have been a serious problem. This paper is intended to confront this statement based on its structural concepts (adolescence, youth, teenage pregnancy, and vulnerability) and by a non-exhaustive review of the relevant literature. The current paper discusses the ideas of youth and adolescence to approach the sexuality of young people and adolescents from the perspective of inequalities between different social groups and their access to health and resources for the prevention of diseases like HIV/AIDS as well as contraception. There are multiple paths leading young people to having unprotected sexual relations, and the numbers that surface on pregnancy, STDs, and HIV infection are doubtless lower than the real figures. The data presented herein indicate that the safe-sex approach is still necessary among youth, requiring efforts to produce creative strategies that make sense in different socio-cultural contexts in which young people experience sex.

Pregnancy in Adolescence; HIV; Adolescent; Public Policies


Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sergio Arouca, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz Rua Leopoldo Bulhões, 1480 , 21041-210 Rio de Janeiro RJ Brazil, Tel.:+55 21 2598-2511, Fax: +55 21 2598-2737 / +55 21 2598-2514 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil
E-mail: cadernos@ensp.fiocruz.br