The Influence of Value Systems and Sexual Self-Regulation towards Adolescent's Sexuality

Most research findings concerning adolescent's sexual behaviors have left scientists pondering about the phenomenon while others have continuously studied and internalized its courses. Moreover, their conclusions have not changed so much. Research findings by PKBI, 2008 in all provinces in Indonesia on adolescents aged 15-24 with a sample of 1000 revealed that in Bandung alone 56% of adolescents had already experienced intercourse. In yet another study by National Commission on Child Protection (KPAI) in 33 provinces in JanuaryJune 2008 found out that 97% of adolescents had watched pornographic movies, 93.7% of adolescents ever kissed, genital stimulation (touching of genitals) and oral sex, 62.7% had lost their virginity, and 21.2% of teenagers acknowledged to have aborted.Research problemNearly all research findings are of the conclusion that the number of active adolescents is on the increase and inferences made by most researchers though not all is that value systems have changed or failed to execute their duties in passing on values about sexuality. However, researchers have paid no attention to investigation how adolescents regulate their sexuality. The interrelation between sexual self-regulation and behavior was the great and enduring issues in this study, although other statements may exaggerate the importance of sexual self-regulation, nonetheless, we believe that to understand adolescent's sexual behaviors, it is crucial to examine the influence of value systems and sexual self-regulation. It's at this point that the assumptions of knowledge have proved important but insufficient to handle the phenomenon of increasing number of active adolescents, however, failure to take into consideration the sexual self-regulation of the target populations reduces researcher's ability to address the phenomenon in a manner that is convincing and meaningful to them. The kind of research findings published aims at fine-tuning psychological messages to make them more compatible with the sexual understandings of high-risk individuals. The sensitivity attached to adolescent's sexuality should be the complexity of the methodologies employed to capture the underlying themes of such studies as this would help researchers in constructing messages that are meaningful, appropriate, and effective.Our initiation on sexual self-regulation aims at not to act as an alternative but rather as complementary to other promising research studies that focus at delineating the situational and life-circumstance factors influencing sexual risk-taking. In addition, research that assesses various intervention models such as peer-influence campaigns, safer-sex eroticization programs, empowerment and negotiation skills training, we would argue, however, that all of these intervention programs might be significantly enhanced if informed by more sophisticated and nuanced understandings of the sexual self-regulation of those participants in such study programs.Many decades of research on adolescent's sexuality has taught researchers to appreciate the extreme complexity they face with respect to the biological dimensions of the problem. The lesson of complexity is no less pertinent to psychologists, particularly those who are involved in trying to understand risky sexual behavior of adolescents. Neither simplistic surveys that merely record frequencies of common sexual acts, nor rapid assessment procedures which are invariably superficial, will yield the kind of data necessary for dealing with increasing adolescent's sexuality. They provide a dangerous illusion of knowing about sexuality without ever probing of how adolescents regulate such behaviors of necking, petting and intercourse. While the ultimate objective is to have an impact on behavior, we can hardly expect to do so without intimate knowledge of adolescent about it. There is need to zero down on sexual self-regulation in all its richness, making it the central focus of prevention programs. …