The feeling of love occupies a central place in the sexuality of 15-18 year olds, according to a survey which describes a generation aware of the risks associated with intercourse.
Sexuality is a serious matter for French teenagers, this is what emerges from a survey by the Pzifer Foundation, published this morning in the pages of the daily The Parisian. Conducted with 800 young people, it looks back on the sexuality of 15-18 year olds and their perception of it, and breaks the cliché of a shameless generation.
The important thing is to love
In fact, in the era of open access porn and smartphone applications for geo-locating “ephemeral plans”, young people remain great romantics. Thus, 91% say that the most important thing before sex is love – the fact of “loving and being loved in return”. Three-quarters of them say that to lose your virginity, you have to be in love.
Among this age group, one person in three has already had a sexual relationship (38% of boys and 27% of girls). And for 83% of them, it was the feeling of love that prompted them to act… A search for tenderness that the parents seem to largely underestimate. Indeed, more than half of adults imagine their offspring hanging from a computer screen watching X films, while only 26% of these young people consume pornographic content on a regular basis.
Condoms and pills in minds
Moreover, this sentimental generation seems to have heard the prevention messages on sexually transmitted diseases. For three quarters of respondents, STIs are the main risk incurred during sexual intercourse. Condoms hold no secrets for them, and the willingness of adults to teach them “how to put those plastic things on” provokes their taunts. When they settle in a long relationship, they abandon the condom and favor the contraceptive pill.
These results are in line with those of previous surveys going in the same direction. So, according to the Inpes 2010 health barometer, 90% of 15-19 year olds said they had used a condom the first time they had sex. A form of wisdom that seems to fade with age… Indeed, another survey, carried out for Smerep and published in November, shows that 33% of students say they never protect themselves.
