Adolescents Freaked Out By Condoms

HIV/AIDS may not be the topic of conversation in many health related websites, but this disease is still real and deadly.

It might take years or even decades before an HIV could become a full blown AIDS but it’s a very dangerous medical condition.

What’s even more alarming are the persons affected by this medical condition. Nearly half of those infected with HIV/AIDS are within the age group of 13 to 18 years old.

This fact is very alarming since one of the major causes of this disease is transmission through sex.

Unprotected sex could lead to various types of medical problems (STDs) including HIV/AIDS. As the study suggests, young adults have become susceptible to this type of disease and may continue to do so if they do not receive proper education or information about various STDs including HIV/AIDS.

Teenage pregnancy should also be part of the topic but HIV/AIDS should also be part of the discussion.

Prevention of HIV/AIDS can be easily administered when proper protection is used. Men, adolescent or not, should use condoms in order to avoid this type of problem.

But since the number shows an alarming rate of HIV/AIDS among 13-18 year old adolescent male, one of the major conclusions is many adolescents do not use protection during sexual interaction.

Sex education is never lacking in the US. Schools often conduct sex education to students in order to inform them about the dangers of unprotected sex. Although they sex education teach (some even advocate) abstinence, the students are also informed about protecting themselves from diseases.

But since sex education is never lacking among students, why do they not use condom in regular rate? The answer, according to research, is actually on the emotions of the male adolescent when it comes to the use of condoms.

Studies were made by Brown University together with Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center on adolescents aged between 13 to 18. These kids are known to have psychiatric problems and they were asked about their idea about protecting themselves.

Many of the kids have problems with self-efficacy which means they do not believe in the immediate effect of their actions. This means they do not believe that they cannot do anything to prevent bad things from happening in their lives.

A simple use of condom will often be ignored. Because of their low self-esteem and self efficacy, those with psychological problems can be intimidated or even overwhelmed by the idea of sex that they can’t have any reasonable decision in protecting themselves.

But the problem in using condoms during sex is not just on those who have psychological problems. Many teens often feel distressed when they are asked to use condoms. Many feel pressured into using condoms that when they are given the chance, they will ignore using condoms.

To address this problem among teens; parents have to step up and discuss this situation with their teens.

Adolescents have to be reminded that using condoms is recommended and will not lead to bad things. Parents have to encourage discussion in order to ease the emotional distress of adolescents in using condoms.