“Sex Proves that I’m an Adult, Not a Child”

The teenage years are times of transition from being a dependent child to becoming an interdependent adult. Interdependent persons believe that they have something worthwhile to give to others, and that others have something worthwhile to give to them.

While this transition from childhood to adulthood involves every facet of a young person’s life, we must remember that the different areas of that individual’s life develop at different rates of speed. For example, one person may seem more “mature” than another of the same age because he or she is more mature socially and emotionally than the other. But the second person may be more mature physically than the first.

Regardless of a teenager’s actual level of development, many of them see sex as a way to speed up their total passage to adulthood. After all, sex is not something children do. It is for adults. The logic behind this way of thinking is not hard to see. So kids begin to mimic adults by engaging in so-called adult activities: smoking, drinking, and sex. By doing these things, they mistakenly think they will magically become adults.