- abstinence-only education
- teaches that abstaining from sex is expected until marriage; this educational track typically excludes information about the utility of contraception and condoms to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections
- abstinence-plus education
- promotes abstinence but includes information about contraception and condoms
- adolescence
- transition period of physical, cognitive, social, and emotional growth and development of an individual from childhood to adulthood
- adolescent egocentrism
- kind of self-centeredness whereby adolescents tend to view themselves as the central figure in a drama unfolding daily
- amygdala
- brain structure responsible for emotional processes
- circadian rhythm
- individual’s biologically based pattern of physiological events that occur on a daily cycle
- cognitive domains
- in the information-processing perspective, the biological supports for various thinking abilities
- comprehensive sex education
- offers medically accurate, age-appropriate information about development, sexual behavior, abstinence, consent, healthy relationships, life and communication skills, sexual orientation, and gender identity
- deductive reasoning
- process of testing out statements, or propositions, in a logical and orderly way based on a general premise
- formal operations
- stage of cognitive development in which the adolescent has achieved formal adult thinking capabilities, including the ability to reason using formal logical systems and symbols
- hippocampus
- brain structure responsible for memory formation
- hypothalamus
- brain structure responsible for hormonal production and control center
- hypothetical reasoning
- ability to make predictions about what might occur given a set of circumstances
- imaginary audience
- distinct sense that everyone is watching, thinking and interested in oneself; a consequence of adolescent egocentrism
- invincibility fable
- feature of the personal fable where adolescents believe that they cannot be harmed or defeated
- limbic system
- set of brain structures that develop over the course of adolescence in terms of their primary functionality as well as their connections and coordination with other areas of the brain
- menarche
- first menstruation in girls
- perceptual speed
- ability to automatically and efficiently process novel visual information and make quick decisions
- personal fable
- belief that adolescents have about their uniqueness in emotions and immortality
- primary sex characteristics
- physical developments that are directly related to the ability to reproduce
- propositional logic
- ability to make a logical conclusion based on the imagined outcome of a scenario rather than the observation of the actual scenario
- puberty
- period of time and the process whereby children transition to physical and reproductive maturity
- relativistic thinking
- ability to think in multiple dimensions and to realize that most statements of fact are relative to the position of the observer
- scientific thinking
- thinking that involves the systematic testing of possibilities
- secondary sex characteristics
- physical developments that accompany primary sex characteristics but are not directly related to the ability to reproduce
- secular trend
- the tendency for successive generations to reach puberty earlier, such as an earlier age of menarche among females today than their counterparts from past cohorts.
- sex positivity
- approach to adolescent sexuality that encourages exploration and experimentation within safe and openly discussed parameters
- sexually transmitted disease (STD)
- sexually transmitted infection that has led to some symptom of disease
- sexually transmitted infection (STI)
- infection transmitted through sexual contact, caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites
- spermarche
- development of the testes in boys resulting in semen, sperm, and the first ejaculation
- thalamus
- brain structure responsible for sensory integration and relay
- thelarche
- development of the breasts in girls