Young adults should abstain from sexual relations until they are married. High school years contain many difficult choices, such as whether or not to have premarital sex. This decision is influenced strongly by friends including, boyfriends and girlfriends. Sex is a very intense emotional step and is often taken too lightly by young people. .
The possible consequences from having sex as a teenager include pregnancy, emotional distress and disease.
Adolescence is the time for dreaming about the future and setting goals. An unexpected pregnancy for a teenager can shatter these dreams and goals by the new responsibilities and demands that accompany a baby. The teenage parent can no longer expect his life to be the same once a child arrives. In order to support his child, the young parent is trapped in low paying jobs because of lack of education and experience. In most cases the teen parent will lose the opportunity to further his education and improve his job situation.
Teenagers are not prepared for the emotional entanglement of a sexual relationship. They have a difficult time already dealing with the demands of school, parents, and peers. Statistics show a majority of teenagers that became intimately involved with another believe they made the wrong decision. In most of these cases the teenagers felt their lives had become too serious and complicated as a result of the intimate relationship. Many experienced a loss of independence and feeling of youth.
The only way to adequately protect against contracting a sexually transmitted disease is to abstain from sexual activity. Condoms may prevent the spread of AIDS and gonorrhea but not other sexually transmitted diseases. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control show that teen condom use is up and so are the rates of many sexually transmitted diseases. Teenagers may unknowingly contract a disease. The crippling effects of the disease may not show up until later in life.