Kaiser Foundation Information

A whole range of information regarding adolescents (in the USA) is available at The kaiser Foundation Website.
Things like:
Confidentiality of care is a primary concern for many adolescents. Research has found that teenagers will go without care, withhold information about themselves, delay, or not seek help in order to keep their parents from finding out about a health issue.[5]  Confidentiality is interconnected with consent to care, through state laws dictating whether a minor can receive or access a health service without parental consent or notification and whether a doctor can tell parents about an adolescent’s health at their discretion. Insurance companies may contribute to a lack of confidentiality by sending an “Explanation of Benefits” (EOB) to the primary insurance holder, usually a parent, when a teenager seeks a healthcare service. This may deter teens from seeking important care for sensitive health concerns.[6]  States have a range of laws regarding consent for sensitive services such as reproductive and mental health care.[7]

Substantial efforts and funding in adolescent health are focused on reproductive health services to reduce the incidence of teen pregnancy and STIs.  Federal programs for sexual education include the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, the Personal Responsibility Education Program, the Abstinence-Only program which supports the promotion and education of abstinence until marriage.  Access to family planning services is another important component of adolescent reproductive health.  For low-income families, Medicaid covers the majority (71%) of public funding of reproductive health services.[8]  It operates in parallel with the federal Title X Family planning program, which is the only federal grant program specifically dedicated to providing community-based reproductive health and family planning services to teens and low-income women.  Community clinics and family planning providers such as Planned Parenthood are often a primary site of care for low-income teens in need of reproductive health or counseling, family planning, contraceptive, and STI services for a number of reasons.[9]  

GO HERE to read lots more.

World Reproductive Health

If you have never visited the World Health Organisation websites I suggest you do. They are a wealth of information. Below is one of the WHO sites. It is full of global information

HRP research is one of these sites. HRP helps people lead healthy sexual and reproductive lives, by strengthening capacities of countries to provide quality information and services that enable people to protect their own reproductive and sexual health and that of their partners.

At this site you will find pubications such as 'Adolescents and Reproductive Health'
and many more. Please go and explore..

Adolesence and Pornography

The following is from : Adolesence Pornography and harm ( go here)

Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice - Australian Institute of Criminalogy
No. 368 February 2009
Foreword

The probability that a young person will have exposure to pornography prior to the age of 18—the legal age in Australia at which it is permissible to view and purchase such materials—is very high. Concern exists, among both parents and policymakers, that widespread, premature exposure to pornography is changing the nature of sexual attitudes, behaviours, and intimate relationships and potentially contributing to sexual violence in society. The extent to which it is difficult to determine, owing to the scarcity of adolescent-based research and differing conceptions about harm. This paper examines the many factors that underpin pornography exposure, and stresses how the risk factors for exposure and problematic sexual behaviours intersect to contribute to harm. An understanding of the complex interplay of factors such as gender, age, attitude, personal characteristics and social context of use is important in the development of strategies that will assist young people to avoid any potential adverse outcomes. The available evidence remains highly incomplete, and its interpretation is highly contested, so the paper highlights the need for longitudinal studies of use and of actual behaviour, and for studies that focus on cultural contexts and emerging media.

Judy Putt General Manager of Research Services

Parents Talk with Adolescent Kids about SEX

This program looks really cool and I am excited about it. Here are some extracts: I found out about it in medical news today ( which you can see on the side bar)

Talking Parents, Healthy Teens is a workplace program that is designed to increase the comfort and skill level of parents who wish to talk to their adolescents about sexual health. The study sample consisted of 569 parents of adolescents (aged 11-16 years) who were randomly assigned to attend the Talking Parents, Health Teens program or to receive no intervention. Participants assigned to the program were in one of 13 workplaces in California and received 8 weekly one-hour sessions. "We'd teach them some skills one week, and they'd come back the next week bubbling over with excitement that they'd talked with their teen about relationships, love, or sex…their teen had actually engaged in a real conversation with them, or role-played a topic like how to say no to unwanted sexual advances." The researchers found that the intervention was quite successful, with immediate significant and lasting effects on parent and adolescent communication. The surveys indicated that parents who attended the program were more likely to engage in discussions of new sexual topics and to continue conversations that had been previously started and they were more open to communication about sex.

Go here to read more.