Ungdomar och sexualitet - Statens folkhälsoinstitut

16 ungdomar och sexualitet – en forskningsöversikt 2005
The “fuck buddy” is a relatively new concept. Whether or not it is such a new phenomenon
is on the other hand more uncertain. Some of the studies included in the review show that
it is a well-known phenomenon among adolescents and between a third and half of the
young people in one study of third-year upper secondary students had experience of
having had a fuck buddy. Other result findings also suggest that the phenomenon, if not the
concept, has a longer history than has been indicated in earlier Swedish adolescent sexuality
research.
Major changes have occurred as regards same-sex sexuality over the last 10–15 years.
One example of this is the fact that same-sex relationships were not included in adolescent
sexuality research until the beginning of the 1990s. The discussion on same-sex sexuality
has hence become considerably more open and diverse, something which is also reflected
in the various surveys of people”s attitudes to homosexuality. In 2003, nearly 90 per cent
of young women and just over 60 per cent of young men agreed with the statement “homosexuality
is nothing abnormal” (Herlitz, 2004). This is a dramatic change compared to how
adolescents answered the question fourteen years earlier in 1989. There are however
disparities between different groups and girls and young women are generally less sceptical
towards same-sex relationships than boys and young men are. Younger adolescents are also
more sceptical than older ones.
As regards actual experience of same-sex sexuality, we can once again compare the
findings of the Sex i Sverige (Sex in Sweden) survey of 1998 with later studies. Such a
comparison reveals that just over two per cent of all the participants in the Sex in Sweden
survey (people between the ages of 18 and 74) stated that they had “had a sexual relationship
with someone of the same sex”. In three later studies focusing specifically on adolescents,
the corresponding figure is around eight per cent. Bearing in mind that these later studies
were aimed at adolescents, the findings suggest that the number of people who have had
a same-sex sexual experience is constantly increasing in relation to the Sex in Sweden
survey, something that must also be seen as logical, in the context of the heightened
discussion on heteronormativity and in relation to more and more people “coming out”
and declaring their homosexuality.
An entirely new arena for communication on sexuality has come into existence with the
growth of the Internet. The surveys that have so far been devoted to the Internet make clear
reference to both the opportunities and the risks involved. The opportunities include the
ease with which one can search for knowledge about sexuality, look for new (positive)
contacts, test and investigate one”s own sexual identity and try out new (virtual) sexual
activities on-line. Three groups for which the Internet provides new opportunities are
given special mention in the research; women, people looking for homosexual contacts
and young people with mild mental disabilities. The risks associated with the Internet, on
the other hand, include the danger of young people being tricked into meeting people offline
who turn out to be different to how they presented themselves on-line, and the fact that
they can be exposed to unsolicited pornography and sexual content. Neither is it unusual
for young people, especially younger children and girls, to say that they would rather not
have been subjected to the pornographic material they had (often inadvertently) seen on
the Internet.