Puberty and Adolescent Sexuality 
The sexuality of young people is a continuous fascination to thepopular imagination as well as in sexuality research. The fascinationcontains a mixture of anxiety and nostalgia that clouds the self-evident observation that each adult–over a sexual lifetime spanningof four hallmarks of adult sexuality: sexual desire; sexual arousal;sexual behaviors; and, sexual function. Only adolescents' sexual be-haviors receive significant research attention, with an almost obses-sive interest in the timing and behavioral content of young people'ssexual experience
Sexual arousal
The hormonal, neuropsychological, interpersonal, and physiologicattributes of adult sexual arousal likely are capacitated during pubertyand early adolescence (Halpern, 2006). However, direct evidence islacking for the timing and pace for sexual arousal development.Detailed self-report instruments, experimental erotic stimulus-responseparadigms, sensitive genital monitoring technology, and various neuro-imaging techniques–extensively used in studies of sexual arousal inadults (Rosen et al., 2007)–are unlikely tofind application to thestudy of early adolescents, although there is little evidence of potentialharm in such participation (Kuyper et al., 2012). Thus, systematic,developmentally-structured research–however limited–into pubertaland early adolescent sexuality requires cautious integration of informa-tion drawn from a variety of limited sources (Romero et al., 2007). Oneplace to begin is with understanding of young adolescents' awarenessof sexual arousal, their interpretation of arousal, and their response toarousa
Sexual behavior
AbstinenceAbstinence is often defined as refraining from oral, vaginal, andanal partnered sexual behaviors. However, no single definition existsfor what is and is not abstinence and a range of sexual interactionssuch as kissing and mutual genital touching are included in manyyoung people's definitions of abstinence (Byers et al., 2009; Planes etal., 2009). Young adolescents' sexual abstinence is distinct from the sex-ual abstinence of younger children (De Graaf and Rademakers, 2011;Rademakers et al., 2003). This distinction is based on emergence of con-scious sexual identities, motivations and desires during early andmiddle adolescence (Reynolds and Herbenick, 2003). These emergingidentities, motivations and desires manifest in various non-coital sexualbehaviors that reflectdecisionstoavoid coitus (Uecker et al., 2008), sus-pend sexual activities after a sexual initiation (Rasberry and Goodson,2009)ordelayingfirst coitus until a perception of‘right time’and‘right person’(Martino et al., 2008). Framing abstinence as a behaviorchosen within the context of sexual motivations and desires creates adevelopmentally appropriate framework for adolescent sexuality, sepa-rated from social, cultural and religious issues of chastity, virginity andnon-virginity (Buhi et al., 2011)
No other period of the lifespan is sexuality at such a period ofdevelopmental change. While elements of sexuality and sexual inter-est are observable in children, the reorganization of the hormonal,anatomic, and neuropsychological substrates of sex during early ado-lescence is profound. Likewise, adolescence brings into play detailedand complex rules governing sexual display, sexual interaction, mating,and reproduction.The major objective of this review is to enlarge a perspective onadolescent sexuality to incorporate elements such as sexual desire,sexual arousal, and sexual function, as well as sexual behaviors.Insights from better understanding of these diverse aspects of sexualityprovide a foundation for better understanding of healthy adolescentsexuality development. These insights may also give basis to a perspec-tive of the continuities in sexuality development over the lifespan. As‘sexual health’becomes a more relevant defining paradigm withinpublic health, we may better understand approaches to support healthysexual experience while minimizing the adverse consequences ofsexual trauma, unplanned pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infec-tions (Fenton, 2010).By making the linkage of adolescent to adult sexuality, I am notsuggesting that adolescence is a perfect mirror of the adult. Amongother issues, many of the tools of contemporary research are unlikelyto be useful in the study of adolescent sexuality. For example,laboratory-based studies of sexual arousal–using visual erotic stimuli–are unlikely to be conducted with adolescent research participants inthe foreseeable future. However, thoughtful use of existing and new re-search should provide a strong empirical basis from which public policy,public health practice and clinical services can be developed that willenhance adolescent health and well-being while preventing diseaseand adverse consequences.
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