engleski

Sexual subjectivity in relation with self-esteem among students

Sexuality in adolescence is slowly becoming viewed as an integral part of adolescence identity formation. This shift toward a more normative perspective made researchers prone to study those aspects of sexuality development which represent an important dimension of an individual’s conception of self. Sexual subjectivity is one of those aspects of sexuality development which represents the perceptions of pleasure from the body and the experiences of being sexual. Sexual subjectivity is often described as a necessary component of agency and thus of self-esteem. Most of the previous studies investigated sexual subjectivity comparing females with different sexual experience ; therefore, there is no evidence of gender difference in sexual subjectivity. The purpose of this study was to compare male and female students in five dimensions of sexual subjectivity (sexual body- esteem, entitlement to pleasure from self and from a partner, efficacy in achieving sexual pleasure, and sexual self-reflection). There were 258 students (155 females and 103 males) assessed with The Sexual Subjectivity Inventory and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Results show that average age of sexual initiation is 17 years (for female and male students). Most females report that love and being in love is the reason for sexual initiation, while for male students, excitement is the main motive. Men experience orgasm more often during sexual intercourse. A similarity was found between male and female students in sexual subjectivity. The only difference was that females reported more entitlement to pleasure from a partner than male students. Further, a positive correlation was found between self- esteem and all dimensions of sexual subjectivity (except for entitlement to pleasure from self) in the male sample. In the female sample, self-esteem was in relation to sexual body-esteem and efficacy in achieving sexual pleasure.

sexuality, adolescence, sexual subjectivity, self-esteem, gender differences

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