Interest in sexuality intensifies during the onset of , and sexuality is often a vital aspect of teenagers' lives.
In 2005, 80% of then adolescents lost their virginity before their seventeenth birthday, and about 1 in each 5 new children in the country were born to an adolescent mother, where the number of children per women is solely 1.
This, they said, made it easier for them to lose their virginity once they wanted to because they felt society had a more positive view on female virgins and that this may have made them sexually attractive.
Tolman states that young girls learn to objectify their own bodies and end up thinking of themselves as objects of desire.
These factors affect girls and boys differently.
A 2002 study conducted by the found that 58% of secondary school principals describe their sex education curriculum as comprehensive, while 34% said their school's main message was abstinence-only.