Studies of adolescent sexual behaviour are limited. The best organized studies have been made in the U.S.A., in Britain, and in Scandinavian nations. As might be expected, there are considerable variations between nations, between the two sexes, between individuals in each sex, and between boys and girls in different socio-economic groups.
‘Sex’ or ‘wet dreams’
One of the early sexual manifestations of male sexual puberty occurs in dreaming. The teenager dreams of some erotic fantasy, and ejaculates in his sleep. Sex dreams are independent of sexual experience, but may be related to the surge of testosterone which accompanies puberty. (Girls are less likely to experience sex dreams, and orgasm, until they have had an actual sexual experience.) ‘Wet dreams’ may be related to the supposed greater way in which erotic visual stimuli affect men. When a man fantasizes about a sexual experience, after seeing an erotic picture or a film, he is more likely to take the erotic woman in his imagination and to fantasize sexual intercourse. A woman in her sexual fantasy is more likely to want to belong to the sexually attractive man in the picture or film.
Wet dreams are normal; they occur most frequently in adolescence and less frequently as alternative sexual outlets become socially acceptable and possible. Masturbation is the earliest, the most normal, and the most universal outlet.
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