ABSTRACT
Are adolescents in this new millennium different from their predecessors in their sexual behaviours and beliefs? How has the now long-term impact of HIV/AIDS affected young people’s uptake of safe sex and their beliefs about sexuality? As we wrote in an earlier version of this book, any understanding of today’s adolescent as a sexual being must take account of the historical context. The past decade has seen further changes in social norms that have consequences for the expression of adolescent sexuality. Even in countries where premarital sex has long been proscribed and discussions about sexuality taboo, there have been significant changes in the past few decades (Brown et al. 2002; Eaton et al. 2003).
