ABSTRACT
The researchers' conclusion was that nothing much has changed and that young people are still conservative in attitudes, wanting true love and marriage and maintaining sex role stereotypes. This chapter reports research which attempts to explain what has been the impact of feminism and the sexual revolution on young people and what are the facts about sexual activity among young people in the 1980s and to describe recent findings on young people's knowledge, attitudes and sexual behavior. There is some disagreement amongst researchers as to the factors affecting sexual activity. Findings of Australian studies differ on the effect of religion on sexual activity. In spite of the overwhelming number of young people accepting the idea of premarital intercourse, there is no evidence of rampant sexual promiscuity in adolescents. In an Australian study of ignorance regarding peer behaviour, students perceived higher sexual activity among their peers than actually existed.
