Genetic
makeup may now be able to tell us if a
person is still a virgin or not. According to an epidemiologist at Cambridge
University by the name of Ken Ong, genes influence that ages of first sexual
intercourse and first child birth.” The genes influence by expressing on both
personality and physical traits. He concluded this information after analyzing
genetic data of hundreds of thousands of people. For decades, scientists have
correlated puberty to genetic factors. However, the results of the study found
a moderate genetic component for both analyzing the age of both sexual
intercourse and first child birth yet, it was not found to be a cause and
effect relationship. With the data gathered on about 400,000 people in the U.S,
Iceland and the United Kingdom, it was also concluded that several genetic
factors were linked to the age of first intercourse, first childbirth, and
number of offspring as well as age of puberty. Researchers found a correlation
of obese children reaching puberty faster as well. Still, to further explain
the genetic factors that influence this, scientists found that there are
certain genes that increase the drive of sexual activity in individuals of a
certain age group specifically teenagers.
To sum
things up a bit, the main findings in this study really came down to finding a
huge correspondence between teenage behaviors resulting from a contribution of
our genes and the environment that surrounds us. Like Ong stated, this finding
can alert many children and parents of teenagers to strive to find safe ways to
avoid children starting puberty at young ages. However, other researchers still
ponder about other factors that could potentially affect the commencement of
puberty. Some of these factors mentioned include one’s diet and lifestyle. This
seems to be a matter of nature vs. nurture where biological factors may be in
competence with one’s norms.
This study makes a lot of sense and has opened a new perspective to me. Puberty has a lot to do relating to teenager's sex drive and when they feel comfortable enough to lose their virginity. Puberty as a result, creates a flow of different hormones into the body that will produce different personality changes between different teenagers. While some teenagers hit puberty later, they may lose their virginity at a older age. But I also think there are many different factors that play a role in losing ones virginity. Factors such as: friends, parents, or other role models. If everyone else is doing it, an individual may want to try and if an individual has been brought up to save sex until marriage, they may be influenced to wait. Those examples show zero correlation to when they hit puberty.
ReplyDeleteI very well may not be fully interpreting this study as well as you, Sarah, who's had more time to read into methods, etc. However, I believe that the nature vs nurture principle may have been swept under the rug a bit. It wouldn't be necessarilly fair to anyone to say that "your genes say you want to have sex by 15, so you must not be a virgin!" One might have the genetic propensity, but ot the lifestyle that allows or feeds into it. What was more eyes catching to me in the above article was the notion of gene linkage between obesity and early puberty rates. Perhaps there has or will be a study describing this phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteI very well may not be fully interpreting this study as well as you, Sarah, who's had more time to read into methods, etc. However, I believe that the nature vs nurture principle may have been swept under the rug a bit. It wouldn't be necessarilly fair to anyone to say that "your genes say you want to have sex by 15, so you must not be a virgin!" One might have the genetic propensity, but ot the lifestyle that allows or feeds into it. What was more eyes catching to me in the above article was the notion of gene linkage between obesity and early puberty rates. Perhaps there has or will be a study describing this phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteThis article is interesting, but its findings to me are a bit inconclusive. To think that people are genetically program to have sex by a certain age and loose their virginity could be true. As it would make sense that genes that cause testosterone and estrogen in higher amounts would certainly cause someone to go through puberty faster. However, this study does not take into account the environment people are growing up in. One must not forget that nourishment is just as important as genetic predisposition, as people are often products by the way they are raised.
ReplyDelete