Summary Literature Notes Youth and Sexuality | Utrecht University | 2025/26

Literature notes:
Youth and Sexuality
Content

Week 1
Lecture 1a – Course introduction
Lecture 1b – Psychosexual development

Cacciatore et al., 2019
de Graaf et al., 2024 x

Week 2
Lecture 2 – Biological and Social perspectives on young people’s sexuality

Vanwesenbeeck, 2009
Buss & Schmitt, 2011
Renström & Bäck, 2024 x

Week 3
Lecture 3a – The impact of family, peers and the media
Lecture 3b – Why today’s youth starts having sex later

Naezer & van Oosterhout, 2021 x
M. De Looze, 2025 x
De Graaf et al., 2025 x

Week 4
Lecture 4a – Sexual abuse during childhood and adolescence
Lecture 4b – Sexual consent

Covers et al., 2022 x
Martijn et al., 2026 x
Brown et al., 2020 x
Muehlenhard et al., 2016 x

Week 5
Lecture 5a – Sexual and Gender Diversity in adolescence
Lecture 5b - Intersectionality

Goldbach & Gibbs, 2016 x
Baams & Kaufman, 2023 x
Cup et al., 2024 x
Mereish et al., 2022 x


Week 6
Lecture 6a – Sex Education
Lecture 6b – Guest lecturer

Vanwesenbeeck, 2020 x
Zaneva et al., 2022 x

, WEEK 1
Seks onder je 25e
De Graaf et al., 2024
Representative study of the sexual health of young people 12-25
- 8000 young people

 Positive developments
o Later sexual debut -> 18,6y
o Early starters have decreased -> are more vulnerable to
unplanned pregnancies and STIs
o Gender differences in sexual pleasure are small
o Decrease in sexual coercion (persuasion)
o Good protection against pregnancy -> high contraceptive use
o More tolerant of homosexuality

 Topics requiring attention
o Sexual coercion
o Condom use
o Getting tested for STIs -> 13% of men and 18% of women
o Unplanned pregnancy and abortion
o Knowledge of sexuality and STIs has decreased
o Young women less satisfied with their body than young men
o Sexual orientation -> context of first sexual experience differs

 New developments
o Online dating
o Sexting
o Attitudes towards sex without a relationship has become more
tolerant

 Groups requiring attention
o Youngest group (12-14y) -> less equipped to have safe,
pleasant and unforced sexual contacts
o Young people with a Turkish / Moroccan background -> talk
less about sexuality, knowledge about sex is low
o Young people with a Surinamese / Antillean background
o Muslim and very religious Christian young people ->
conservatives in their views about sex before marriage
o Less-educated young people -> less knowledge
o Highly educated young people -> more sex partners and more
positive attitudes
o Young people with negative experiences in childhood
WEEK 2
Doing Gender in Sex and Sex research
I. Vanwesenbeeck, 2009

,= it is necessary to make distinctions between women and men for
political and research-technical reasons, and it is necessary to understand
gender as more complex than referring to two sets of individuals

Gender vs sex

Difficulty in research: gender is used when biological sex is referred to
 Evolution of the meaning of gender
 Shift from socialization to performativity > doing gender

Gender and sexuality

Difficulty in research: gender is seen as preceding and determining
sexuality




Manfluencers and Young Men’s Misogynistic Attitudes: The Role
of Perceived Threats to Men’s Status
Renström & Bäck, 2024
= how perceived threats to masculine identity affects to formation of
attitudes towards women
 Misogynistic attitudes are spread in the manosphere -> an online
milieu promoting toxic masculinity norms

,  Manfluencers are trying to persuade men to view women and
feminism as a threat to their masculinity

INTRO
Misogyny = hateful beliefs and contempt toward women > within the
manosphere
 Women are both appealing and appalling
 Desired for partnership and sex
 Degraded and seen as less human than men

Intergroup threat = when individuals perceive their social group to be
threatened, intergroup animosity increases

Influencers are considered micro-celebrities and are therefore close to
their audience (one of them) and can have a powerful influence on the
audience
 Political opinion leaders to whom young people turn for political
information
 Ability to present political information in a simplified way

Threatened identity as the basis for misogyny
 People value their social identities such as gender identity
 Threat increases prejudice and intergroup conflict
 Perceived threat or actual threat
 Men seek out the manosphere because they have experienced or
want to avoid rejection by women
 Manfluencers monetize men’s insecurities
 Young men more vulnerable -> simplified content by
manfluencers and are looking for a partner

METHOD
Quantitative research on manfluencers as political opinion leaders and
their influence on misogynistic attitudes among young men + whether
rejection amplifies misogynistic responses


 Study 1 = if exposure to masculinity threats will be related to
misogynistic attitudes + if this is magnified among younger men
 Survey about gender and societal attitudes -> external locus of
control x misogyny (feeling that they are not themselves in
control of their situation)

 Study 2 = limitations of study 1
 Survey experiment in which participants were exposed to a
message on social media that described the threat or a neutral
message
 Mistrust of women measured instead of high external locus of
control

 Study 3 = effects of manfluencers posts on young men