Annotated Bibliography: Sexual Health Care

Coleman, J., Hendry, L. B. & Kloep, M. (2007). Adolescence and health. Chichester, England: J. Wiley & Sons. This is the first book in the Wiley’s Understanding Adolescence series that provides health professionals with the understanding of adolescence at the right level. The authors identify adolescence, or the teens, as people whose health needs are special that is caused by the fact that they are neither children nor adults. This book refutes the notion that teens are the healthiest group in society. Nevertheless, teens make less use of health facilities. In over 210 pages, the book addresses several teens’ health issues while giving much attention to sexual health and substance use.

The book is a very handy resource for this project since it highlights the myths that society has created about the teens’ health issues. According to the emphasized points, the book directs the project to the core issues concerning teens’ substance use and sexual health. What is more, the unquestionable authority of compilers guarantees the credibility of the facts used in this project.

Kaiser Family Foundation. (2001). Sexual health care Counsel: a series of National Surveys of teens about sex. Retrieved October 20, 2012. This is a report on the survey that was carried out in May 2001. It determines how teenagers share information about their sexual health and sources of this information. The most important feature of this report is its revelation of the fact that teens are readily willing to share their drug-related issues rather than their sexual health issues (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2001). The report also provides statistics of the missed opportunities by health care providers to address teens’ sexual health issues.

This report is very important for the project since the statistics provided would compel health care providers to understand the relationships between teens’ drug abuse and their sexual health issues. As much as teens are more ready to share their drug issues, the understanding of these relationships would help in addressing the hardly disclosed sexual health matters.

However, this report is limited in the sense that it has not provided the relationship between teens’ drug abuse and their sexual health issues. It is the limitation that has necessitated the undertaking of this project. The fact that the Kaiser Family Foundation and Seventeen magazine are credible bodies makes this source credible enough to inform the project.

Rashad I. & Kaestner, R. (2004). Teenage sex, drugs, and alcohol use problems identifying the cause of risky behaviors. Journal of Health Economics. 23(3):493-503. In this journal article, Rashad and Kaestner sought to empirically determine the causality from teens’ substance abuse to their risky sexual behavior. Even though the writers acknowledge the relationship between substance abuse and teens’ sexual activity and that substance use is positively associated with teens’ sexual behaviors, they state that teens’ sexual behavior and substance abuse depend on some set of personal and social behaviors that have not been measured by the previous researchers (Rashad & Kaestner, 2004).

The researchers’ attempts to bring to light the unknown nature of this relationship is a major boost to the project as it gives a wider scope in the knowledge of other social and personal factors involved. Like all articles in the trade journals, this paper has been professionally done and reviewed to meet the credibility test required and inform a research project.

Rees, D. I., Argys, L. M. & Averett, S. L. (2001). New evidence on the relationship between substance use and adolescent sexual behavior. Journal of Health Economics. 20(5): 835-845. In this peer-reviewed article from the Journal of Health Economics, the researchers aim at coming up with new evidence on the relationship between substance use and sexual behavior among teenagers. The article analyzes the current trend by the policymakers to encourage teenagers to delay their sexual activity or use birth control measures, as means reducing their sexual health issues. Additionally, the paper reviews other researchers’ arguments for the reduction of drug abuse among teenagers as another way of keeping teenagers’ sexual health in check.

This paper provides a rich background in examining the relationship between teenage drug abuse and their health issues. The paper highlights the importance of controlling for the observables and also indicates the link between substance abuse and sexual behavior. Since the article has been peer-reviewed by professional bodies and researchers, it is therefore credible and prudent that the pieces of evidence provided in this paper would be used to further this research project.

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASACU). (2011). Adolescent Substance Use: America’s #1 Public Health Problem. Retrieved October 20, 2012.

This report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University highlights some of the disturbing trends of teens’ substance use in the United States. Apart from just emphasizing these trends, it also stresses the dangerous consequences that the teens and the entire American society face as a result of drug abuse. The most worrying finding in this report is that the once decreasing problem of drug abuse is gradually coming back to affect more than half of high school students (NCASACU, 2011).

These findings according to the teens’ substance abuse serve a great purpose in informing the research project. It provides a clear background and direction to formulate the research strategies and questions in order to capture all the teens’ drug-related issues. Even though the report can be limited by its sole focus on the American teens, this limitation serves as a sampling strength since the American society is a mixture of people from the major cultures and societies around the globe. More importantly, the credibility of this source is guaranteed by the authenticity of its originator, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.