Though off to a good start, none of these initiatives can succeed without a general reassessment of the attitudes and mores regarding adolescent sexuality in the U.S. Presently, an unrealistic emphasis is placed on preventing adolescent sexual behavior, which overlooks the fact that sexual expression is an essential component of healthy human development
for individuals of all ages (Freud; Maslow et al., as cited in Zimbardo, 1992). The majority of the public recognizes this fact — 63 percent of Americans believe that sexual exploration among young people is a natural part of growing up (SIECUS, 1999).