Acculturative processes and adolescent sexuality: A comparative study of 115 immigrant adolescents from cultures influenced by Islam and 115 French adolescents from cultures influenced by Christianity

This study is based on the assumption that adolescents from cultural backgrounds influenced by Islam have first-hand knowledge of the same sources of information on sexual behavior as their native-born peers. We worked from the premise that the processes inherent to cultural integration and adolescence have a propensity to create a marked cultural gap between first and second generation immigrants. We also hypothesize that these shared sources of information, as well as the cultural difference between generations will result in a common body of knowledge, thus leading to a reduction in the differences between young people from immigrant backgrounds and their native counterparts. The specific status of women in societies influenced by Islam, and the hyper-control which is exerted on them, is expressed through the unreserved submission of adolescent girls to patriarchal values, leading to a gap between these girls and the adolescent boys from the same group.Our purpose in this study is to examine factors which both separate adolescents and bring them together in one particular area – that of representations and sexual experience.Accordingly, we compared findings on this divide by distributing a questionnaire to two groups of young people aged between 13 and 20 (average age: 17.3, standard deviation: 3.11). The first group (G1) was made up of 115 adolescents from immigrant backgrounds (Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian or Turkish), from geographical areas strongly influenced by Islamic culture. The second group (G2) was a control group made up of 115 French adolescents whose culture comes under the sway of Christianity and the legacy of the Enlightenment.Feedback obtained from the questionnaire shows that birth or early arrival in the host country notwithstanding, young adolescents from the various cultures influenced by Islam stand in sharp contrast to those born into cultures influenced by Christianity (G2). Differences between the groups are even more striking in girls than in boys.

► This study shows that the sexuality is always taboo for the teenagers stemming from culture influenced by the Islam even if they were born and they grew in host countries.
► It gives ways of research onto the work of transmission of the cultural heritage between the first and the second generation of immigrants and on the acculturative processes.
► It helps the professionals to build programs about education of sexuality adapted to this population.