Teen Relationships and Sexual Pressure

Using a seminar format, Teen Relationships and Sexual Pressure features hosts Jason Evert and Ellen Marie working to help young adults identify and develop healthy relationships. Exploring the pressures that abound from peers as well as the media, Evert and Marie emphasize the importance of self worth and self respect, discussing the physical and emotional benefits of abstinence while helping teens to identify manipulative behaviors common in relationships. Sharing real-life stories, the hosts point out that with responsibility comes choices and that while one can choose how to act, one can't necessarily predict or control the consequences. While there is a definite religious element to this program, it's also probably the best I have seen on this topic for the high school/college age group, period. Like lemmings going over a cliff, some teens feel that since “everyone's doing it” there must be something wrong with them if they aren't--a lousy reason to become intimately involved with someone (or, for that matter, to jump off a cliff). Evert and Marie emphasize that while the emotions and physical responses teens experience are normal, the decision to become sexually active needs to be made ahead of time, after rational discussion between both partners, not on the spur of the moment in the back seat of a car. The overall message? Relationships built on sex as a bargaining tool don't last. Relationships built on friendship, respect, and trust, do. Highly recommended. Three other programs featuring Evert and Marie are also available: Hard Questions, Straight Answers: For Guys Only and Hard Questions, Straight Answers: For Girls Only ($14.99 each) and Parents of Teens: Here's What You Need to Know ($19.99). Aud: H, C, P. (L. Stevens)