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Homosexuality in the adolescent should not be regarded as it would be in the adult; it should be understood in the context of adolescence as a period of psychosocial development, characterized by change and flux. Various psychodynamic conditions in adolescence, especially the changing relationship to the parents, may make an important contribution to the establishment and nature of an individual's homosexuality in adulthood. In early adolescence, from puberty to about fifteen, overt homosexual activities are common, often narcissistically colored, and may make a progressive contribution to the adolescent's development.
One of the features that may distingiush "normal" from "pathological" homosexual activities in early adolescent boys is the strong heterosexual interest in "normal" homosexual activity. In addition, normal homosexuality of early adolescence never includes acts with adult men. During the middle stage of adolescence, from fifteen to eighteen, castration anxiety may drive the adolescent to homosexuality. The homosexual activity of middle adolescence may be temporary if anxieties and guilt feelings are resolved. Late adolescence, from age eighteen to twenty-one, is a period of integration and consolidation. While homosexuality in early and middle adolescence may be temporary, homosexuality in late adolescence may be regarded as an established, permanent way of relating and functioning sexually. An identificatory facility is a normal aspect of adolescence which the individual usually outgrows, while in the homosexual this facility is retained.