Studying Childhood Sexuality Beginnings: Birth to Age 2
Physical Development: Fully Equipped at Birth Psychosexual Development: Bonding and Gender Identification
Sexual Behavior: Curiosity
Early Childhood: Ages 2 to 5
Physical Development: Mastering Coordination Psychosexual Development: What It Means to Be a Girl or Boy
Sexual Behavior: Curiosity and Responsibility Sexual Knowledge and Attitudes: Sex Is Different Middle Childhood to Preteen: Ages 6 to 12
Physical Development: Puberty
Psychosexual Development: Becoming More Private
Sexual Behavior: Learning About the Birds and Bees
■ HUMAN SEXUALITY IN A DIVERSE WORLD Childhood Sexuality Among the Muria
Sexual Knowledge and Attitudes: Our Sexual Scripts
■ PERSONAL VOICES My Sex Life, Chapter One Sexuality and Relationships: What We Learn
■ SEX IN REAL LIFE What Do Children Want to Know, and What Are They Ready For?
Adolescence: Ages 12 to 18 Physical Development: Big Changes Psychosexual Development: Emotional Self-Awareness
■ PERSONAL VOICES Don’t Forget to Breathe Sexual Behavior: Experimentation and Abstinence
■ SEX IN REAL LIFE Teenagers and Oral Sex
■ PERSONAL VOICES First Sexual Experiences Influences: Peers, Family, and Religion Contraception and Pregnancy: Complex Issues Sexually Transmitted Infections: Education and
Prevention
What Children Need to Know: Sexuality Education
Hygiene and Sexuality Education: Then and Now Evolving Goals of Sexuality Education Why Sexuality Education Is Important
■ SEX IN REAL LIFE Parents and Anxiety: Where Does It Come From?
Sexuality Education Programs A Heterosexual Bias in Sexuality Education
■ HUMAN SEXUALITY IN A DIVERSE WORLD Sexuality Education in Other Cultures
Studying Effects and Results
Chapter Review Chapter Resources
Sexuality NOW Go to www. thomsonedu. com to link to SexualityNow, your online study tool.
magine yourself as a little kid again. Can you remember the first thing you ever thought about being a boy or a girl? About sex? When did you learn that little boys and girls had different parts1 Where did you think babies came from?
I often ask my students to try to remember the funniest thing they ever thought about sexuality. Their answers never fail to make me smile. One student told me that he really thought girls had cooties and was sure he’d never, ever want to kiss one, whereas another said that she really believed people died after they had sex. Another student told me he believed all girls got their periods at the same time each month.
A friend of mine, the mother of two young girls, told me that when one daughter was 3 years old, she asked my friend about a little boy’s body. “Why does Brian have a finger sticking out of his bottom?” she asked. Trying her best to keep a straight face and answer the question with as much dignity and respect as she could muster, my friend sat her daughter down and explained that it was a penis, not a finger. She then went on to explain the physiological differences in male and female genitalia.
It’s interesting to think about these early questions we all have about sexuality and how we find answers to all of our questions. In this chapter, we will look at childhood sexuality from infancy through adolescence. We will examine how sexuality develops throughout childhood and the various influences on adolescent sexuality today. We will look at adolescent sexual behavior, contraceptive use, and pregnancy. Finally, we will discuss the importance of sexuality education and the controversies surrounding it.
It is important to first realize that the idea of “childhood” is a recent invention. Throughout most of history, children were treated simply as miniature adults, and concepts such as “childhood”—and certainly “adolescence”—did not exist (Aries, 1962). Most children worked, dressed, and were expected to behave (as much as they were capable) like adults. The one area in which children were considered clearly different from adults was their sexuality. Children were considered presexual and referred to as “innocents,” meaning that they had no knowledge of, nor desire for, sexual contact. Some people still view children as sexual innocents who can be “corrupted” if exposed to sexual information or images.
Today, we think of children as undergoing their own, exclusive stage of development. Children are not just “little adults,” and though they can be sexual, children’s sexuality is not adult sexuality (Gordon & Schroeder, 1995). Children want love, appreciate sensuality, and engage in behaviors that set the stage for the adult sexuality to come. But we must be careful not to attribute adult motives to childhood behaviors. When a 5-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl sharing a bath reach out to touch each others’ genitals, the meaning that they ascribe to that action cannot be considered “sexual” as adults use the term.
As Plummer (1991) notes, a child having an erection shows simply that his physiology functions normally; seeing the erection as “sexual” is to overlay an adult social meaning onto the physiology. The child is probably not even aware of the “sexual” nature of his erection and, indeed, may not even be aware that his penis is erect.
Every society distinguishes between young and old; every society also creates rules around the sexuality of the young. Sexual growth involves a host of factors—physical maturation of the sexual organs, psychological dynamics, familial relations, and peer relations, all within the social and cultural beliefs about gender roles and sexuality.
As we discussed in Chapter 2, it is very difficult to carry out research on children’s sexuality in American society. Many people oppose questioning children about sexuality, often believing that research on child sexuality will somehow encourage promiscuity. Others seem to believe that if we do not talk about children’s sexuality, it will just go away. The truth about American society, however, is that teenagers and even preteens today are often sexually active, with high pregnancy, birth, and abortion rates.
Some researchers have been forging ahead in their study of children’s sexual behavior, despite the opposition. The U. S. government has sponsored four large-scale studies to examine adolescent behaviors. These studies include the National Survey of Family Growth (1973-2001), the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Males (1988, 1990-1991, 1995), the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (1994-1995, 1996, 2000), and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBS, which collects new data every 2 years; see Table 8.1).
The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) is the only one of these studies not limited to teenagers. It provides information on first intercourse, birth control, childbearing, cohabitation, and divorce, among other things, and has examined the behaviors of over 45,000 females between the ages of 14 and 44 (males were included in their analysis beginning in 2001). The NSFG is a household-based survey and uses personal in-home and phone interviews to access information. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Males (NSAM), which was originally designed to correlate with the NSFG study, was the first nationally representative survey of the sexual and risk-related behavior of young, never-married men in the United States. Over 6,600 males between the ages of 15 and 27 were surveyed through face-to-face interviews in conjunction with questionnaires. In 1995, the NSAM included urine testing for those over 18 years old to test for chlamydia and gonorrhea to collect information about the prevalence of these two STIs.
The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) is a nationally representative sample of over 126,000 adolescents in grades 7 through 12 and has included over 18,000 parent and school administrators. Interviews and questionnaires are used to gather information. This study provides a comprehensive view of the health behaviors of adolescents (parents and school administrators are included to collect information on various adolescent influences). The Add Health study was designed to explore the causes of these behaviors, with an emphasis on the influence of social context. Families, friends, schools, and communities play roles in the lives of adolescents that may encourage healthy choices or may lead to unhealthy, self-destructive behavior, and this study explores these influences.
The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBS) is another ongoing, longitudinal study that explores the prevalence of certain behaviors that put young people at
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TABLE 8.1 Studies of Childhood Sexuality
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risk, including sexual behaviors that may result in STIs and unintended pregnancies. This national study is conducted every 2 years and includes students in grades 9 through 12. The 1999 survey included more than 15,000 respondents.
In 2002, the Alan Guttmacher Institute released a report from a multiyear study, conducted with researchers from Canada, Great Britain, France, and Sweden. This study explored teenage pregnancy and birth rates both in the United States and in comparable developed countries. We will discuss findings from this study throughout this chapter. Finally, the National Health and Social Life Survey also provided some information on childhood sexuality (see Chapter 2 for more information on the National Health and Social Life Survey).
Together, these studies have helped to shed some light on trends in adolescent sexual behavior. As we discussed in Chapter 2, sexuality research has always been problem driven (i. e., many studies are aimed at decreasing rates of STI or teenage pregnancy), and nowhere is this more apparent than the research on adolescent sexuality, yet the research has also helped us to understand adolescent sexuality. Although methodologies and populations varied for each of the aforementioned studies, adolescents between the ages of 15 and 17 were a common subpopulation. Overall, the data have revealed comparable trends in many adolescent sexual behaviors (Santelli et al., 2000). We will discuss many of these findings later in this chapter and in upcoming chapters.
In the future, more research is needed on frequency of sexual behaviors other than intercourse; differences in gender, ethnicity, race, religion, and social class; same-sex preferences and behavior; cross-cultural research; and the meaning of eroticism and sexuality in young people’s lives. The data that do exist show some things about childhood sexuality that you might find surprising.