Childhood and
Adolescence
Stories of adolescent
sexuality
• http://www.bettydodson.com/subchild.ht
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Infancy
• Male and female infants apparently
experience orgasm
• Breast feeding may stimulate a genital
or sexual response in the child
Puberty
First menstruation
•
•
•
•
Called menarche
May occur without ovulation
May be irregular
Girls are starting to reach puberty at
age eight
First ejaculation in boys
• Occurs when prostate and seminal
vesicles begin functioning
Masturbation
• Boys learn from friends
• Girls learn by accident
• Response to masturbation
– Confirm it feels good, & indicate it is
something you should do when alone in
private
First intercourse
motivation
• For women - affection for partner
• For men - curiosity and readiness for
sex
Early coitus is associated
with
• Poverty
• Low educational expectations
• History of sexual abuse
Children of adolescent
mothers
• More likely to:
– Be abused
– Have deficits in intellectual ability
– Physical and emotional problems
Teen pregnancy
• Teen pregnancy in the US is the
highest in the western world
• Only half of teen pregnancies end in
live births
• 1,000,000 unmarried adolescents
become pregnant each year
Children born to
adolescent (teen) mothers
are more likely to:
• Die as infants
• Demonstrate deficits in intellectual
ability
• Have physical and emotional problems
Pregnant teenagers as
compared to mothers in
their 20’s or older
• More likely to hemorrhage when delivering
• More likely to miscarry
• More likely to get inadequate prenatal care
Birth control
• Only a minority of teenagers use
reliable birth control
• “I’m not that kind of girl” syndrome
Androgynous behavior
• Young children with interests of both
sexes
– E.g. playing with dolls and trucks