

Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality
Teenage Sexuality
Infancy (0-2 years):
 Self-stimulation-
◦ Infants have been observed fondling their own genitals.

Infant-infant sexual encounters-
◦ May kiss, hug, pat, stroke and gaze at each other.

Nongenital sensual experiences:
◦ Sucking on a mother’s breasts
◦ Sucking on his or her own fingers
◦ Being cuddle or rocked can also be sensuous


Attachment◦ Psychological bond that forms between an infant
and the mother, father, or other caregiver.
Knowing about boy/girl differences:
◦ At first infants think the difference between girls
an boys is a matter of clothes or haircuts.
◦ By age 3 there is increasing interest in the
genitals of other children.
Early Childhood (0-7 years):
 Masturbation
◦ Learns that masturbation is something that one
does in private.
 Heterosexual behavior
◦ “Playing doctor” can be popular.
 Same-gender sexual behavior
◦ Sexual play with members of one’s own gender
may be more common than sexual play with
members of the other gender.

Sex knowledge and interests:
◦ Begins to have notion of genital differences
between males and females
◦ Enjoys hugging and kissing parents
◦ Becomes more modest at age 5
◦ Restriction on conversation about sex comes at
precisely the same time child is becoming more
aware of, and curious about, sexuality.
Preadolescence (8-12 years):
 Masturbation
◦ More and more children gain experience.
◦ Boys learn from peers and from reading.
◦ Girls learn through accidental self-discovery.
 Heterosexual behavior
◦ Very little because of the social division of males and
females into separate groups.
◦ Children commonly hear about sexual intercourse for the
first time.

Same-gender sexual behavior:
◦ Social organization is essentially homosocial
(boys play separately from girls)
◦ Same-gender sexual activities may involve
masturbation, exhibitionism, and fondling of
other’s genitals.
◦ Many lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth report
their first experience of sexual attraction at age
10 or 11.
Dating:
 Around ages 10 or 11, children begin to spend
time in mixed-gender or heterosocial groups.
◦ The first romantic or sexual behaviors often
occur in this context.
 Dating emerges in the seventh grade.
 Romantic dyadic relationships involve a small
percentage of youth.
 In some cultures, boys and girls are married at age
13.
Masturbation:
 There is a sharp increase in the incidence of masturbation for
boys between ages 13 and 15.
 Girls also begin masturbating in adolescence, but the
increase in behavior is much more gradual and continues past
adolescence.
 Was once believe to cause everything from warts to insanity,
but current attitudes are more positive.


Same-gender behavior
◦ About 10% of college men and 6% of
college women report having had one
homosexual partner in high school.
Heterosexual behavior
◦ More and more young people engage in
heterosexual sex with more and more frequency.
◦ Over four years, there is a regular progression
from kissing, through French kissing and
fondling, to intercourse and oral-genital contact.




How many people have premarital intercourse?
◦ 70% of females
◦ 78% of males
First Intercourse - major transition with
psychological and social significance
Fewer men have premarital sex with a prostitute
than in the past.
Techniques in premarital sex include increased use
of oral-genital contact.
Attitudes toward Premarital Intercourse:

Abstinence

Permissiveness with affection

Permissiveness without affection

Double standard
◦ Wrong for males and females regardless of the circumstances.
◦ Permissible for males and females if it occurs in a stable
relationship of love, commitment, or being engaged.
◦ Permissible for males and females, regardless of emotional
commitment, simply on the basis of physical attraction.
◦ Acceptable for males but not for females.
Abstinence:
 In one recent survey, 74 percent of teens ages 15
to 17 said they had “made a conscious decision to
wait.”
 In some surveys, high intelligence is associated
with postponing intercourse and delaying other
partnered sexual activities.
 Some schools and community-based programs
campaign to persuade teens to publicly sign
virginity pledges.
Motives:
 Love
 Physical arousal and pleasure
 Peer pressure
 Women are more likely to mention love and
affection.
 Men mention physical pleasure.



Dating and going steady occurs at younger ages.
Serial monogamy - while in a relationship, the partners are
monogamous; when relationship ends, partners move on to
another partner.
Conflicts:
◦ Between restrictive sexual ethic and permissive one
◦ Between parents and children
◦ Between behaviors and attitudes or standards