Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

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love, sex, and the opposite sex. They also provide a set of learning experiences, including such obvious things as learning how to kiss, how to dance, or how to talk to a person of the opposite sex, how to fondle and caress. The process of learning these skills is often exciting and dramatic but also painful and embarrassing. Broderick and Rowe (1968) report a pyramidally structured set of stages of social heterosexual maturation. This more or less orderly pattern of progression is discernible during the preadolescent years and success or failure in each step appears to have consequences for more advanced stages of heterosexual development. 1 The steps or stages in the process of heterosexual development as delineated by Broderick and Rowe are: (1) desire to marry someone, (2) having a certain girl friend (boy friend), (3) having been in love, (4) preferring a companion of the opposite sex over a member of the same sex or no companion at all when going to a movie, and (5) having begun to date. The foundation or beginning point of subsequent progress in heterosexual relations seems to be the child’s attitude toward his own marriage. Next comes an emotional attachment to a member of the opposite sex, as evidenced in the reporting of having a special friend of the opposite sex. The next step is to confess having been in love. After that comes an expression of preference for a cross-sex companion rather than a samesex companion when going to a movie. And, finally, the most advanced for preadolescents is actually going out on a date. Each step is not an absolute prerequisite to the other, but the nature of the relationship can be indicated by the following set of comparisons: 74 percent of the ten to twelve year olds who wanted to get married some day reported a boyfriend or a girlfriend, but only 34 percent of the others did; 66 percent of those who reported having a girlfriend or boyfriend also reported having been in love, but only 19 percent of the others did so; 43 percent of those who had been in love said they would prefer a cross-sex companion at the movies but only 21 percent of the others expressed this preference; and finally 32 percent of those who would prefer a companion of the opposite sex had actually gone out on a date, while only 11 percent of the others had done so. Each of these differences was significant beyond the 0.05 level when tested by Chisquare, and the entire series met the criteria of a Guttman scale. (Broderick, 1966). Broderick found some racial differences in the pattern of heterosexual development. (Broderick, May 1965). Questionnaire data were collected from 341 black and 929 white ten through seventeen year olds living in the same urban industrial community. The most striking difference between the races occurred during the preadolescence ages of ten and thirteen. At these ages, the white children showed the traditional pattern, with girls far more romantically orientated than boys, although at about the same level in terms of heterosexual interaction. Black boys, however, did not have the heterosexual reserve of the white 1 The Broderick and Rowe sample consisted of ten to twelve year olds in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades of ten central Pennsylvania schools and 312 boys and 298 girls among grades five, six, and seven in four localities including Kansas City and surrounding area. 120
oys. They were not markedly different from black girls on any item except attitude toward marriage and, in fact, showed a higher level of heterosexual interaction at twelve and thirteen than the girls did. This high level of preadolescent heterosexual interest involvement among black boys, together with an apparent progressive disenchantment with marriage, suggests that the pattern of socio-sexual development in the black subculture may differ from the dominant white culture. There were differences in fathers’ occupations and in family structure as well, however. In sum, sociological and anthropological data cast serious doubt on the universal applicability of the concept of preadolescent sexual latency. There has been a change over the years both in the attitude of boys and girls in the United States toward heterosexual involvement and in their experiencing of it. There has been a marked change toward greater heterosexual experience of preadolescents with their peers. Studies done in the twenties and thirties report unequivocally that the percentage of friendship choices extended across the sex “barrier” dropped to near zero in about the third or fourth grade and remained there through the eighth grade, after which a slight rise was discernible. In 1930 Furfey summarized his careful and systematic observations of boy-girl relations at this age concluding that girls were rigorously excluded from participation in masculine activities. “The girl, however, does not feel the affront very keenly since she has the same negative attitude toward boys that they have toward her.” (Furfey, 1930, p. 101). Furfey noted that from the time boys were age eight to eleven years old until they reached puberty there was a strong distaste for playing with girls, and only 20 percent of the boys did so. Lehman and Witty (1927) found that from six to twelve years there was a definite tendency for one-sex play, and games at this age were sexlinked. This is not to say that there were no exceptions. Romance has always been an experience of some preadolescents. For example, Furfey described Max, a twelve year old boy, who openly and ardently declared his affection for his sweetheart. In commenting on the situation, Furfey wrote, “Although love affairs are common enough among twelve year olds in fiction, a case like Max’s is very rare in real life.” Furfey believed this devotion to a girl before adolescence to be uncommon and a distinctly precocious trait. (Furfey, 1930, p. 28). Campbell, in 1939, in describing the typical twelve to thirteen year old girl wrote, “She would not admit that a certain boy is attractive to her, though she begins to take a covert interest.” (Campbell, 1939). This picture of generally disinterested boys and covertly interested girls contrasts with the situation of recent decades. Empirical evidence reveals, as in the study by Broderick and Fowler (1961), that the majority of children in each grade claimed to have a sweetheart, and most of these expected reciprocation. Moreover, the majority of them did not keep their feelings to themselves. That these children, in fact, did discuss their romances with others is borne out by the ability of their classmates to list the sweetheart pairs in their schoolroom with considerable accuracy, especially in those cases where the relationship was reciprocal or believed by one member to be reciprocal. Hollingshead, reporting in 1949, stated that the most adventurous youngsters began to date at the age of twelve and among the thirteen 121
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INFANT AND CHILD SEXUALITY A Sociol
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About the Author Ph.D., Sociology,
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PREFACE We know very little about s
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Many persons played significant tho
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in infancy and childhood in hormone
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cause psychoanalytic theory, though
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and differentiating adults by such
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questions about his penis. He watch
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(Korner, 1973). The male infant has
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milk. Breast feeding is significant
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infant. Not only the amount but als
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According to the middle class stand
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myths about this practice. The Chil
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three hundred (one percent of the f
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Infants deprived of touch--holding,
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pervasive aspect of one’s total p
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The mother of a five year old told
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ate count as to the number who do,
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een aware that autoeroticism--eroti
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had erections when playing with gir
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they will eventually select their m
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and I can remember being scolded nu
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the arousal, but I was aroused. Chi
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was more inquisitive than sexual. B
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In both of the following cases, as
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emember to this day the nauseated f
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I remember one scene very well. He
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and he’d done it! The only penis
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of dwellings. He based his work on
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ents. Bandura and Walters conclude
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1965, p. 225). Children often contr
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shocked, told me not to do it anymo
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all children who are told to get
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cide that the child is “not old e
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little”; “they grow out of the
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that there was a “place in mommy
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tivity, and especially that which i
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His next approach was to tell me ab
Page 78 and 79: My father when undressed was a sour
Page 80 and 81: In other words, I was to avoid him,
Page 82 and 83: The general taboo on sensory-affect
Page 84 and 85: held by the eight year old. An inte
Page 86 and 87: asked each boy to rate his response
Page 88 and 89: It was not until high school that I
Page 90 and 91: fondling between the ages of eleven
Page 92 and 93: invited on an individual basis. Oft
Page 94 and 95: parents didn’t allow me to go any
Page 96 and 97: me. I repeatedly told her that I wa
Page 98 and 99: grade girl) was so embarrassed and
Page 100 and 101: societies that are considerably mor
Page 102 and 103: attempts at fellatio. Other cases i
Page 104 and 105: it. I felt a tingling all over my b
Page 106 and 107: me to look at a cunt as soon as pos
Page 108 and 109: Sex Instructions fondle me and inve
Page 110 and 111: ing. This pattern continued on to j
Page 112 and 113: long as I had started it, I could r
Page 114 and 115: As far back as I can remember my pa
Page 116 and 117: mal sex education from my father du
Page 118 and 119: with their immediate descendants. T
Page 120 and 121: fully initiated but not yet married
Page 122 and 123: nificance in the presence of childr
Page 124 and 125: sexuality nor for the quality of se
Page 126 and 127: Literature One indirect method util
Page 130 and 131: year olds in Elmtown about 15 perce
Page 132 and 133: ing attitudes, conversations, and a
Page 134 and 135: Outcomes of Preadolescent Sexual En
Page 136 and 137: Positive in love romantic really li
Page 138 and 139: anticipation, and satisfaction. Wha
Page 140 and 141: IV. A FEW WORDS OF MY OWN It is goo
Page 142 and 143: BIBLIOGRAPHY Abelson, H., Cohen, R.
Page 144 and 145: Crist, John R., “High School Dati
Page 146 and 147: Ketcher, Allan, “The Discriminati
Page 148 and 149: Newton, Niles and Michael Newton,
Page 150 and 151: Woody, Jane Divita, “Contemporary
Page 152 and 153: INDEX Ford, Clellan S., 8, 15, 49,
Page 154: INDEX in early childhood with adult
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Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

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