Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

ten percent of preadolescent boys experience their first ejaculation in
connection with heterosexual intercourse, according to Kinsey. Ramsey
reported that about one-third of his sample of middle-class boys had
attempted sexual intercourse. The incidence of heterosexual behavior
varies with socio-educational level, being least frequent with preadolescents
who eventually go to college and nearly universal among preadolescents
who receive no more than a high school education. (Kinsey,
1948, p. 312).
In the female sexual development comes on more gradually than in
the male, is generally continued over a longer period of time, and does
not reach a peak until after the boy is sexually mature. As far as
physical development per se is concerned, however, the girl begins to
mature at an earlier age, and reaches complete maturity before the boy.
(Kinsey, 1953, p. 122). The age of first menstruation ranged from 9 to
25 years of age in the Kinsey sample. There was a lapse of 8.4 months
between the appearance of pubic hair and breast development, which came
first, and first menstruation which came later. (Kinsey, 1953, p. 123-
124).
One morning in the fifth grade I noticed humps
appearing on my chest. I was amazed, scared, and
pleased all at the same time. To show how
pleased I was, I called all of my girl friends’
attention to this phenomenon and let them ‘feel’
my breasts.
Not all girls are as willing to make their physical development a
matter of group celebration, however, as the following case demonstrates.
The girls in our school were ridiculed to a certain
degree by the others if they had a bust or
wore a brassiere. I very much did not want to be
singled out and made fun of, so I tried very
hard to hide my changing figure. When my mother
bought me a brassiere while I was in the sixth
grade, I refused to wear it. Instead I wore two
undershirts and a tight slip to hide my bust.
Kinsey reports from his female sample that, all told, some twentyseven
percent recalled that they had been aroused erotically at some
time during the age of puberty. However, Kinsey is of the opinion that
the number of preadolescent girls who are ever aroused sexually must be
much higher than the record indicates. Out of the 659 females in the
sample who had experienced orgasm before they were adolescent, eightysix
percent had had their first experience through masturbating, some
seven percent had discovered it in sexual contact with other girls, two
percent in petting, and one percent in coitus with boys or older males.
Two percent had had their first orgasm in physical contact with dogs or
cats, and some two percent had first reached orgasm through other circumstances,
including climbing a rope. (Kinsey, 1953, p. 106).
At the age of twelve I (a girl) discovered masturbation
while washing myself in the bath; I’m
sure that my discovery was in great part derived
from the intimacy with my girl friend (breast
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