Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

fondling between the ages of eleven and thirteen).
Masturbation led to orgasm.
In the following case a preadolescent girl attributes part of her
sexual “awakening” to sex dream experience.
Wild and confused dreams made me feel funny--
just as if I had to urinate. The dreams included
boys and girls kissing, and the funny feeling I
got was both distressing and exciting. I had no
idea as to what the dreams meant, but I definitely
realized that they pertained to sex.
The incidence of preadolescent sex play at particular ages, that
is, the active incidence, appears to be highest for girls in the
younger years of preadolescence rather than in the older years of preadolescence.
Some eight percent of the females in the Kinsey sample recalled
heterosexual sex play at ages five and seven, but fewer recalled
it at later years of preadolescence. Only three percent recalled that
they were having sex play just before pubescence. For most, preadolescent
play had been restricted to a single experience or to a few stray
experiences. Exceedingly few of the girls seemed to have developed any
pattern of frequent or regular sex activity. One girl for every seven
boys was having heterosexual play near the approach of adolescence; the
girls who do accept contacts at that age apparently have more than one
male partner. (Kinsey, 1953, p. 110-111).
At each age, pre-pubertal boys report more sexual activity of every
kind than do girls. (Broderick, April 1966). The marked differences
in incidence for boys and girls just prior to puberty may in part
depend on the increased restraints that are placed on girls by their
parents as they approach puberty--restraints which girls often resent
after a carefree childhood. (Martinson, 1966).
The preadolescent boy’s capacity for specific sexual responses develops
rapidly as he nears preadolescence. It is not matched by a similar
capacity in the female. The male subculture also actively advocates
sexual activity for the male. This no doubt affects the incidence of
sexual experiences among preadolescent boys. The importance of biological
over social factors in the incidence differential between preadolescent
boys and girls is difficult to measure. Broderick and Udry
(1966) among the sociologists of sex emphasize social factors; Kinsey
placed more emphasis on physical capacity.
The Generalized Other and Preadolescent Sexual Encounters
The community, peers, parents, the school, the church, and others
(referred to as the generalized other) play a larger part in sexual encounters
of preadolescents than they do for infants and young children.
One method of controlling the sexual activity of preadolescents is
to separate the sexes and keep them under surveillance. Among the
Abipone, for instance, boys and girls are strictly segregated at all
times and premarital chastity is said to have been universal. A similar
situation exists among the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Papago, and Wapisiana,
all of whom keep the sexes strictly apart from childhood. Boys and
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