The sex life of the American child may be regarded as the most researched and discussed of all communities. On a parallel level, there is a growing body of cinematographic representation of American sexual liminality and transitionality (consider The Wonder Years' pilot episode for a start; first broadcasted Jan 31st 1988). "Child sexology" is sporadically recognised as a specific, yet neglected, discipline (John Money), with experts, monographs, and even a number of apparent subdisciplines. Childhood sexual behaviour is nowhere more researched numerically, statistically, and phenomenologically in whatever period of time. This, however, could well be true for most if not all aspects of (human) sexual life, at least in the latter half of the 20th century. Americans are sexologists, and they are not too embarrassed to discuss "developmental" matters as well. Most research is motivated by clear secondary agenda. The successful Child Sexual Behavior Inventory (Friedrich et al.) was obviously designed to measure behaviours "symptomatologic" of "abuse". This is illustrated by the frequency of its use in clinical research, as opposed to its application in apparent pursuits of the American "normative"[1]. Today, its diagnostic value may be uncontested, and its application in the US probably next to universal. One recalls that the "Rosenfeld studies" in the 1980s, examining a range of sexual socialisation related items, including primal scene exposure (1980)[2], cross-generational co-sleeping (1982)[3], modesty (1984)[4], touching parents' (M/P) genitals, breasts (1986)[5] and cross-generational co-bathing (1987)[6], were related to the tentative categorisation of "abuse", Rosenfeld's original agenda (e.g., 1977)[7] (cf. Lewis and Janda, 1988)[8]. Apart from a range of abuse issues (e.g., virtual child pornography), the American record accommodates a large number of other typifying issues, including early gender disturbance, the origin of homosexuality, the hardship of gay adolescence, gay teachers, routine neonatal circumcision, the social implications for "precocious" puberties (particularly following a 1997 Pediatrics article), organised as well as what is identified as "academic" advocacy for the paedophilic cause, Freud's "seduction" curriculum, parental access control to Internet available erotic representations, teenage "abstinence", what the Media are doing, etc. This adds up to a rather extensive and in fact unparalleled sexologising of childhood trajectories.

[Additional refs.: Mason, M. A. & Fass, P. (Eds., 1999) Childhood in America. New York: New York University Press. See a collection of 12 articles under the heading "sexuality" (p497-534)]

Sexual Behaviour Socialisation: Historical Notes (particularly 1930s-1980s) and the "Masturbation" Discourse [9] [up] [Contents]

Among 17th-century Maryland immigrants, some girls may have married at age twelve and averages were found of 16.5 (Carr and Walsh, 1977:p564)[10]. Demographics of the 18th century Quakers show a minimum age of fifteen, and averages over twenty (Wells and Zuckerman, 1972:p416-8)[11]. There is little record of sexual mores regarding the young of this period. "A young person growing up in colonial America learned about sexuality from two primary sources: observation within the family anf moral instruction from parent and church. […] Childhood observation of sexual activity is common in agricultural societies, and all regions remained agricultural throughout the colonial period. […] Children also learned sex in the home. The small size of colonial dwellings allowed children quite early in their lives to hear or see sexual activity among adults. […] Whatever they observed, children learned early on that sexual behavior ought to be limited to marriage" (D'Emilio and Freedman, 1988 [1989:p16-20][12]). Adolescents seemed to have ample opportunity for congress, whether it be by means of "bunding" (spending the night fully clothed) or not.

By the late 1890s, a coalition of moral and sanitary reformers stressed that "innocence is not ignorance", and a number of works on sex education appeared in that decade (Burnham, 1973[13]:p898; see also Cable, 1972 [1975:p113-23][14]). In 19th century America, the task of sexual instruction to the children, both male and female, was given to the mother. Aside from this traditional role as the transmitter of morality, the nature of instruction could be viewed as "maternal seduction" (Strong, 1973:p460-5)[15]. In the 1920s, Freudian dogma on infantile sexuality was taken its place only slowly (Steere, 1986:p762-3)[16].

Isaac Baker Brown, a gynaecologist elected president of the Medical Society in 1865, believed that hysteria and nervous complaints in women was due to masturbation and that clitoridectomy was the key to their restoration. He was eventually expelled from the society, not because of cruelty or coercion of his patients, but because he offended the society's professional norms by publishing papers in a popular journal (Scull and Favreau, 1986)[17].

Huschka (1938)[18] studied parental masturbation threats in 320 New York children referred to a general paediatrics clinic for psychiatric consultation. Of the 142 (44.4%) of the children aged 1-14 years known to have "masturbated", 73.3% of the cases were dealt with "destructively": actually punishment or severe threat. There were no exact ages at with the children were threatened. Especially illustrative are the verbatim statements (p347-52). Three contemporary studies by Hattwick et al.[19] demonstrated an interest in the handling of sex organs, and sex curiosity, in nursery school children. Macfarlane (1939)[20] also studied masturbation, stating it had "no trends with age for the preschool period", and a surplus in the first five years of "only" children versus those with siblings (p16, 20). According to a comparison by MacClenathan (1934)[21], "masturbation" ranked third most undesirable among Brooklin elementary school teachers' "undesirable modes of behaviour" (after stealing and temper outbursts)[22], seventh among mothers attending a "child-study" class, and 21st among a sample of seven unselected parents (p331-2). Yourman (1932)[23] found that New York City elementary school teachers ranked "heterosexual activity" as the foremost Grave Problem; "masturbation" ranked fifth, "obscene" notes and talk ninth, and "profanity" as nineteenth (p335). It must be reckoned that at least some adolescent boys still struggled with the "truth" of masturbation in the late 1930s (e.g., Crampton and Partridge, 1938:p70-1)[24]. A Freudian approach could even sketch a situation in which "many white Americans live[d] in the shadow of unconcious fear, anxiety, and insecurity originating from the threats and punishments of early sex training", given that "[i]nterference with the pleasurable gratification of early sex desire is the supreme trauma of childhood" (Golightly, 1947:p130)[25]. It should also be argued that for parents, not unlike their European counterparts, sex "education" was recommended only in the context of curricularisation. Thom (1927, as quoted by Hardyment, 1983:p203)[26] stated that "[s]exual instruction should be given before unnatural gratifications of this instinct have led to the formation of habits that undermine the moral stamina of the child by developing a degrading sense of inferiority". Thom would have been disappointed to take note of the Kronhausens reporting in 1960 that "[a]mong over two hundred, there were scarcely one or two students who indicated in their histories that they had received anything even faintly resembling adequate sex education in the home- or, for that matter, anywhere else […]" (p29). One way or the other, "[s]tudent after student reported that adults interfered with their early sexual explorations and that this interference was, more often than not, interpreted by the children as an emotional threat […]" (p63). The sex education given to 69 college girls was perceived less than rather adequate in some 50 girls (Ellis)[27]. Stendler (1950:p125)[28] found that "sex education" was a low priority for women's mags during 1890-1948. Renaud and Floyd (1961:p790)[29] found that "[n]o subject reported receiving what he considered an adequate orientation to sexuality, communicated in a tension-free atmosphere, from a member of his family. Most reported occasions on which the topic was broached embarrassedly, often by the mother. Ordinarily, the information was deemed inadequate, or poorly timed". The writes felt "impressed with the amount of repression or suppression concerning childhood sexual memories. Involuntary contradictions, confusion of ages, or implausible replies ("Well, I just never thought about anything like that until I was thirteen"- on a question concerning masturbation) characterized roughly one third of the interviews".

In a report by Davis and Havighurst (1946)[30], "[t]hree times as many white middle-class as compared to lower-class children are reported as masturbating. Twice as many Negro middle-class children as compared with Negro lower-class children are reported as masturbating" (p707-8). The data on both Boston and Eugene indicated that lower-class parents are significantly less permissive than middle-class contemporaries. In addition, both lower- and middle-class fathers differed significantly from their wives, "the only comparison in which there are differences both on sex of parents and social status" (Littman et al., 1957:p701)[31]. Leslie and Johnsen (1963:p924-5)[32] found that middle- and upper-class mothers could in 1949 be rated as more permissive in their concept of sex and modesty "training" than, in their eyes, their mothers in the 1930s, but the generational gain was rather small for their factual toleration of masturbation and sex play. It was less vigorously punished, though. In 1957, low rates (9%) of masturbation among children aged 5-15 were found in intact homes, versus 12% in broken homes (Russell, 1957:p126)[33].

Major studies were conducted by Sears, Maccoby and Levin (1954/1964:p274-6[34]; 1957:p176-217)[35], and Sears et al. (1965:esp. p60-1, 64-7, 74, 160-1, 189-92, 194-7, 237-8)[36]. According to the former study,

"[a] fairly large number of incidents of sex play among neighborhood children were reported and described by the mothers; among the upper-lower [class] mothers, the reaction was generally one of shock and shame, and the children were punished. Upper-middle mothers discouraged the more active forms of sex behavior, but more often by separating the children or admonishing them than by punishment, and they seemed to react with less emotional intensity" (1964:p275).

As reviewed by Bronfenbrenner (1958:p413)[37] four studies covering the period 1932-1952 found class differences in "permissiveness toward sex impulse expression", with "no suggestion of a shift over the somewhat truncated time span".

In Orchard Town, parents are careful not to allow their young children to see them having intercourse (Fisher and Fisher, 1963:p949-50)[38]. One might get the impression that preadolescent sexuality is predominantly occupied with joking and sexual discussions (p1006-8). By 1968 Spock argued: "We were all brought up to be disturbed by it [masturbation], and we can never unlearn that. We can't be comfortable with our children if they are doing things we dislike" (Hardyment, p271).

In the 1960s, mothers were embarrassed to discuss genital play of infants, denied its existence and smacked the baby for it, with very obvious class distinction (Newson and Newson, 1963 [1965:p127-32, 200-3])[39]. Punishment among the "admitters" varies from 93% in the lowest to 25% in the highest class. According to the authors' extensive discussion of sex matters (Newson and Newson, 1968:p346-86)[40], the upper class "wife of" tended to feel that guilt was unhealthy, whereas the lower class operated according to the aim to instil a sense of guilt into the child. Parents would tell boys that their sexual part would "drop off" or smack him. Overall, 48% of class V mothers would use punishments or threats to genital play, opposing a low 5% in (upper) classes I and II. An essential distinction was noted between seeing and looking of four-year-olds, this being an interesting fact considering the finding that 13% slept in the parents' room. The previous "seems to be based on the principle that it is all right for children to know about sex differences provided they are not actively aware that they know" (p375).

Westbrook (1970:p393) found that 1966-7 New York teachers rated "masturbation" and "sexual behavior with other children" (classified as "aggressive items") as 3.059 and 3.227 (resp.) on a 1 to 4 seriousness scale (ranking 4th and 8th on a list of 43 items). A 1974 study[41] of foster mothers showed "a somewhat Victorian attitude in which the child's individuality of behavior and sexual curiosity were repressed".

In recent decades a number of studies have emerged providing an insight to American parental attitudes and practices in sexual socialisation and curricularisation.

The Project of Human Sexual Development's in-depth study[42] of 1,461 parents of preadolescent children demonstrated that most sexual learning at home is informal and indirect. Although parents would like their children to be better educated about sexuality than they themselves were, the great majority are ambiguous about their own sexual values and reluctant to discuss most aspects of the subject with their children. Analysis of ten years' research revealed that another prominent influence on the young child's sexual learning, television programming, was "saturated with messages about many dimensions of sexual life". [Janus and Janus (1985)[43] found that peripubescents and teens (8-17) were increasingly exposed to explicit songs via their music culture. They found a "crucial age" of 14, with a precipitous drop in parental concern for sexual control[44].] Reporting on the 1978 study by Roberts, Kline and Gagnon, including interviews with a stratified random sample of 1,482 parents of three to eleven-year-olds, Gagnon (1985)[45] found that less than 5% of parents actually "approved" of the practice when confronted with it. A large majority "accepted" it, a smaller majority found it "all right", but less than half wanted children as adolescents to have a positive attitude toward the practice.

The above sketch of American studies can be augmented by many more formal studies[46]. Recently, Halstead and Waite (2001)[47] found that the family was the main source of sexual information for the girls, but friends and the media for the boys.

Westbrook, A. (1970) Teachers' Recognition of Problem Behavior and Referrals of Children to Pupil Personnel Services, J Educ Res 63,9: 391-4. Additional refs.: Sewell, W. H., Mussen, P. H. & Harris, Ch. W. (1955) Relationships Among Child Training Practices, Am Sociol Rev 20,2:137-48; Wormser, R. (1996) American Childhoods: Three Centuries of Youth at Risk. New York: Walker & Company. Chapter 4, "Sex and Romance"; Beisel, N. (1998) Imperiled Innocents: Anthony Comstock and Family Reproduction in Victorian America. Princeton: Princeton University Press; West, M. I. (1983) Defenders of Childhood Innocence: Reformer Responses to Children's Culture in America, 1878-1954. PhD Dissertation, Bowling Green State University [DAI-A 45/05, p1503, Nov 1984]. Swan (1980)[48] provides a short history of American sexual education practices, using DeMause's Psychogenic Modes of childhood in the West. A further brief impression was offered by Martinson (1973:p17-8)]

Consent Issues: Historical Notes [up] [Contents]

The records of the Ingham County, Michigan, courts during 1850-1950 show that the county was more concerned than most with upholding the state's underage statute in cases when there was evidence of consent (Parker, 1994)[49]. Punishment of males involved in consensual sex with underage females varied greatly depending on how well acquainted the man was with the girl and on the age of the female. Also, when girls filed complaints against multiple defendants, the men usually received lighter sentences. Ingham County's prosecution of statutory rape cases reflected the fear that young women and girls, who were viewed as less sensual than men, might become prostitutes because of early sexual experiences.

Statutory rape laws became part of the American legal system through English common law. As in England, early law-makers adopted 10 as the age of consent. During the 19th century, states gradually raised the age of consent, in some cases to 21. However, in Delaware the age of consent was seven until it was raised to 16 in 1973[50]. In 1893, the age of consent in Massachusetts was advanced by statute from ten to sixteen[51]. Seventeenth century New Haven's sodomy law, as opposed to that of New England, specifically condemned anal intercourse with a child, and vaginal penetration of a prepubertal girl, that is, "carnal knowledge of […] [the] unripe vessel of a girl" (Godbeer, 1995:p267-8)[52]. In 18th century Maryland, at common law, having sex with a girl under ten years old was considered statutory rape. It was a capital crime in Maryland until the Act Concerning Crimes and Punishments was passed in 1809. It gave judges discretion to sentence statutory rapists to either death or incarceration. The law remained unchanged until the late 1800s, when the state legislature passed laws raising the age of consent to 14, declaring the insane incapable of consent and stating that having sex with a girl under 16 was a misdemeanour. In 1899 Congress passed laws criminalising sex with chaste women between 16 and 21 in the District of Columbia and the territory of Alaska. These acts defined sex with a girl under 16 as rape, and imposed a punishment of life imprisonment if the victim was under 12, or 3-20 years in prison if she was 12-16.

As late as 1934, eleven states still upheld medieval laws of marriageability age with parental consent of 14 for boys and 12 for girls[53]. Contemporary data (Graupner, p448-50)[54] address typical ages of 14 and 16. As reported by an earlier study in on 1996 legislation, the age of consent in 28 states currently is 16 years, in most of the remaining states it was 17 or 18, although in one state it was 15 years, and in another, 14 years[55].

It is not clear how much consent laws are informed by the need for curricularisation. In a 1997 study by Miller et al. (1998)[56] among Kansas district attorneys, it appeared that fifty-three percent thought the law should not specify age differences between the partners.

[Additional refs.:]

Documents and bibliography via http://womhist.binghamton.edu/aoc/doclist.htm; Odem, M. (1995) Delinquent Daughters: Protecting and Policing Adolescent Female Sexuality in the United States, 1885-1920. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press; Lindenmeyer, K. (2000) Adolescence, Marriage, and Parenthood in the Twentieth Century U.S. Paper Presented at History of Childhood in America Conference, Washington, D.C., August 5 and 6; O'Neil, M. L. (2000) 'Act your Age!': Law, Culture and the Boundary between Child and Adult. PhD Dissertation, University of Kansas [DAI-A 61/07, p2775, Jan 2001], chapter 4: Statutory Rape: The Protection of Young, White Womanhood, p112-37; Densen-Gerber, J. & Dugan, J. R. Jr. (1989) The United States age-of-consent laws governing the sexual conduct of minors: A rationale for national uniformity; an overview of the present law; a proposal for reform, in Rosner, R. & Schwartz, H. I. (Eds.) Juvenile Psychiatry and the Law. Critical Issues in American Psychiatry and the Law, Vol. 4. New York: Plenum Press, p145-80

Gender Bias [up] [Contents]

As a good indication of the American academic approach to socialisation, Spanier (1976:p42)[57] includes five elements in what he names the "sexualisation" process: gender identity development; gender role development; sex object preference development; acquisition of sexual skills, knowledge, and values; and development of "sexual attitudes" or "disposition to behave". Apart from the at least partial confusion of the last two, it appears that the concept of "sex" is engulfed and presented by the concept of "gender"; "sex" is a relation between genders. This is very apparent in the medical and psychiatric history of homosexuality, and the intense academic interest in atypical gender development, especially in boys. To some authors, this has suggested what has been called a "latent homophobia", perhaps one of the major hidden agendas in the issue of sexual "abuse" of boys.

Childhood Sexual Behaviour and Socialisation: Quantitative Studies [up] [Contents]

A major symbolic disjuncture is bound up in the transition from the sexually innocent child to the publicly sexual teen, authors[58] argue. In any case, no obvious ritualism enters the stage of American sexual coming-of-age, and no legal transitions coincide with pubescence. If anything, transitional 'rites' in American society are currently informed by commercial interpretations of the medical-hygienic approach[59], an approach that tends to inform the negative sides of an ambivalent[60] sexology culture. This renders the chronological localisation of the "child" problematic. To limit discussions to childhood sexuality, as in the following section, then, invites a concentration on arbitrary numerics uninformed by gender (which further illustrates the concept of American puberty).

[Additional refs.: Politicizing Puberty. Discussion launched from http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/voicebox/puberty/]

Sexual Behaviour [up] [Contents]

Qualitative studies include the following subcategories: (1) so-called "normative" category, usually defined as occurring in a presumably non-sexually abused sample; (2) so-called "reactive" category; that is, sexual phenomena in relation to alleged or proven history of age disparate sexual contacts (diagnostic and prognostic behaviour inventories, doll studies, drawing studies, etc.); (3) so-called "problematic" category; that is, sexual behaviour phenomena in relation to "sexual behaviour problem" categories. At least on the second and third category, very large bibliographies can be compiled.

1. American "Normative" Sample Studies: Implications for Curricularisation [up] [Contents]

A considerable number of studies include data on childhood phase or age brackets, data to be sought in the left extreme of visual presentations and the upper extreme of tables. There appears to be a wide variation in both the investigation and presentation of age-plotted sexual behaviour.

Preliminary CSBI data were published in 1986, but the first publication recognised as such was delayed until 1991[61]. Selected data before this time include communications by Friedrich et al. (1989), and Friedrich's 1991 monograph (p78-82).

The initial CBSI results (Friedrich et al., 1991) were specific for 2-6 and 7-12 age groups. "Because of the developmental transition that occurs as a child enters school, age ranges 2 through 6 and 7 through 12 years were considered separately […]" (p459). The grand-scale updates (Friedrich et al., 1998; also Schoentjes et al., 1999) make a distinction in 3 groups: 2-5, 6-9, and 10-12. This was decided on the basis of an age-plot for all 38 items showing some increase until age 5, and, and, less obvious, drops at 5 and again at 9 (although increases exist for boys of 11, and for girls of 12). They neglect their former observation that "[d]evelopmental transitions in sexual behavior will reflect the parent's ability to observe the child", and also that "observation" may be more complex a concept that to be measured on the basis of "ability" (active, passive opportunity) solely. The school argument is likewise dropped[62].

Another illustrative case is provided by Kilpatrick (1992)[63] who used a questionnaire per primum specified for age groups 0-6, 7-10, 11-14, 15, 16, and 17 (printed in full, p148-84). It seems that age specificity becomes parabolically significant, trustworthy, memorable or interesting, yet legitimisation was not offered (p52).

1.1 YRBS: "Preteen" Coitarche [up] [Contents]

The YRBS, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, includes a question on the coitarchal age. The figures for "less than 13 years old" are 8.7 in 1990 (Q64), 11.7 in 1991(6.6% less than 12 years old; Q49), 12.1 in 1993 (6.5% less than 12 years old; Q58), 12.4% in 1995 (6.9% less than 12 years old; Q57)[64], 10.0% in 1997 (5.3% less than 12 years old; Q57), 22.1% in 1998 (ASYRBS, weighted percentages, Q57; 11.2 less than 12 years old), 8.3 in 1999 (4.4, weighted percentage, less than 12 years old; Q58).

In a state plot of 1997 figures, figures were as high as 12.5 (Baltimore females) and 39.7 (Baltimore males), which produces the highest state percentage of 24.0. Other areas with male percentages above 30 include Mississippi (34.7), Virgin Islands (41.7)[65], Detroit (36.2), and New Orleans (35.2).

In an ethnical plot of 1997 figures, 33.3% of male and 11.0% of female non-Hispanic blacks had their coitarche before age 13, as opposed to 4.6% in male and 3.2% in female non-Hispanic whites. Hispanics followed an intermediate track (11.4 for males, and 3.4 for females). The same plot for 1998 figures shows roughly the same configuration, but in considerably higher absolutes[66]. In 1999, figures are again considerably lower[67].

2. American Reactive Sexualities [up] [Contents]

Tobin (2001)[68] discussed three interrelated phenomena that in the past decade or so have swept through American early childhood education: (1) a "moral panic" about sexual abuse in preschools; (2) the prohibition of physical contact, both among children, and between children and their adult caretakers; and (3) the disappearance of psychoanalysis as a source of knowledge and a guide to good practice. Evidence is presented from the author's review of 72 years of early childhood education textbooks, showing a decline in the influence of Freud and a shift in the presentation of sexual curiosity from a normal feature of childhood to a symptom of abuse. Another source of evidence is from a study using 20 focus groups of American early childhood educators' panicky responses to scenarios depicting sexuality in preschool settings. Many use the term hysteria[69], apparently legitimate narrative from 1990 to the present.

Authors suggest the American early touch curriculum is changing its face[70], with potential pleasures of both parties "erased". This may not prove a very specific culture trait. In England (Skelton, 1991) and Australia (Sumsion, 1999), too, male teachers have come to represent a problematic factor in educational settings [Skelton, Ch. (1991) A Study of the Career Perspectives of Male Teachers of Young Children, Gender & Educ 3,3:279-89; Sumsion, J. (1999) Critical Reflections on the Experiences of a Male Early Childhood Worker, Gender & Educ 11,4:455-68].

As indicated in three tables,numeric studies that intend to investigate the change of sexual behaviour after a socially stigmatised index experience in children number, according to a personal counting in 2001, at 91 (presenting original data). Numeric studies that intend to investigate (the change of) sexual behaviour as measured after, or in relation to, index stigmatised experiences in children by the means of dolls number, according to a collateral counting, at 32. A further 22 numeric studies investigated sexual phenomena in drawing assignments, of which at least ten are situated in the context of abuse allegations. Almost all of these studies are American, the genre originates in North America, and it can be hypothesised that the few "foreign" studies are "reactive" to this genre themselves.

"Traumatic" sexual behaviour reactivity has probably been a worry for a long time, though the systematic sexological literature is still quite new, some twenty years. Before this period, there have been incidental remarks on this topic, and virtually no therapeutic suggestions, diagnostic expansion or attempts at medicalisation.

3. American Sexual Behaviour Problem Categorisation [up] [Contents]

This genre seemed to have started of with two articles published in 1988[71], and set out a sizeable number of articles, manuals and monographs on the question of categorisation of "sexually problematic behaviour". Problematic sexual behaviour in childhood has a diverse history, but "professionalised" and clinically oriented categorisation did not start without a solid motivation by "abuse experts" perhaps widening their territory. Observations by first- and second-grade teachers towards the "sexual behaviors" of their 29 kindergarten students over a 6-month period suggest that more behaviours were problematic than "normal"[72]. Of the 378 sexual behaviours that were observed, 162 were determined to be "within the normative range of children's sexual behavior"; whereas a total of 184 behaviours were identified as "problematic or potentially problematic, requiring varying levels of adult intervention, including therapeutic follow-up".

The format appears to be followed in a recent Swedish study (Långströmet al., 2002)[73], while clinical interpretations also appear in (peripheral) Dutch articles[74]. These papers illustrate the dissemination of an American ethos, as judged by their historical timing and format.

Avoidancies [up] [Contents]

1. Kinship Avoidancy in Childhood [up] [Contents]

The legal or clinical norms in onset age of perpetration covered by the term sibling incest are variable. The classification of prepubertal (sibling) incest perpetrators did not gain ground until well into the 1990s. A review of some studies on sibling incest reveals the norms in onset age of perpetration covered by the term: 13-18 (Becker et al., 1986)[75], 9-20 (Smith and Israel, 1987)[76], 12-19 (O'Brien, 1991)[77], 12-19 ("adolescence"; Worling, 1995) [78], 11-15 (Laviola, 1989)[79], 8-21 (Laviola, 1992)[80], 11-14 (Adler and Schultz, 1995)[81], and 9-15 (Carter and Van Dalen, 1998)[82]. There are few if any studies that prove a parental differential on socialiation of sibling and nonsibling sexual contacts in childhood.

In a pioneering survey[83] of 796 undergraduates at six New England colleges and universities, 15% of the females and 10% of the males reported some type of sexual experience involving a sibling. One-fourth of the experiences could be described as exploitative either because force was used or because there was a large age disparity between the partners. Reactions to the experiences were equally divided among those who considered them positive and those who considered them negative. Females were more likely than males to have been exploited and feel badly about it. Few participants of either sex ever told anyone.

Further questionnaire data were collected from 526 undergraduate college students by Greenwald (1987)[84]. Of this sample 5% reported having had only a sibling sexual encounter, 12% reported having had both a sibling and a nonsibling childhood sexual experience, 45% reported having had only a nonsibling sexual experience, and 39% reported no sexual experience with another child prior to age 13. Thirty one percent of the sibling sexual experiences involved physical contact with genitalia, however the modal experience involved showing or observing genitalia. Forty-one percent of the nonsibling childhood sexual experiences also involved genital contact. Individuals felt more negative and guilty about sibling sexual experiences, and believed them to be more immoral, uncommon, abnormal, socially unacceptable, and harmful to their partners, than did subjects with nonsibling sexual experiences, and especially so if genital contact were involved. However, negative reactions to sibling sexual experiences were moderated when subjects also had a preadolescent nonsibling sexual experience in addition to their sibling encounter. No differences were found between the sibling, nonsibling, and no experience groups on a variety of adult sexual adjustment and sexual behaviour measures.

2. "Age Avoidancy" and Preference in Childhood [up] [Contents]

Freund and Kuban (1993; Freund, 1994)[85] investigated age and gender orientation in childhood curiosity for visual nudity as an "indicator of developing erotic interest". Apart from this study, hardly anything is known about erotic age orientation development. Preadolescent age / phase patterning (i.e., in the hypothetical period of "lovemap" formation) thus remains unclear. This is a rather remarkable fact, given the enormous pile of (though mostly hypothetical) literature on erotic gender preference development[86]. The fact is even more significant in the light of the recent explosion of professionalism on the subject of sexual behaviour problem categorisation. This generally reflects the non-recognition of erotic orientations in children, although studies on erotic gender orientation development suggest a significant role for the period before pubescence.

An "evolutionary" developmental (apparently, adolescent) age preference pathway has been demonstrated for age difference tolerance (attractiveness, maximum/ minimum age differential) for dating (Kenrick et al., 1996)[87], while many studies have focussed on partner age in first intercourse. Results showed an optimum attraction of twelve-year-old males to female dating partner age of 4 to 5 years above their own (which is similar to optimum difference tolerance), with mean tolerance ranges between –1.57 to 6.0 years for ages 12 to 18, and increasing ranges with age.

3. "Sexual Avoidance" and Preference in Childhood [up] [Contents]

Data on the socialisation of same-sex sexual behaviours are rare. Berges et al. (1983:p97-8)[88] stated that "fewer parents reported setting specific limits on physical contact between same sex children than had done so for children of their opposite sex friends".

Childhood Sexual Behaviour and Socialisation: Qualitative Studies [up] [Contents]

A number of papers and monographs include the sexual histories of Americans at a descriptive level[89]. Apart from numerous dissertations[90], a descriptive study of sexual socialisation is offered in the book Children and Sex (1983)[91], based on interviews with 225 primarily middle class parents of children aged 3-11, a sample selected to include parents "of diverse philosophical positions who could grapple with our questions and articulate their responses in a coherent and thoughtful way" (xvi). The predominantly positive attitudes, for instance on "masturbation" (p116, 119, 121), may or may not be indicative of this bias.

In retrospective surveys, sexual lexicon development in children has been demonstrated to be gender biased (Gartrell and Mosbacher, 1984)[92]. Names were found to be derivative, euphemistic and pejorative. American parents have occasionally been uncovered to practice this form of curricularisation[93], but the allegation that this is a American curiosum remains to be disproved.

The sociology of childhood sexuality lists a number of classics, which demonstrate the evolution of perspectives.

0. Kinsey [up] [Contents]

The Kinsey studies (1948, 1953) were not the first American to argue on such cultural problems, as their literature study points out. It was, however, a very definite anti-American voice at the address of educators. Kinsey's grasp of childhood, however, was as hollow as his entire idea on sexuality, as demonstrated by his debatable search for childhood orgasm.

1. 1960s: Broderick [up] [Contents]

The Broderick studies[94] offered interesting material on pre- and peripubescent sociosexual patterning. Broderick set out to issue "a pyramidally structured set of stages which most preadolescent boys and girls undergo in pursuit of social heterosexual maturation" (B&R, 1968:p100). His studies were legitimised by the observation that "new patterns are emerging which promise to revolutionize boy-girl relationships at these ages" in America of the late 1950s: "We set ourselves the task of documenting the mergence of new norms in the relationships between the sexes among youth 10-13 years of age [...]. While old patterns of hostility and withdrawal are not dead, new behaviors and relationships are developing, based on a greater understanding and sharing of value orientations" (B&F, 1961:p27, 30). Broderick also ventured into America's "subcultures" demonstrating that "the pattern of socio-sexual development in the Negro subculture may differ markedly from that of the dominant culture" (B., 1965:p203).

2. 1970s: Martinson [up] [Contents]

Invaluable work has been done by Martinson (1973, 1974)[95]. Remarkably, Martinson did not initially find a publisher for his work[96], and had it printed privately. A later (1994)[97] monograph, basically a remake of the 1973 original, further included the data of a second smaller inquiry[98], while a number of articles dealt with Martinson's impressions[99].

The new data which the 1973 study offers comes from several sources: from over one thousand sex histories that Martinson collected from college students while teaching courses in human sexuality and marriage and the family, from interviews with two hundred unwed mothers receiving case work services through a large private child-care agency in the Upper Midwest, and from case material obtained in six communities. Four of the communities were in the Upper Midwest- two rural, one inner city, and one suburban. The other two communities were in the urban industrial Northeast- one an urban residential area and the other an outlying community. Allegedly, Martinson also incorporated previously unpublished data from Kinsey's interview notes on a sample of children two to five years of age.

3. 1980s: Thorne and Luria [up] [Contents]

In a many-times reprinted paper, Thorne and Luria set out to detail the schoolyard experience of sexuality and gender[100]. Selected papers before its appearance, and many after, add to this school "ethnographic" approach (see Vol. II, Appendix III for a full review). The paper is considered a pioneering classic in this genre of study.

America Compared [up] [Contents]

1. Sexual Behaviour Socialisation Compared [up] [Contents]

Ford and Beach (1951:p185-7)[101] rates "American society", probably arguing for the White middle-class population, as "clearly restrictive". Whiting and Child rated American middle class society as just below the least indulgent of the primitive societies, "but still not extremely low on the basis of the absolute estimate of the judges" (p79). The American group was judged to be rather extreme in the severity with which children were punished for masturbation, and was given the same ratings as the most extreme of the primitive sample. However, in over-all severity of sexual socialisation, it fell halfway between the median and the upper extreme of the primitive sample. A comparison of "primitive societies" with the American middle-class (p114) produced a difference in initial sexual indulgence (9.7 vs 12, resp.) but not in socialisation severity (9.1 vs 9, resp.). Frayser (1994:p209-10)[102] reviewed that American authors rate US attitudes "restrictive, particularly in regard to children's sexual behavior". So much so, parental repression would endanger the child (Finkelhor, 1980)[103] by making them "more vulnerable". However, Frayser (1985:p361-422)[104] had earlier argued that repression is an obsolete designation better suited for 19th-century attitudes.

Three pre-1970 studies that compare sexual socialisation "severity" with Asian (Chinese), European (Switserland) and Latin American (Puerto Rican) samples suggest that U.S. attitudes have been more liberal.

Scofield and Chin-Wan (1960)[105] found that oral, sex, dependence and aggression training are all more severe for Chinese generally than for Americans, the exception being toilet training. Compared to immigrant Chinese, Euro-Americans are more accepting of nudity[106]. Jarecki (1961a;b)[107] asked 2 groups of 40 mothers in the United States and in Switzerland about stuttering, weaning, masturbation (p348, 350-1), lying, and bed wetting. There were significant differences in attitudes. Swiss mothers placed more stress on heredity and poor upbringing, and were more strict in demanding mature behaviour. Swiss mothers seem to view their children quite early as "little adults", while American mothers see them as "kids" and allow them to behave like children much longer. The difference on masturbation attitudes, however, is much smaller than the other themes, in fact smallest and nonsignificant. 60.0% of Swiss and 57.1% of American parents described psychic[108] and some 20% in both samples described physical damage as a result of the practice. Some 15% in both samples referred to moral and social laws, and only 5% in both samples did not see any danger. In a comparison of data on the US[109] with Puerto Rico, pressure for modesty rules, restrictiveness against masturbation and against mutual sex play were significantly higher for the Puerto Rico sample (Landy, 1959 [1965:p201-2])[110].

Qualitative accounts seem to confirm these findings.

In contrast to in America, the masturbation of a small boy makes French mothers, "[…] and sometimes fathers, uneasy; it is actively combated" (Dolto)[111].

Later qualitative accounts, however, offer a mixed, predominantly contrasting view.

Ribal (1973)[112] studied 36 case studies written by American, Swedish and Danish college students about sexual learning and development during childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, with comments by a student from the other culture. Using this material, Straver (1986:esp. p28-70)[113] compares the North American and Scandinavian case from an interactionist perspective (Vol.II, §1.1.3.3). Martinson (1994)[114], having published his original material at the time of Ribal's work, cites Hagerfors [?], who

"[…] speaking about sex activity in a Swedish nursery, complained that the children sometimes closed themselves in the private area, an area provided for children in Swedish nurseries, engaged in sex play, and talked only about sex. The staff told the parents what was going on but otherwise played no part in it except to say something like, "Stop harping on that, now we are going to do something else; we don't want to hear any more about penises". Scandinavian children generally are more sexually knowledgeable than American children; they are not necessarily more or less likely to engage in sex play, but the type of play reflects their greater knowledge. That young children are sexual and can be expected to engage in some sexual activity is more accepted in Scandinavia than in the United States. […] Behavior that I found was still treated as child sex play in Scandinavia, at least up until 1984 (Aigner and Centerwall 1984)[[115]], was treated as perpetrator-victim behavior in the United States".

Brougere and Tobin (2000)[116] claim that "there is a radically different conception between the American and French interpretation of sexual behavior patterns expressed in games between children in nursery schools. In the US, statistics principally focus on medical interpretations and sexual abuse, and engender panic-stricken moral questions on that score. French nursery school teachers are much more willing to use hard-won teaching methods and avoid mentioning the theme of sexuality with children under their responsibility". The authors attempt to understand the cultural ideology and reasoning for each nursery school system from his analysis of interviews of groups of children who had to perform playlets.

2. Childhood Sexual Behaviour Compared [up] [Contents]

Schematic comparisons of pre-Kinsey data are offered by Harvey (1932, 1935)[117]. As a first specific and mature attempt to delineate boy's normative sexual development, Ramsey (1943a,b; 1950)[118] collected 291 complete sex histories, as obtained by the author in personal interview. Ages included 10 to 20 years, 85% 12 to 16. He presents figures of preadolescent sex play, preadolescent intercourse, etc. Finger (1947) questioned 111 male college students aged 17 to 23 about their "firsts" of masturbation, and hetero- and homosexual experiences. "Kinsey" data are compared for subgroups (Van Wyk and Geist, 1984)[119] and trends (Reiss, 1961)[120], with 1943 data by Ramsey (Broderick, 1966)[121], with Japanese data by Asayama (Asayama, 1957a,b)[122], with data by Klausner (1961)[123], with data by Rennert (1966, 1967)[124], with data by Reng and Schoof (Reng, 1968)[125], with data from a number of studies (Fröhlich and Szewcyk, 1970)[126], with 1978 data by Bell and Weinberg (Weinberg & Williams, 1980)[127], with 1985 data by Wyatt (Wyatt, Peters and Guthrie, 1988a,b)[128].

Goldman and Goldman's landmark cross-national study compared data on sexual sophistication (1981)[129] in Australian, English, North-American and Swedish 5-15-year olds, but neglected sexual behaviour categories. American data are compared with non-American data statistically on only two occasions (Friedrich, Sandfort, Oostveen and Cohen-Kettenis, 2000; Larsson, Svedin and Friedrich, 2000)[130]. CSBI scores on non-American children are available only on Dutch[131], Belgian[132] and Swedish[133] children. American children are found to be observed less frequently to behave sexually. This appears to be a pancurricular theme. Luckey and Nass (1969)[134], for instance, found that rates of reported sexual behaviour are lowest among North American subjects, coupled with the fact that North American subjects more strongly believed a satisfying life included marriage and prefer coital partners to be marital partners.

Whitam and Mathy (1986:p44-52)[135] provide some indication of sexual development (attraction in childhood sex play, gender of first sexual contact, age of first sexual contact, age of first sexual attraction, age of realisation of sexual orientation) among Brazilian, as compared to Guatemalan, Philippino and North American, hetero- and homosexuals.

Sexual Curriculum Rigidity [up] [Contents]

Child-rearing books and manuals from the early twentieth century indicate that pediatricians and developmental psychologists were prone to divide the life course of children into increasingly precise chronometrical stages (LaRossa and Reitzes, 2001). Gesell and Ilg's[136] classic work on child development indeed addressed the sex topic with considerable confidence. They presented developmental behavioural pathways relative to sexual compartments precise on 4 weeks (1943:p324-6), and 1 year (1946:p322-5;1956:p287-9), respectively. With the arrival of CSBI, this rigid scheduling attitude seems rather invariable over the decades. Americans apparently are used to "experts" telling them what will happen in their "normal" child, preferably to the precise minute. A late survey by Michael et al. (1994)[137] almost entirely neglects childhood in discussing "sex in America" (first ranking index entries are abuse, AIDS, and drugs), diagrams being cut off at age 12.

[LaRossa, R. & Reitzes, D. C. (2001) Two? Two and One-Half? Thirty Months? Chronometrical Childhood in Early Twentieth Century America, Sociological Forum 16,3:385-407]

Immigrant Patterns of Adolescent Courtship: Americanisation of Sexual Curricula [up] [Contents]

America may be hypothesized as a "melting pot" of sexual socialisation cultures. This is well documented for the adolescent case, and with a coitocentric perspective. Less well known are subcultural differences in approaches of the "childhood" case. The erosion and conservatism in initiatory courtship patterns among first, second and third degree immigrant families has been the matter of some study, revealing a culturally diversion in acculturation difficulties between parental and adolescent.

Some Cross-Cultural Studies: A Clue to American Childhood Sexualities [up] [Contents]

In a study by Abramson and Imai-Marquez (1982)[138], sex play was a part of a multi-item Inventory of "sex guilt" studied among Japanese-Americans (p231), but no statements are made regarding this specific measure. Abramson et al. (1983)[139] compared Mexican-American, Black American, Cacasian American and Japanese-American attitudes and experiences on childhood (age 1-10) sexual education. Although a few cross-cultural effects remained significant despite the influence of a covariate, most of the findings were biased by a concomitant (i.e., demographic).

Harman and Johnson (1995)[140] questioned 17 Asian, 85 African American, 301 Caucasian, and 71 Hispanic undergraduates regarding the age at which they understood what sexual intercourse was and who told them. Caucasians became aware of sex at the earliest age (mean age 11.16 yrs), followed by African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians, respectively. All groups indicated that (1) friends were the most frequent source of information regarding sex; (2) they wanted themselves, as parents, to be the primary sex educators for their children; (3) they would begin their children's sex education earlier; and (4) they would give their sons and daughters differing information regarding sex.

0. Mormons [up] [Contents] [Index]

Whiting et al. (1966/1974:p169-70, 182)[141] argued that Mormons keep the most rigid control over courtship [compared to Zuni and Texan patterns]. "Dancing is favored and even kissing games are sponsored by adults, but there is a strong feeling that all cross-sex interaction should occur in the presence of the parental generation". There is some unchaperoned dating from age 14 or 15.

1. African Americans [up] [Contents] [Index]

1.1 Sexual Climate [up] [Contents] [African Americans] [Index]

Childers (1936)[142] found that negro children of the lower class exceptionally free from constraint in relating details of their sex lives. Living in homes where both parents work, they began sex play as they do any other game of spontaneous origin, frequently at 5 or 6 years of age. A black American slum mother remarked:

"These kids grow up fast in this project. The five and six year olds heifers [girls] know as much about screwing as I do. My six year old boy has already punched [had intercourse with] two or three of these fast chicks and I'm teaching my four year old boy how to be a lady killer too. I can't hide the facts of life from them because they can see them every day on any stairway, hall, or elevator in the project" (Hammond and Ladner, 1969:p43-4[143]; also quoted in Rainwater, 1970 [1973:p349])[144].

It should be noted that this attitude is in sharp contrast to communications by Radin and Kamii (1965:p143)[145] on lower-class Negro mothers. They are said to be "very disturbed by any evidence of sexuality and aggressiveness in their children and want to suppress it whenever it appears". Bender (1939:p224-5)[146] found somewhat more reserve to talk about sexual subjects; she found "no preference for heterosexual experiences or feelings of taboo against so-called perversions. Where their sex life was really unrestrained it was allosexual. Many Negro children suffered from guilt over masturbation and castration fears and hysterical attitudes towards sexual urges and other mechanisms in relation to their sex life in no way dissimilar to those of white children".

The Chicago slum experience was described in a first hand account by Yates (1978:p93-9)[147]:

"Erotic activities in the hallway were an intriguing substitute for toys. […] Children soon learned to stimulate themselves and others. One enterprising four-year-old was observed proficiently penetrating his five-year-old sister. Others wriggled atop one another, groaning and grunting in succinct imitation. Descriptive words were used, most often incorrectly. When I questioned one boy about a term he used while pummeling another, he was puzzled and then happily described it as "mother's dirty butt." Once children entered school, they were exposed to the mysteries and the perils of the alley. […] Sex play was a pallid term for what existed in the alley. Coitus commenced as early as age four, although ejaculation was generally absent until after age ten. Most young girls returned home directly after school, observing their mothers' admonitions and their own better judgement. A few ran with the boys, buying protection and acceptance in the gang through sex. […] The sex act itself was brief, at best a barter, at worst a rape. […] In the slum sex and anger are companions from earliest childhood. The toddler observes its mother used, abused, and abandoned by her consorts. Occasionally she abuses her mate. The child himself is the recipient of abrupt physical punishment and is abandoned daily in the hallway. Once there, he is subjected to a series of sexual and aggressive assaults, until with growth, he becomes the master of the corridor. The microcosm of the hallway later becomes the macrocosm of the alley".

Thus, "[p]readolescent sexuality [coitus] among urban, minority youth is considered within a normative developmental context"[148].

1.2 Dozens[149] [up] [Contents] [African Americans] [Index]

Formerly, children of both sexes would be exposed to what is referred to as the Dozens[150], and would get their opportunities to practice at this type of "folklore" at an early age. Schulz remarks:

"The Dozens […] functions to inform both sexes of some of the aspects of sexuality at an early age. These verbal contests acquaint children with many details of sexuality, often before they are otherwise aware of them. They are a kind of primer imparting information about the sex act, sexual deviance, sexual anatomy, and mores which serve as basic guidelines for children who are exposed to sexuality early and completely without being reared in a home where the matters of sex are commonly talked about".

According to a study by Walker (1945)[151] on 52 unwed Negro mothers, the time of acquaintance with sex is a pre-adolescent event. Nonetheless, on the basis of clinical experience in New York, Kardiner and Ovesey (1962[152]:p68-9, as cited by Bernard, 1966[153]:p138) found that

"[i]n the lower class, the overt teachings about sex are Victorian for both males and females. However, although sex taboos are universally taught, explicitly or implicitly, it is rare they are enforced with beatings […] The sexual education of the lower-class female is a bit more thorough. She is generally taught Victorian morality […] Shame is invoked as the chief sanction. Later, the emphasis is more that sex should be associated with love […] In the middle-class […] there is more freedom […] in discussing sex with parents, and […] few instances of intimidation […] The middle-class female is much like her white sister [sic]. Sex education is rigidly puritanical […] and sex as an expression of love is highly stressed. The same is true of continence as a virtue. There is, however, little terrorization".

1.3 Sexual Behaviour [up] [Contents] [African Americans] [Index]

Schulz (1969)[154] states that boys were earlier engaged in homosexuality than girls, but the reverse in the case of heterosexuality (p69). The girl obtains sexual information from peers, sibs and parents, and "does not enter the sexual arena defenceless". Rather violent sex play is "a common, overt theme. Sex is regarded as natural, and as long as it is done with some discretion (that is, not in plain view of adults) little is done to guide its progression. […] Sex is not discussed in the homes. Most boys and girls discover for themselves, and discuss their discoveries with their close friends, the girls quite frequently with older sisters. As a result, there is little understanding about sexual matters despite great practical experience" (p46). Girls are said to "please" their boyfriends with intercourse when entering high school. The average age at which respondents indicated they thought youth begin heterosexual relations was 14.2. The data for homosexual relations were 15.7, playing the dozens: 10.8; kissing and (being) felt up: 12.9; and an active or passive role in pregnancy: 15.8 (1966 data by Stromberg, as adapted by Schulz, p66).

Johnson (1941:p224-41)[155] discusses at length the sexual coming of age of blacks as indicated by interviews. For the "folk Negro", "[s]ex play in some instances began young- as early as 7 and 8. Sometimes the children were imitating an older couple. In some instances they were of different ages and the older child would be the initiator. The age most frequently mentioned for beginning this sex play were 12 to 14. […] The older boys refer to sex experiences beginning at the age of 12 or younger. Sex play between children of 6 to 8 is not uncommon, and active relations may occur at 12 or 13". In Middle-class youth, "there is considerable sex play, but there is also more recognition of the social censure of this behavior and increased fear of social consequences". Among the upper-class girls, "active sex experience usually does not occur before marriage"."

"Boys acquire sex information principally from the talk of contemporaries and older boys. Most of them are unable to recall exactly how sex information was acquired. In a few cases information was supplemented by books or instruction in school. […] Girls in families that are more stable and advanced culturally are usually warned by parents against having sex relations. Mothers usually give the girls instructions on the care of themselves during menstruation". This picture is confirmed by autobiographies (e.g., Williams, 1985:p223, 228)[156].

According to a study on 300 African-American 9 to 15-year-olds (Romer, Black et al., 1994)[157], 13.6% of girls indicated having had "sex" at age 12, opposing a figure of 63.2% (!) for boys. 25% of nine-year-old boys claimed the same, and by the age of 15, all of them did. In a second study (Romer, Stanton et al., 1999)[158] figures are slightly lower.

1.x Selected Additional References [up] [Contents] [African Americans] [Index]

¨ Abney, V. D. (1995) African Americans and sexual child abuse in Fontes, L. A. (Ed.) Sexual Abuse in Nine North American Cultures: Treatment and Prevention. Thousand Oaks, CA, US: Sage Publications, Inc; Thousand Oaks, CA, US: Sage Publications, Inc., p11-30

¨ Broderick, C. (1965) Social heterosexual development among urban Negroes and whites, J Marriage & Fam 27, May:200-3

¨ Brown, C. (1965) Manchild in the Promised Land. New York: the Macmillan Company

¨ Brown, Th. E. (1969) Sex Education and Life in the Black Ghetto, Religious Educ 64,6:450-8

¨ Clarck, K. (1965) Dark Ghetto. New York: Harper & Row, p71

¨ Destro, B. C. (1992) An evaluation of the effect of a comprehensive education program on the self-concept, future orientation, and decision to postpone sexual activity of pre-adolescent girls, DAI 52(9-A):3431

¨ Davis, A. (1939) The Socialization of the American Negro Child and Adolescent, J Negro Educ 8,3:264-74

¨ Fang, X., Stanton, B. et al. (1996) Similarity of risk and protective behaviors among African-American pre- and early adolescent members of naturally occurring friendship groups, Bull N.Y. Acad Med 73,2:285-300

¨ Hogan, D., Kitagawa, E. et al. (1985) The impact of social status, family structure and neighborhood on the fertility of black adolescents, Am J Sociol 90:825-34

¨ McComb, E. (1999) Sexuality Communication Patterns in Rural, African American Families: An Examination of Parents' Sexual Attitudes and Values and Childhood Sexuality Socialization. M. S. Thesis, University of Georgia

¨ Nelsen, E. A. & Vangen, P. M. (1971a) Impact of Father Absence on Heterosexual Behaviors and Social Development of Preadolescent Girls in a Ghetto Environment. Paper presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Convention, Washington, D.C., September

¨ Nelsen, E. A. & Vangen, P. M. (1971b) The impact of father absence upon heterosexual behaviors and social development of preadolescent girls in a ghetto environment, Proc Ann Convention Am Psychol Assoc 6,Pt. 1:165-6

¨ Smith, E. & Udry, J. (1985) Coital and non-coital sexual behaviors of white and black adolescents, Am J Publ Health 75,10: 1200-3

¨ Stanton, B., Li, X. et al. (1994a) Anal intercourse among preadolescent and early adolescent low-income urban African-Americans, Arch Ped & Adol Med 148,11: 1201-4

¨ Stanton, B., Li, X. et al. (1994b) Sexual practices and intentions among preadolescent and early adolescent low-income urban African-Americans, J Pediatrics 93:966-73

¨ Stanton, B., Romer, D. et al. (1993) Early initiation of sex and its lack of association with risk behaviors among adolescent African-Americans, Pediatrics 92,1:13-9

¨ Ward, L. M. & Wyatt, G. E. (1994) The effects of childhood sexual messages on African-American and white womens's adolescent sexual behavior, Psychol Women Quart 18,2:183-201

¨ Staples, R. & Johnson, L. B. (1993) Black Families at the Crossroads. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers

¨ Westney, O. E., Jenkins, R. R., Butts, J. D. & Williams, L. (1984) Sexual development and behavior black preadolescents, Adolescence 19,75:557-68

¨ Wyatt, G., Peters, S. & Guthrie, D. (1988) Kinsey revisited, Part II: Comparisons of the sexual socialization and sexual behavior of black women over 33 years, Arch Sex Behav 17,4:289-332

¨ Zabin, L. S., Smith, E. A. & Hirsch, M. B. (1986) Ages of physical maturation and first intercourse in black teenage males and females, Demography 23,4:595-605

2. Cuban Americans (eHRAF) (®Cuba) [up] [Contents] [Index]

Girls' puberty was symbolised by a dance feast, at which, traditionally, it was the mother's duty to instruct her daughter about sex (Boone, 1989:p151-2)[159]. However: "In this case, the mother and daughter both laughed at this custom, as it seems never to have been followed". Boone:

"Cuban women's views of sex are in general quite positive. It is not a topic that they dwell on, but neither is it a topic they avoid except with their daughters. Second generation women complain that their mothers gave them little or no information either before or at the time of their marriages. For females, sexuality is not supposed to exist until marriage. For males, it is a sign of masculinity before and after marriage. From all available information, it appears that Cuban women are virgins at the time of marriage, or, if not, have had very limited experience, often only with their fiancés. There is some evidence that this varies by race and class among Washington Cubans, although virginity at marriage is maintained as an ideal among all Cubans".

One woman pointed out : "Without pre-marital sexual restraint, a woman is unfit for a good marriage. I don't like freedom. One of the best things in life for a woman is marriage. You couldn't get married in Cuba if you were too free. You wouldn't be the right person to be the mother of his children".

"The perpetuation of courtship customs is the result of two very strong and traditional belief systems. First, the idea persists that single encounters between boys and girls "who are not mature" invites irresponsible behavior on the part of the girls. Sexual advances on the part of young men are not considered irresponsible as much as they are "naturally mischievous". This does not diminish the concern of the parents, however. Since chastity before marriage for girls is still a mark of family responsibility, if not status, it is highly prized by both males and females. From all accounts, it is not simply an ideal but a reality. Sexual instruction is minimal, although second generation mothers feel some need to be more informative. Sexuality is a matter that mothers traditionally refrain from discussing with their daughters. The eventual husband of the girl, because he is still usually older and supposedly more experienced, is expected to provide all the instruction needed. This is true mainly of heterosexual relations, as most mothers are quite sympathetic and somewhat more informative about menstruation and body development. Discussion of sexual matters is thought to invite experimentation, as is single dating. A belief in male predation persists, and mothers are concerned about their children of both sexes. Cuban women were accustomed to much more stringent supervision by relatives, maids, and school officials in Cuba. In addition, the neighborhood itself functioned as a chaperone as well as a general guardian. In America, Cuban mothers fear their children walking distances to bus stops, or being alone anywhere outside the household" (p191-2).

García (1996)[160] argeed that "[a]ttitudes toward sexuality remain as rigid as they did in Cuba".

3. North American Hasidic Jews (®Middle East) [up] [Contents] [Index]

Jews are known to have been more harsh, at least less "rational" in their attitude to masturbation[161].

These Jews have been located among the most sexually "repressive" in the world. "Since the sexes have been separated since childhood the anticipated sexual encounter following the marriage ceremony is a matter of great moment and anxiety" (Mintz, 1992:p64)[162]. "Ideally, neither men nor women have any sexual experience before marriage; because this area is rarely ever discussed, however, little information on the subject exists. On the Shabbes some Rebbes often obliquely caution parents to guard their children from committing the sin of masturbation. […] The Hasidic girl is carefully shielded from boys from her early years until her marriage. Matters relating to sex are never discussed. There is no preparation for the bodily changes that take place at puberty, nor is there much exchange between mother and daughter concerning marital relations" (Mintz, 1968)[163]. Still, young couples "are warned that the performance of the sexual act must be in the line of duty along with other religious observances, but at no time should it serve as an "abominable deed of passion and lust" (Poll, 1962:p56)[164]. Rubin (1972)[165] states:

"Both bride and groom have received instruction from their respective parent of the same sex regarding sexual experience, in spite of the fact that parents assume their youngsters to have acquired the necessary information from reading and hush-hush conversation with peers. […] Available evidence indicates little if any indulgence in masturbation, though transgression does not seem to meet with severe sanctions beyond strong disapproval or slight slapping of the offender's hands. Similar behavior was observed with regard to heterosexual play, except that in this case control is accomplished by strict separation of the sexes, both within and outside the home, a separation that begins almost at birth [p126-7]. […] Boys are gradually introduced to the subject of sex in school, where, accompanied by a degree of embarrassment, they encounter it in the Bible, the Talmud, and the law codes. Girls, on the other hand, are formally kept ignorant until immediately before marriage".

Against all odds, the author found "traces of autoerotic behavior among boys between puberty and marriage, but it is impossible to even guess at its extent".

Thus, there appear to be few if any data on children's sexual experiences.

[Additional refs.: Featherman (1995)[166]]

4. Arab Americans (®Arabs) (eHRAF) [up] [Contents] [Index]

Sources state the changing of courtship routines to American form, including relaxation of familial mate selection, interracial avoidance and escortage (Elkholy, 1966; Cainkar, 1991:p305)[167].

Abu-Laban (1980)[168]:

"For Canadians of Arab origin, both Christians and Muslims, the traditional ethnic pattern of mate selection stands in sharp contrast to the usual Canadian practices. For example, in Arab families, the power and influence of the larger family unit is dramatized through the continued existence of the institution of arranged marriage. Usually the choice of spouse is not left to the whims of individual decision or romantic love, but instead is a decision made (sometimes arbitrarily) by parents and other senior family members, particularly males. Traditionally, prospective partners would not have been consulted regarding their own preferences. For a young woman to have indicated a preference, or even worse an attraction, to a particular man, would have been a violation of the modesty code which demanded strict segregation of the unmarried female from either knowledge of or observation by eligible males. Such seclusion, previously symbolized by the veil, particularly among Muslims, meant that dating and courtship, as known in Canada, were virtually non-existent".

Jabbra (1991)[169] notes the same:

"Despite the continued importance of the household as an agency of socialization for children, it takes its place alongside other agencies: schools, peer groups, and the mass media. Conflicts emerge between children (particularly daughters) and parents over issues of symbolic and material importance: dating, courtship, and marriage; autonomy and independence".

5. Italian Americans, Canadians (®Italy) (eHRAF) [up] [Contents] [Index]

The strict regulations of female premarital life are noted by Yans-McLaughlin (1943)[170]:

"The male family members were responsible for protecting female chastity and a woman's desirability as a future wife[171]; indeed, the family honor stood invested in a girl's virginity. Usually women did not leave their homes unchaperoned. A woman's behavior reflected both her moral character and her family's prestige—brutal vendettas followed insults to her. The strict surveillance continued through the courtship period, so that husband and wife found themselves alone for the first time on their wedding night"[172].

Later, Alba (1985)[173] was to note:

"The shift in the position of women and the structural forces producing it are most visible in relation to courtship and marriage. The control exercised in southern Italy by parents, and the family generally, over the marriages of their children hinged on greater knowledge of the field of eligibles. But this was a knowledge acquired over many years in a fairly static village, with a stable complement of families, and it largely disappeared in the new setting. Parents who attempted to maintain the same control in an American city placed their daughters in a difficult position, as this plaintive description by one second-generation Italian-American woman reveals: "Our parents think you can just sit home and wait for a man to come asking for your hand—like a small town in Italy". She added a remedy that made sense only in the American environment, "They don't realize that here a girl has got to get out and do something about it"[174]. Many apparently did do something about it, slipping away without their parents' knowledge to go to dances or meet men. But still there was a lot of confusion over the proper limits on the behavior of young women. Some were allowed great freedom, others were kept at home as they would have been in southern Italy, and the situations of the majority were in between these two extremes. There were even variations within the same family, as the struggle between the generations was most intense for the oldest daughters, and parental resistance often abated for the younger sisters[175]".

A comparative pattern was noted for Italian Canadians (Icovetta, 1993)[176].

6. North American Armenians (eHRAF) [up] [Contents] [Index]

According to Wallis (1965)[177], the native pattern of courtship was nihil. "There is no courtship, the marriage being arranged by the parents of the boy and girl. It usually takes place at an early age" (p22-3). Little had apparently changed in Fresno, California: "The custom of betrothal by parents, common in Armenia, is still practised in modified form here. There is little courtship among boys and girls, who associate but little, and are usually married at an early age, the girls frequently at the age of sixteen. Even at the high school boys associate practically not at all with girls and such association is generally discouraged by parents as undesirable".

7. North American Hmong (®Hmong) (eHRAF) [up] [Contents] [Index]

Scott (1986)[178] gives an account of Hmong courtship:

"The prospective partners were usually relatively young, the girl being around fourteen and the boy, around eighteen. The formal marriage procedure was initiated by the boy's father and older married brothers, or, if they were not available, by other closely related male agnates, who would make a formal request in his behalf to the prospective bride's parents. In most cases, the girl had already given the boy her consent during a clandestine courtship, which usually involved sexual relations. These liasons, if not openly condoned, were expected and even tacitly accepted as a means of ensuring happy marriages, as long as they were kept out of public view, and especially out of that of the girl's parents and older brothers" ([p79-80]).

It also includes songs: "Hmong learn to sing the songs by watching and imitating the other Hmong who know them. The songs are related to courtship. One Hmong interviewed said, "When a boy sings a song to a girl, she feels happy and sings it back to him. When he hears her sing it back to him he is very happy. He will again sing the song to the girl. They can sing the song all day long" " (Ukapatayasakul, 1983)[179]. Word has it that the cultural transmission of these songs is eroding in America: "Over the last couple of years, I have heard complaints from elders that the young people don't know the love songs anymore. They don't know the appropriate courtship, marriage and funeral songs" (Weinstein-Shr, 1987:[p117])[180].

Donnelly (1994)[181] has made a careful analysis of Hmong courtship in terra ignota, Seattle, Washington. Traditionally,

"In Laos, getting married for the first time generally involved courting, choosing a mate, and an elopement (called catch-hand marriage) with the girl staying at the boy's house for three days; or alternatively the boy making a formal request to the girl's family, raising the bride wealth, contract negotiations" (p114).

After resettlement, adaptations were, in one way, practical:

"The new American environment clearly produces many stylistic changes in Hmong courtship. A boy can no longer softly play the mouth harp outside the house wall where a girl lies sleeping, because apartment walls are made of solid materials, not woven bamboo or unchinked boards. He cannot get her attention inconspicuously at night, nor can he slip into the house to wake her as before, because now the door is locked—so elopements no longer start from home as they traditionally did. Girls' Hmong-style costumes (worn mainly now at New Year celebrations) may be bought or partly bought, so the quality of workmanship no longer necessarily expresses the diligence and skill of the girl. The youth's automobile has become a vital tool of courtship".

Other peculiarities are more structural:

"In America, the Hmong adolescents I knew did not go out on dates. A girl may go with her friends to watch a soccer game if a particular boy is playing (as I saw in Seattle), or a boy may spend a lot of time visiting relatives on his mother's side if a particular girl lives there (as I saw in the Midwest). Usually, in the presence of family members, neither speaks to the other out of the ordinary way. Signals of mutual attraction between these eligible Hmong adolescents are still hidden from the older generation, or if parents observe such signs, it is still considered very bad form to take notice, as it was in Laos. This reserve between generations helps put a face of free choice on courtship, but also made it hard to observe. […] Direct courtship (that is, conversations and touching) still appeared to last typically only a few days, with the boy initiating the contact. Before talking seriously to the girl, he still might go to his older male relatives, who would feel obliged to help him pay the bride wealth (nge mis). This contribution let them influence his choice, but they would not feel they could definitively reject any girl. This was unlike the situation in Laos, where many fathers had more power, especially since boys married before they were capable of supporting a family".

Schooling has an impact on traditional definitions of social maturity:

"Besides a lack of direct observation, another problem is that the practices of Hmong courtship are changing very rapidly, especially as young Hmong stay unmarried long enough to enter college, and educated girls make plans for careers. Even so, I can suggest one immediate structural change, following upon the observation that while Hmong girls attended American schools, educated girls quickly fell into disfavor as wives, since traditional parents wanted obedient daughters-in-law and urged their sons to choose compliant girls (often fitting their own preferences). This immediately widened the age gap between males who often waited to finish community college before marrying and girls who wed before finishing high school. Most Hmong girls in America are married by age sixteen—in one study of Hmong in San Diego, all were married by this age (Rumbaut and Weeks, 1986:p438)[[182]]. Many Hmong still define social maturity for girls in terms of passing puberty, but education is entering the definition of maturity for boys".

Lynch (1996:p260)[183]:

"The youthful focus of the New Year is primarily due to its importance as a courtship arena. The New Year in Laos was the time of year when families gathered together to bring young people into contact with potential mates from other villages. In the American context, courtship is still a primary function of the celebration. The courtship ritual ball toss game [[184]] played at the New Year in Laos is still played in the United States and provides a way for young people to get acquainted. As a ball is tossed back and forth, young girls and boys get to know each other. In Laos they sang a style of call and response poetry. While this is still sometimes practiced in the United States, many of the young people no longer know how to do it" (cf., Lynch, 1995:p116-7)[185].

One reporter states that Hmong parents blame the occurrence of early marriages on the American ideals of freedom and independence; opportunities provided by schools for young people to meet; sex education; television and peer example (Hammond 1988)[186]. However, "[r]ather than seeing these factors as encouraging early marriage per se, other Hmong justify seeking young brides as a way of protecting young women from these influences. One opinion frequently offered by concerned young men cites several instances in which wives have left their husbands and families for a new life with an American man; they feel that working outside the home and too much education make women too independent. It's better to marry a girl while she's still young and innocent, so you can teach her to think correctly" (Peterson, 1990:[p160])[187].

8. Serbian Americans (®Serbs) (eHRAF) [up] [Contents] [Index]

Simic (1983)[188] notes:

"Perhaps one of the areas of most acute conflict between Serbian immigrants and their children was that of courtship, sexuality, and marriage. On the one hand, parents attempted to exert influence on the selection of a mate and to impose what were by American standards strict codes of sexual morality; while on the other, their children were often attracted by the freedom American young people enjoyed to openly associate with the opposite sex and to choose their own marriage partners. For example, among the narratives collected from American-born Serbs in California a number of middle-aged female informants reported that they had experienced almost complete chaperonage until marriage, while others related that they had led "double lives", with one standard for Serbian contexts and another for American" (p30-1)[189].

9. Chinese Americans, Canadians (®China) (eHRAF) [up] [Contents] [Index]

Glick (1980:p177)[190] noted:

"Marriages between Hawaii-reared Chinese girls and Chinese migrants in Hawaii also helped to forge bonds within the migrant community. Many of these marriages were "matched", often as the girl was reaching late adolescence, by a go-between who also assisted in the marital arrangements and acted as a sponsor of the marriage. This type of marriage was an approximation of traditional village customs --there was nothing like a Western courtship and the bride and groom saw little of one another before the wedding".

However, Hoe (1976)[191] mentioned on Chinese Canadians:

"Under Western influences, the Chinese marriage ritual has undergone radical changes. The younger generation is more attuned to the changes of the times and believes in courtship and romantic love. Although consultation with parents before marriage is still maintained, arranged marriages through a match-maker are practically non-existent. However, the exchange of rings and the giving of gifts to the prospective bride's family are still carried on. There is, however, no longer any bride price".

Nee (1986:p153)[192] notes on San Francisco Chinatown:

"For both men and women of the American-born generation, the conception of courtship and marriage also differed significantly from that of their parents. As in American culture, romantic love, together with practical considerations such as family background, education, and career potential, were seen by them as the basis for choosing a partner in marriage. They conceived of marriage as a union between two individuals rather than a matter which the family decides, and thus rejected their parents' efforts to arrange marriages for them. Although many parents strongly encouraged their children to follow the village custom of marrying somebody outside of the family name whose parents came from a nearby village, such practices declined among the American-born generation" (see also Weiss, 1974:p85-6 for congruent arguments)[193].

A similar pattern is noted in New York Chinatown (Wong, 1982:p63)[194]:

"Marriage is no longer by parental arrangement. Western "romantic" marriage, where courtship precedes marriage has been adopted. In selecting mates, they are concerned with companionship, common interests, and mutual affection. Their attitudes toward sex, dating, marriage, and careers differ little from other Americans".

10. Chicanos, Mexican Americans (eHRAF) [up] [Contents] [Index]

"Traditionally mothers did not prepare their daughters for menstruation, sexual intercourse, pregnancy, or childbirth. Such matters were considered bodily functions, somewhat dirty, shameful, to be hidden from view even of oneself, and thus to be virtually invisible to the well-mannered girl. The taboo was sufficiently strong that violation was termed "a holy sin." No confidences between sisters, or games, or jokes within friendship groups elucidated sexual matters for the young Mexican girl. There was close supervision of the girl in mixed groups outside the household. Girls reached menarche somewhat later under poorer nutritional conditions, and the preferred age of marriage was 15 years. This system functioned effectively to prevent premarital conceptions and to provide two parents and an extended kin group for every newborn" (Acosta Johnson, 1980)[195].

"Strong taboos existed traditionally against the discussion of sexual information or the recognition of pregnancy. The protection of young girls from early entry into sexual unions was the rationale for the perpetuation of the first taboo […]" (p71). "The pregnant woman and fetus were protected in their delicate condition by never drawing attention to themselves. Thus, informants reported that as children they never noticed that any of their female kin were pregnant. […] On the day of a birth in the family, the children were distracted from the event by being sent on an errand, usually to the house of a relative far enough away to cause some delay. On their return they would find the new baby and would be told an airplane had brought it. Respondents laughed a bit incredulously to discover that each had unquestioningly believed that explanation until the moment of birth of their own first child. It was a considerable shock to the primipara to comprehend that her baby grew inside her body, and then that he did not emerge magically from the umbilicus but painfully by the vaginal route". "The lack of communication between mothers and daughters concerning sex and reproduction was encouraged by church norms. […].The women had not learned about sex and reproduction from their mothers, nor would they teach their daughters that information" (Whiteford, 1980:p113)[196].

[Additional refs.: Horowitz, R. (1983) Honor and the American Dream: Culture and Identity in a Chicano Community. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers U Press. Ch. 6; Dietrich, L. C. (1998) Chicana Adolescents: Bitches, 'Ho's, and Schoolgirls. Occasional paper, Westport, CT; Day, R. D. (1992) The transition to first intercourse among racially and culturally diverse youth, J Marriage & Fam 54,4:749-62; Augenbraum, H. & Stavans, I. (Eds., 1993) Growing Up Latino: Memoirs and Stories. Reflections on Life in the United States. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin; De Anda, D., Becerra, R. M. & Fielder, E. (1990) In Their Own Words: The Life Experiences of Mexican-American and White Pregnant Adolescents and Adolescent Mothers, Child & Adolesc Social Work J 7,4:301-18

Side-Stream and Counter-Hegemonic Sexual Experiences: Closing in on the Mainstream Cultural Compartment [up] [Contents]

1. The Commune Experience [up] [Contents]

Johnston and Deisher (1973:p324-5)[197] found that children in a permissive American commune related to sex as something interesting and enjoyable but not as of central importance to their play activity. Berger (1977, 1984; Berger and Hackett, 1974:p168-9, 172)[198], Martinson (1973:p18-9) and Yates (1978:p14, 40-2) comment on the nonorthodox erotic boundaries between generation in communes.

2. The Abuse Experience [up] [Contents]

It is observed that, legally, the child's sexual purity is valued more than its very life (Krivacska, 2001)[199], an absurdity that at times indeed defies the proverbial "grano salo". This purity very much depends on the definition of "abuse" which has become institutionalised only in the 1980s.

In a 1992 study[200], girls who had their first sexual experience before age 11 years or with a male 2 or more years older were considered to be abused. De Jong (1989)[201] used an age difference of greater than or equal to 5 years as indicative of abusive behaviour for a "perpetrator" mean age of 16.2 years for cousins and 15.5 years for siblings. One study[202] defined "sexual abuse" as "any unwanted sexual contact with a person at least five years older than the respondent, or with any family relative, regardless of age difference".

Tobin (1997)[203] argues that Americans are projecting moral panic into the preschool setting. A study is presented in which focus groups of preschool teachers from the US and Ireland were assembled to discuss a series of stories, each dealing with a problematic issue involving young children, their teachers, and sex. Discussions revealed that teachers have become increasingly governed by their awareness of how their actions will be second-guessed by the most cynical of possible audiences, they have reduced the freedom they give young children to explore their sexuality, and they have denied themselves and the children the pleasures of each other's touch.

Largely an American party, authors have argued that "child" sexual "abuse" prevention agendas illustrate sex-opposing principles[204], or at least run the risk of transgressing to curricular "sexuality prevention" agendas[205]. These allegations are hard to substantiate, impossible to verify and are not impressive cross-culturally. The n (alleged idiosyncratic) "antisexualist" orientation is always categorical, always curricular, and always integrated within larger oppositional frameworks, which are always positively legitimised.

Americans seem apt to accuse every single researcher of childhood sexuality as promoting illegal practices. Even Marie Calderone was accused of promoting intergenerational sex, as discussed in an informal colloquium of Borneman with Calderone[206]. Age patterning has become an increasingly important clinical issue in American mental health curriculum, even within classically recognised age domains. Age configuration has become one of the most determining factors in sexological justice and medicine, where formally it was gender configuration. Research by Rind et al. (1998)[207] suggesting caution on the use of terms and interpretations associated with age disparate sexual contacts raised a series of ferocious attacks on the authors[208]. In August of 1999, the US Congress issued a joint resolution censuring the APA, "perhaps the first occasion in our country's history that our nation's highest legislative body actually censured a professional organization for the publication of scientific findings" (Krivacska, 2001)[209].

3. The Gang Experience [up] [Contents]

Schneider (2000)[210] draws a parallel between post-war New York male gang life and ritualised transitions. As excerpted:

"Gang members' attitudes about sexuality were part of a widespread working class sex code [ref omitted]. Gang members frequently viewed girls in a purely instrumental fashion, and intimacy--with its demand for openness and vulnerability--seemed difficult or even beyond their reach. Relationships with girls simply provided another realm of competition among males, in which gang members established precedence over one another, or they provided an opportunity for gang members to reaffirm their bonds. Gang boys earned respect by getting girls, either for themselves or for fellow gang members for ritualized rape. […] Gang members also reinforced their masculinity through assaults on gay men. Some subset of gang members engaged in same-sex relations with older males usually for cash or drugs. Poor and usually in need of some material goods, gang boys approached same-sex relations with the same utilitarian attitude they regarded heterosexual relations. Some specialized as "fag rollers" and would pick up men and then rob and beat them, justifying their brutality as punishment of "fairies". As long as they did not play the "female" role and be penetrated, or limited themselves to being fellated, same-sex relations did not threaten their masculinity. Older working class cultural norms that did not identify a male as gay as long as he was dominant continued to be prevalent among these youths, much to the bewilderment and consternation of middle class observers [ref omitted]. Violence against gay men may have been a way of resolving homoerotic tensions within the gang. Boys found the gang as their major source of comfort and friendship, and feelings of intimacy that arose could only have been confronted indirectly. Gang rape, with its elaborate ritual and sexual display, undoubtedly aroused homoerotic feelings among the participants. Feelings of desire, when projected on to others who were then punished, could be safely purged from the group".

The sex life of youth gang members appears to be "early" even in American terms. Of 1,801 juvenile detainees (219 girls and 1,374 boys), of whom nearly 47% belonged to a gang, 62% reported onset of sexual intercourse by age 12 and by age 14 89% were sexually active[211]. Not confined to American gang life[212], in-group sexual negotiations have been identified as problematic, particularly as sexist, exploitative and health-endangering.

The Sexual Life of the American Child: A Minor Impression [up] [Contents]

Many authors have given compact chronological overviews of American sexual development (e.g., Haroian, 1986:p332-43)[213]. An obvious (but infrequently applied) distinction can be made between the semi-public and the private sphere.

As reviewed in full elsewhere[214], school environments provide the primary erotic and sexual playground for children in industrialised societies[215]. At least in 1998, nursery school teachers feel that sexual development "constitutes an important aspect of children's personality" (Kakavoulis)[216]. Wallis and Van Every (2000)[217] typified primary schools as "institutions structured by gender and (hetero)sexuality […] which, in their practices, construct heterosexualized masculinities and femininities"[218]. Renold (2000)[219] portrays primary school as "a key cultural arena for the production and reproduction of sexuality and sexual identities".

Using something of a participant method, Best (1983)[220] regards the sexual curriculum (p109-25) as the third of three, the former two being designed for academic and gender development. This curriculum is primarily "self-devised". The author found House playing primarily occupied with kissing (p110), and "fucking" by genitogenital rubbing (p121-3). Children's public life contains a variety of "heterosexually charged rituals" (Thorne and Luria, 1986)[221], such as bra-snapping (cf. Best, p112-3). On the playground, the threat of kissing is a "ritualised form of provocation" (Th&L; cf. Best, p113-5), and some kinds of playground chasing were forbidden because of their "inappropriate" touch. From elementary school on, children's alleged romantic inclinations are the focus of gossip and teasing, marking social hierarchies. The loading is heterosexual, and predominantly male homophobic.In one study[222], 377 14 and 15 year olds listed the pejoratives they heard at school and identified the ones they considered most taboo. As some of the most vitriolic items reported, homophobic pejoratives accounted for 10 per cent of the 6000 items generated. Homophobic terms have a rich developmental history and play a central role in U.S. adolescent male peer-group dynamics. Starting from the fourth grade, a very powerful use of homophobic terms occurs prior to puberty, which would, Plummer argues, rarely carry "sexual connotations" [sic][223]. Sexism, homophobia, and harassment were said to make American schools "a highly sexualised site" (Epstein, 1997)[224]. Epstein (1996)[225] suggested that "heterosexuality is a part of the stuff of every day life on playgrounds and in classrooms" and is represented in: (1) imagined futures; (2) traditional games and rhymes; (3) versions of games involving running and catching; (4) sexist/sexual harassment; (5) assays into the world of "going out"; and (6) gossip networks. The "homosexual tease" is noted in American third graders (e.g., Voss, 1997:p245)[226].

The closest assessment of contemporary children's "private" sexual life is provided by instances where such privacy apparently failed or was betrayed: parental observation. The few collections of anecdotal accounts include some instances of "getting caught", but this generally seems a peripheral experience in the whole of the curriculum. The traumatology of unpremeditated parental discovery, even if formally non-consequential, is rarely elaborated upon (all op.cit.):

Martinson (1973) records a few cases, as did Morrison et al. (1980:p22-4) and Ribal (1973). Yates (1978:p53, 170, 196, 198, 201) seems to assume that avoidance of "getting caught" is a major "principle" in childhood sexuality. By 1994, Hite ([1994:p109]), however, states it is a " surprisingly rare" occurrence.

Additional Refs.: Nonnative North America [up] [Contents]

--Chilman, C. (1979) Adolescent Sexuality in a Changing American Society: Social and Psychological Perspectives. Washington, DC: Public Health Service, National Institute of Mental Health. Esp. ch.5 [p91-101]: Sexual behaviors preceding heterosexual relationships among adolescents-a brief overview

--Gordon, M. (1968) Infant Care Revisited, J Marriage & Family 30,4:578-83

--Hattendorf, K. W. (1932) A study of the questions of young children concerning sex, J Soc Psychol 3:37-63

--Calderwood, D. (1963) Differences in the Sex Questions of Adolescent Boys and Girls, Marriage & Family Living 25, 4:492-5

Klassen, A. D., Williams, C. J. & Levitt, Eu. E. (1989) Sex and Morality in the U.S. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press

Index to Section: Nonnative North America [up] [Contents]

[1] As far as I have been able to survey in 2001, the diagnostic application was used in thirty-one studies in this respect.

[2] Rosenfeld, A. et al. (1980) The primal scene: a study of prevalence, Am J Psychia 137,11:1426-8. Cf. Ramey, J. W. (1972) Communes, Group Marriage, and the Upper-Middle Class, J Marriage & Fam 34,4:647-55, at p650

[3]Rosenfeld, A. (1982) Sleeping patterns in upper-middle-class families when the child awakens ill or frightened, Arch Gen Psychia 39:943-7. Cf. Schweder, R. A. et al. (1995) Who Sleeps by Whom Revisited: A Method for Extracting the Moral Goods Implicit in Practice, New Directions for Child Developm 67:21-39

[4] Rosenfeld, A. et al. (1984) Parental perceptions of children's modesty: a cross-sectional survey of ages two to ten years, Psychia 47:351-65

[5] Rosenfeld, A. et al. (1986) Determinants of incestuous contacts of parent and child: frequencies of children touching parents'genitals in a non-clinical sample, J Am Acad Child Psychia 25:481-4

[6] Rosenfeld, A. et al. (1987) Family bathing patterns: implications for cases of alleged molestation and for pediatric practice, Pediatrics 79,2:224-9

[7] E.g., Rosenfeld, A. (1977) Sexual misuse and the family, Victimol 2,2:226-35

[8]Lewis, R.J., & Janda, L.H. (1988) The relationship between adult sexual adjustment and childhood experiences regarding exposure to nudity, sleeping in the parental bed, and parental attitudes toward sexuality, Arch Sex Behav 17,4:349-62

[9]Some historical observations may be appreciated through: Sunle, R. (1955) Early nineteenth-century American literature on child rearing, in Mead, M. & Wolfenstein, M. (Eds.) Childhood in Contemporary Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, at p157-8. Cf. Wolfenstein, M. (1955) Fun morality: an analysis of recent American child-training literature, in Mead, M. & Wolfenstein, M. (Eds.) Childhood in Contemporary Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, at p169, 170; Wolfenstein, M. (1953) Trends in infant care, Am J Orthopsychia 23:120-30. Reprinted in Brackbill, I. & Thompson, G. G. (1967) Behavior in Infancy and Early Childhood. New York: Free Press, p473-83, esp. at p475-6. See also Wickman, E. K. (1929) Children's Behavior and Teachers' Attitudes. New York: Commonwealth Fund

[10] Carr, L. G. & Walsh, L. S. (1977) The Planter's Wife: The Experience of White Women in Seventeenth-Century Maryland, William & Mary Quart, 3rd. Ser., 34,4:542-71

[11] Wells, R. V. & Zuckerman, M. (1972) Quaker Marriage Patterns in a Colonial Perspective, William & Mary Quart, 3rd. Ser., 29,3:415-42

[12] D'Emilio, J. & Freedman, E. B. (1988) Intimate Matters. New York: Harper & Row. 1989 ed.

[13] Burnham, J. C. (1973) The Progressive Era Revolution in American Attitudes Toward Sex, J Am Hist 59,4:885-908

[14] Cable, M. (1972) The Little Darlings. New York: Ch. Scribner's Sons. 1975 printing

[15] Strong, B. (1973) Toward a History of the Experiential Family: Sex and Incest in the Nineteenth-Century Family, J Marriage & Fam 35,3:457-66

[16]Steere, G. H. (1986) Freudianism and Child-Rearing in the Twenties, Am Quart 20,4:759-67

[17] Scull, A. & Favreau, D. (1986) The clitoridectomy craze, Soc Res 53,2:243-60

[18] Huschka, M. (1938) The incidence and character of masturbation threats in a group of problem children, Psychoanal Quart 7:338-56

[19] Hatwick, LaB. A. (1937) Sex differences in behavior of nursery school children, Child Developm 6,4:343-55; Hatwick, LaB. A. & Sanders, M. K. (1938) Age differences in behavior at the nursery school level, Child Developm 9,1:27-47; Alstyne, D. van Hatwick, LaB. A. (1939) A follow-up study of the behavior of nursery school children, Child Developm 10,1:43-72

[20] Macfarlane, J. W. (1939) The Guidance Study, Sociometry 2,3:1-23

[21] MacClenathan, R. H. (1934) Teachers and Parents Study Children's Behavior, J Educ Sociol 7,5:325-33

[22] Also listed among 50 items were "interest in the other sex" and "obscenity".

[23] Yourman, J. (1932) Children Identified by Their Teachers as Problems, J Educ Sociol 5,6:334-43

[24] Crampton, C. W. & Partridge, E. D. (1938) Social Adjustments Associated with Individual Differences Among Adolescent Boys, J Educ Sociol 12,2:66-72

[25] Golightly, C. L. (1947) Race, Values, and Guilt, Social Forces 26,2:125-39

[26] Thom, D. (1927) Everyday Problems of the Everyday Child. New York: Appleton; Hardyment, Ch. (1983) Dream Babies. London: J. Cape

[27] Ellis, A. (1947) Questionnaire Versus Interview Methods in the Study of Human Love Relationships, Am Sociol Rev 12,5:541-53, at p549

[28] Stendler, C. B. (1950) Sixty Years of Child Training Practices, J Pediatrics 36:122-34

[29] Renaud, H. & Floyd, E. (1961) Life history interviews with one hundred normal American males: "Pathogenicity" of childhood, Am J Orthopsychia 31:786-802

[30] Davis, A. & Havighurst, R. J. (1946) Social Class and Color Differences in Child-Rearing, Am Sociol Rev 11,6:698-710. Cf. Sewell, W. H. (1961) Social Class and Childhood Personality, Sociometry 24,4:340-56, p344

[31] Littman, R. A., Moore, R. C. & Pierce-Jones, J. (1957) Social Class Differences in Child Rearing: A Third Community for Comparison with Chicago and Newton, Am Sociol Rev 22,6:694-704

[32] Leslie, G. R. & Johnsen, K. P. (1963) Changed Perceptions of the Maternal Role, Am Sociol Rev 28,6:919-28

[33] Russell, I. L. (1957) Behavior Problems of Children from Broken and Intact Homes, J Educ Sociol 31,3:124-9

[34]Maccoby, E. E., Gibbs, P. K. etc. (1954) Methods of child-rearing in two social classes, in Martin, W. E. & Stendler, C. B. (Eds.) Readings in Child Development. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, p380-96. Reprinted in Stendler, C. B. (Ed., 1964) Readings in Child Behavior and Development. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, p272-87

[35]Sears, R. R., Maccoby, E. E. & Levin, H. (1957) Patterns of Child Rearing. Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson. Cf. McCandless, B. R. (1967) Children; Behavior and Development. 2nd.ed. London [etc.]: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, p134-8

[36]Sears, R. R., Rau, L. & Alpert, R. (1965) Identification and Child Rearing. Stanford: Standfort University Press. See also Maccoby, E. E. & Jacklin, C. N. (1974) The Psychology of Sex Differences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, p329-31; Grinder, R. E. (1962) Parental childrearing practices, conscience, and resistance to temptation of sixth-grade children, Child Developm 33,4:803-20

[37] Bronfenbrenner, U. (1958) Socialization and social class through time and space, in Maccoby, E. E., Newcomb, T. M. & Hartley, E. C. (Eds.) Readings in Social Psychology. 3rd ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, p400-25

[38] Fisher, J. L. & Fisher, A. (1963) The New Englanders of Orchard Town, U.S.A., in Whiting, B. B. (Ed.) Six Cultures: Studies of Child Rearing. New York: Wiley, p873-1010

[39] Newson, J. & Newson, E. (1963) Patterns of Infant Care in an Urban Community. London: Allen & Unwin. 1965 Penguin

[40] Newson, J. & Newson, E. (1968) Four Years Old in an Urban Community. London: G. Allen & Unwin

[41] Paulson, M. J. et al. (1974) Child-rearing attitudes of foster home mothers, J Commun Psychol 2,1:11-4

[42]Roberts, E. J. (1982) Children's Sexual Learning: An Examination of the Influence of Parents, Television, and Community Service Providers. Diss., Harvard University

[43]Janus, S. S. & Janus, C. L. (1985) Children, sex, peers, culture: 1973-1983, J Psychohist 12,3:363-9

[44] Cf. Janus, S. (1981) The Death of Innocence: How Our Children are Endangered by New Sexual Freedom. New York: William Merrow & Co.; Janus, S. & Bess, B. (1976) Latency: fact or fiction? Am J Psychoanal 36:339-46. Revised in Constantine, L. & Martinson, F. (Eds., 1981) Children and Sex: New Findings, New Perspectives. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., p75-82

[45] Gagnon, J. H. (1985) Attitudes of parents to pre-adolescent masturbation, Arch Sex Behav 14,5:451-66. Cf. Gagnon, J. & Roberts (1980) Parent's messages to pre-adolescent children about sexuality, in Samson, J. (Ed.) Childhood and Sexuality. Montreal: Éditions Études Vivantes, p275-86

[46] Consider Sink, M. F. (1983) A Survey of Mental Health Professionals' Attitudes Toward the Sexual Socialization of Children by their Parents. Dissertation, Florida State University; Hepburn, Ei. H. (1980) Sexual Socialization and the Development of Sexual Attitudes and Values in an Upper and Upper-Middle Class Population. Diss., University Of Pennsylvania; Spanier, G. B. (1973) Sexual Socialization and Premarital Sexual Behavior: An Empirical Investigation of the Impact of Formal and Informal Sex Education. Diss., Northwestern University; Lawrence, M. J. (1996) A Survey of Plans that Urban Parents Have for the Sexuality Education of Their Preschool Children and the Implications for Development of Age-Appropriate Curriculum. Diss., Wayne State University

[47] Halstead, J. M. & Waite, S. (2001) "Living in different worlds": Gender differences in the developing sexual values and attitudes of primary school children, Sex Educ 1,1:59-76

[48] Swan, R. W. (1980) Ssex Education in the home: the U.S. experience, J Sex Educ & Ther 6,2:3-10

[49] Parker, K. R. (1994) "To protect the chastity of children under sixteen": statutory rape prosecutions in a Midwest county circuit court, 1850-1950, Michigan Hist Rev 20:49-79

[50] Bryant, C. D. (1982) Sexual Deviancy and Social Proscription. New York: Human Sciences Press, p306

[51] Ferdinand, Th. N. (1967) The Criminal Patterns of Boston Since 1849, Am J Sociol 73,1:84-99, p91n14

[52] Godbeer, R. (1995) "The Cry of Sodom": Discourse, Intercourse, and Desire in Colonial New England, William & Mary Quart, 3rd. Ser., 52,2:259-86

[53] Goodsell, W. (1934) A History of Marriage and the Family. Rev. ed. New York: MacMillan, p475-6. This condition of "child" marriage was considered by the author as "a social stupidity".

[54] Graupner, H. (2000) Sexual consent: The criminal law in Europe and overseas, Arch Sex Behav 29,5:415-61

[55] Donovan, P. (1997) Can Statutory Rape Laws be Effective in Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy? Fam Plann Perspect 29,1:30-4+40. An overview of state-specific rulings is offered at p31. Cf. Nathanson, C. A. (1991) Dangerous Passage: The Social Control in Women's Adolescence. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. See also Riegel, R. E. (1968) Changing American Attitudes Toward Prostitution (1800-1920), J Hist Ideas 29,3:437-52, at p451. Occasionally, uniformity was debated, e.g., Densen-Gerber, J. & Dugan, J. (1989) The United States age-of-consent laws governing the sexual conduct of minors: A rationale for national uniformity; an overview of the present law; a proposal for reform, in Rosner, R. & Schwartz, H. I. (Eds.) Juvenile Psychiatry and the Law. New York, NY, US: Plenum Press, p145-80

[56] Miller, H. L. et al. (1998) Issues in statutory rape law enforcement: the views of district attorneys in Kansas, Fam Plann Perspect 30,4:177-81

[57]Spanier, G. B. (1976) Formal and informal sex education as determinants of premarital sexual behavior, Arch Sex Behav 5,1:39-67

[58] Thorne, B. (1991) Lip Gloss and "Goin' With": Multiple Gender Meanings in the Transition to Early Adolescence. Paper for the American Sociological Association

[59] Hufnagel, G. (1999) A cultural analysis of the evolution of menarche and menstruation: Implications for education, DAI-A 60(6-A):2256.

[60] Becker, G. (1984) The Social Regulation of Sexuality: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Curr Perpect Soc Theory 5:45-69

[61] Friedrich, W., Grambsch, P. et al. (1991) Normative sexual behavior in children, Pediatrics 88,3:456-64; Friedrich, W., Fisher, J., Broughton, D., Houston, M. & Shafran, C. R. (1998) Normative sexual behavior in children; a contemporary sample, Pediatrics 101,4:693 (abstract); Normative data are also found in Friedrich, W. (1990) Psychotherapy of Sexually Abused Children and Their Families. New York: WW Norton & Company; Friedrich, W., Grambsch, P. et al. (1992) Child sexual behavior inventory: normal and clinical comparisons, Psychol Assessm 4,3:303-11; Friedrich, W. N. et al. (2001) Child Sexual Behavior Inventory: normative, psychiatric, and sexual abuse comparisons, Child Maltreatm 6,1:37-49

[62] The before-2 zone remains an interesting one, since abuse of preverbal children is more of a diagnostic challenge than afterwards.

[63] Kilpatrick, A. (1992) Long-Range Effects of Child and Adolescent Sexual Experiences: Myths, Mores, Menaces. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum

[64]In the NCHRBS, coitarche before 13 years is as low is 3.0% [!].

[65]The absolute extreme. The female figure was as low as 5.1.

[66]Whites (M/F): 22.2/12.5; blacks: 47.5/15.5; Hispanics: 29.2/7.8.

[67] Whites (M/F): 7.5/3.5; blacks: 29.9/11.4; Hispanics: 14.2/4.4.

[68] Tobin, J. (2001) Childhood sexuality after Freud: The problem of sex in early childhood education, in Winer, J. A. & Anderson, J. W. (Eds.) The Annual of Psychoanalysis, Vol. XXIX. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press, p179-98

[69] Cockburn, A. (1990) Abused Imaginings, New Statesman & Soc 3, 85, Jan. 26:19-20

[70] Del-Prete, T. (1996) Hands Off? The Touchy Subject of Physical Contact with Students, Our Children 22,2:34-5; Johnson, R. (1997) The "no touch" policy, in Tobin, J. J. (Ed.) Making a Place for Pleasure in Early Childhood Education. New Haven: Yale University Press, p101-18; Krivacska, J. J. (1993) Antisexualism in Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Programs-- Good Touch, Bad Touch ... Don't Touch? Iss Child Abuse Accus 5,2; Johnson, R. T. (2000) Hands Off! The Disappearance of Touch in the Care of Children. New York: Peter Lang. The problem is not new: Mazur, S. & Pekor, C. (1985) Can teachers touch children anymore? Physical contact and its values in child development, Young Children 40,4:10-2; Heller, Sh. (1999) Touch Taboos, Mothering, 96:44 et seq. It may likewise not be confined to American territory: Schmauch, U. (1996) Körperberührung unter Generalverdacht? Zur Skandalisierung und Tabuisierung von sexuellem Kindesmissbrauch, Zeitschr f Sozialisationsforsch & Erziehungssoziol 16,3:284-98

[71] Johnson, T. C. (1988) Child perpetrators-Children who molest other children: Preliminary findings, Child Abuse & Neglect 12,2:219-29; Cantwell, H. (1988) Child sexual abuse: very young perpetrators, Child Abuse & Negl 12,4:579-82. Lay representations were piling up during the 1990s: Terry, S. & Kunz, A. (1991) Sins of the innocent, Rolling Stone, 10/31/91; 616:67 et seq.; Gelman, D. & Gordon, J. (1992) When kids molest kids, Newsweek, 3/30/92; 119,13:68 et seq.; Casey, K. (1995) When children rape, Ladies' Home J 112,6:112 et seq.; Horowitz, C. (1996) Kids who prey on kids, Good Housekeeping 223,4:94 et seq.; Will, G. F. (1999) Six-Year-Old Harassers? Newsweek, 06/07/99; 133,23:88

[72] Kaeser, F., DiSalvo, C. & Moglia, R. (2000) Sexual behaviors of young children that occur in schools, J Sex Educ & Ther 25,4:277-85

[73] Långström, N., Grann, M. & Lichtenstein, P. (2002) Genetic and Environmental Influences on Problematic Masturbatory Behavior in Children: A Study of Same-Sex Twins, Arch Sex Beh 31,4:343–50

[74] Huizinga, A.(2000) "Een gezonde Hollandse jongen": seksueel agressief gedrag van kinderen VKMag [Dutch] 14,2:10-1

[75]Becker, J. Kaplan, M. et al. (1986) Characteristics of adolescent incest sexual perpetrators, J Fam Viol 1,1:85-97

[76] Smith, H. & Israel, E. (1987) Sibling incest: a study of the dynamics of 25 cases, Child Abuse & Negl 11,1:101-8

[77]O'Brien, M. J. (1991) Taking sibling incest seriously, in Patton, M. Q. (Ed.) Family Sexual Abuse. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, p75-92

[78] Worling, J. R. (1995) Adolescent sibling-incest offenders, Child Abuse & Neglect 19,5:633-43

[79] Laviola, M. (1989) Effects of older brother-younger sister incest: a review of four cases, J Fam Viol 4,3:259-74

[80] Laviola, M. (1992) Effects of older-brother-younger sister incest: a study of the dynamics of 17 cases, Child Abuse & Negl 16:409-21

[81]Adler, N. & Schutz, J. (1995) Sibling incest offenders, Child Abuse & Negl 19,7:811-9

[82] Carter, G. S. & Van Dalen, A. (1998) Sibling incest: time limited group as an assessment and treatment planning tool, J Child & Adolesc Group Ther 8,2:45-54

[83] Finkelhor, D. (1980) Sex among siblings: a survey on prevalence, variety, and effects, Arch Sex Behav 9,3:171-94; Finkelhor, D. (1981) Sex between siblings: sex play, incest and aggression, in Constantine, L. & Martinson, F. (Eds., 1981) Children and Sex: New Findings, New Perspectives. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., p129-49

[84]Greenwald, E. R. (1987) The Long-Term Effects of Preadolescent Sibling and Nonsibling Childhood Sexual Experiences. Dissertation, University Of Vermont And State Agricultural College; Greenwald, E. R. & Leitenberg, H. (1989) Long-term effects of sexual experiences with siblings and nonsiblings during childhood, Arch Sex Behav 18,5:389-99

[85] Freund, K. & Kuban, M. (1993) Toward a Testable Developmental Model of Pedophilia: The Development of Erotic Age Preference, Child Abuse & Neglect 17:315-24; Freund, K. (1994) In search of an aetiological model of pedophilia, Revue Sexologique 2,1

[86] According to author's preliminary literature review.

[87] Kenrick, D. T., Gabrielidis, C., Keefe, R. C. & Cornelius, J. S. (1996) Adolescents' Age Preferences for Dating Partners: Support for an Evolutionary Model of Life-History Strategies, Child Developm 67,4: 1499-1511

[88] Berges, E. T. et al. [The Study Group of New York] (1983) Children & Sex. The Parents Speak. New York: Facts on File

[89] Thorne, B. & Luria, Z. (1986) Sexuality and gender in children's every daily worlds, Social Problems 33,3:176-90. Based on a 1985 paper for the American Sociological Association; Schaefer, L. C. (1964) Sexual Experiences and Reactions of a Group of Thirty Women as Told to a Female Psychotherapist. Report of an Ed. D. doctoral project. Columbia University. Data were later incorporated into Schaefer, L. (1974 [1973]) Women and Sex. New York: Pantheon; Hite, Sh. (1981) The Hite Report on Male Sexuality. New York: Knopf; Hite, Sh. (1994) The Hite Report on the Family: Growing Up under Patriarchy. London: Bloomsbury; Halloran, J. (1995) The Sexual Education of Ten Men. Diss., Temple University (DAI-A 56/04(1995):1249); Leroy, M. (1993) Pleasure: The Truth about Female Sexuality. London: HarperCollins, p16-38; Morrison, E. S. et al. (1980) Growing Up Sexual. New York [etc.] : D. Van Nostrand, p1-60; Kronhausen, Ph. & Kronhausen, E. (1960) Sex Histories of American College Men. New York: Ballantine, p26-96, 250-3; Lamb, Sh. (2001) The Secret Lives of Girls. New York: Free Press. Clinical samples: Lukianowicz, N. (1960) Imaginary sexual partner, Arch Gen Psychia 3, Oct.:121-41; Caprio, F. S. (1955) Variations in Sexual Behavior. New York: Grove Press. 1962 Black Cat ed. (see subchapters Earliest Sexual Recollections). Some insights may be gained through secondary reading: Thorne, E. (1971) Your Erotic Fantasies. New York: Ballantine, p9-31; Friday, N. (1975) Forbidden Flowers: More Women's Sexual Fantasies [1976 [1978] Dutch transl., Verboden Vruchten. Utrecht/Antwerpen: Bruna & Zn, esp. p20-55]; Friday, N. (1980) Men in Love. New York: Doubleday [1981 Dutch transl., Mannen en Liefde. Utrecht/Antwerpen: Bruna & Zn]; Bell, A. P., Weinberg, M. S. & Hammersmith, S. K. (1981) Sexual Preference. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, see p96-113, 164-80. See also Reiss, I. L. & Reiss, H. M. (1990) An End to Shame: Shaping our Next Sexual Revolution. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, p49-60; Jay, K. & Young, A. (1977/9) The Gay Report. New York: Summi, p41-51, 83-104; Ribal, J. E. (1973) Learning Sex Roles: American and Scandinavian Contrasts. San Francisco, Calif.: Canfield

[90] E.g.,

[91] Berges et al. (1983), op.cit.

[92] Gartrell, N. & Mosbacher, D. (1984) Sex differences in the naming of children's genitalia, Sex Roles 10,11/12:869-76

[93]Lerner, H. E. (1976) Parental mislabelling of female genitals as a determinant of penis envy and learning inhibitions in women, J Am Psychoanal Assoc 24,5, Suppl:269-83; Ash, (1980) The misnamed female sexual organ, in Samson, J. (Ed.) Childhood & Sexuality: Proceedings of the International Symposium. Montreal: Editions Etudes Vivantes, p386-91; Schor, D. & Sivan, S. (1989) Interpreting children's labels for sex-related body-parts of anatomically explicit dolls, Child Abuse & Negl 13:523-31; De Marneffe, D. E. (1993) Genital Recognition and Gender Labeling: An Empirical Study of Toddlers. University of California, Berkeley; De Marneffe, D. (1997) Bodies and words: A study of young children's genital and gender knowledge, Gender & Psychoanalysis 2,1:3-33; Jaffe, J. J. (1985) "Down There": The Relationship Between Childhood Home Environment, Childhood Genital Labels, and Adult Sexuality in a Middle-Class Female Sample. University of Southern California; Kreitler, H. & Kreitler, S. (1966) Children's concept of sexuality and birth, Child Developm 37,2:363-78; Fraley et al. (1991) Early genital naming, Developm & Behav Pediatr 12:301-4. Wurtele, S. et al. (1992) Preschoolers knowledge of and ability to learn genital terminology, J Sex Educ & Ther18:115-22; Wurtele, S. (1993) Enhancing children's sexual development through sexual abuse prevention programs, J Sex Educ & Ther 19,1:37-46; Cheung, M. (1999) Children's language of sexuality in child sexual abuse investigantions, J Child Sexual Abuse 8,3:65-84. Dutch data are found in Van den Ende-de Monchy, C. (1980) Exploratief Onderzoek naar de Lichaamsbeleving bij Kinderen van Vier tot Zes Jaar. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

[94]Broderick, C. B. & Fowler, S. E. (1961) New Patterns of Relationships Between the Sexes Among Preadolescents, Marriage & Fam Living 23,1:27-30; Broderick, C. B. (1964) How the Sex Drive Develops, Sexology 30, June:780-4; Broderick, C. (1965) Social heterosexual development among urban negroes and whites, J Marriage & Fam 27, May:200-3; Broderick, C. B. (1966a) Sexual Development Among Pre-Adolescents, J Social Issues 22,2:6-21. Reprinted in Juhasz, A. (Ed., 1973) Sexual Development and Behavior: Selected Readings. Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey Press, p20-35, and in Lasswell, M. E. & Lasswell, Th. E. (1973) Love Marriage Family: A Developmental Approach. Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman & Co., p47-54; Broderick, C. B. (1966b) Socio-sexual development in a suburbian community, J Sex Res 2,1:1-24; Broderick, C. B. (1968) Preadolescent sexual behavior, Med Asp Hum Sex 2,1:20-9; Broderick, C. B. & Rowe, G. (1968) A Scale of Preadolescent Heterosexual Development, J Marriage & Fam 30:97-101; Broderick, C. B. & Weaver, J. (1968) The perceptual context of boy-girl communication, J Marriage & Fam 30:618-21; Broderick, C. B. (1969) Normal socio-sexual development, in Broderick, C. B. & Bernard, J. (Eds.) The Indiviudal, Sex, and Society. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, p23-39; Broderick, C. B. (1970a) Kinder- und Jugendsexualität. Reinbek: Rowohlt. 1971 Dutch translation; Broderick, C. B. (1970b) Is the "latent period" really latent? In Rubin, I. & Kirkendall, L. (Eds.) Sex in the Childhood Years. New York: Association Press, p135-8; Broderick, C. B. (1972) Children's romances, Sexual Behavior, May:16-21

[95]Martinson, F. M. (1973) Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective. St. Peter, MN: The Book Mark; Martinson, F. M. (1974) The Quality of Adolescent Sexual Experiences. St. Peter, MN: The Book Mark. Also Lindahl & Martinson, F. (1973) The Sexual Socialization of Children: 4-5 Year Olds in a Minnesota Community. Unpublished manuscript

[96] Mazur, Th. & Money, J. (1976) Book review, Arch Sex Behav 5,2:183-4

[97]Martinson, F. M. (1994) The Sexual Life of Children. Westport, Conn: Bergin & Garvey

[98]Martinson, F. M. (Nov., 1992) Child Sexual Development and Experience: What the Experts Are Telling Parents. Paper presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex Annual Meeting

[99] Martinson, F. M. (1976) Eroticism in infancy and childhood, J Sex Res 12 :251-62; Martinson, F. M. (1977a) Erotisme du nourrisson et de l'enfant, Cahiers de Sexol Clin 3,6 :561-73 ; Martinson, F. M. (1977b) Eroticism in childhood: a sociological perspective, in Oremland, E. K. & Oremland, J. D. (Eds.) The Sexual Gender and Young Children: The Role of the Educator. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger, p73-82; Martinson, F. M. (1979) Infant and child sexuality : capacity and experience, in Cook, M. & Wilson, G. D. (Eds.) Love and Attraction. Oxford [etc.]: Pergamon, p489-91; Martinson, F. M. (1980a) Childhood sexuality, in Wolman, B. B. & Money, J., Eds. (1980) Handbook of Human Sexuality. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., [p33]; Martinson, F. M. (1980b) Child sexuality: trends and consequences, in Samson, J. (Ed.) Childhood & Sexuality: Proceedings of the International Symposium. Montreal: Editions Etudes Vivantes, p41-55; Martinson, F. M. (1981a) Eroticism in infancy and childhood, in Constantine, L. & Martinson, F. (Eds.) Children and Sex: New Findings, New Perspectives. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., p23-35; Martinson, F. M. (1981b) Preadolescent sexuality: latent or manifest?, in Constantine, L. & Martinson, F. (Eds.) Children and Sex: New Findings, New Perspectives. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., p83-93; Martinson, F. M. (1991/1997) Sexual development in infancy and childhood, in Ryan, G. D. & Lane, S. L. (Eds.) Juvenile Sexual Offending: Causes, Consequences, and Correction (first and new & rev. ed.). San Francisco, CA, US: Jossey-Bass Inc, Publishers, p57-82/36-58; Martinson, F. M. (1994) Children and sexuality, Part II : Childhood sexuality, in Bullough, V. L. & Bullough, B. (Eds.) Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia. New York [etc.]: Garland, p11-6. See also Martinson, F. M. (1997) Pioneer researcher in childhood sexuality, in Bullough, B., Bullough, V. et al. (Eds.) How I Got into Sex. Amherst: Prometheus, p290-6

[100] Thorne, B. & Luria, Z. (1986) Sexuality and gender in children's every daily worlds, Social Problems 33,3:176-90.

[101]Ford, C. S. & Beach, F. A. (1951) Patterns of Sexual Behavior. New York: Harper & Row

[102] Frayser, S. G. (1994) Defining normal childhood sexuality: An anthropological approach, Ann Rev Sex Res 5:173217

[103]Finkelhor, D. (1980) Sexual socialization in America: high risk for sexual abuse, in Samson, J. (Ed.) Childhood & Sexuality: Proceedings of the International Symposium. Montreal: Editions Etudes Vivantes, p641-8

[104] Frayser, S. G. (1985) Varieties of Sexual Experience: An Anthropological Perspective on Human Sexuality. New Haven: HRAF Press

[105] Scofield, R. W. & Chin-Wan, S. (1960) A comparative study of the differential effect upon Chinese and American child training practices, J Soc Psychol 52,2:223ff

[106] Rothbaum, F., Morelli, G., Pott, M. & Liu-Constant, Y. (2000) Immigrant-Chinese and Euro-American parents' physical closeness with young children: themes of family relatedness, J Fam Psychol 14,3:334-48

[107] Jarecki, H. G. (1961a) Die Einstellungen von Müttern zu Problemen der Kindererziehung: Eine vergleichende Voruntersuchung, Psychol Ekon Prax [Czechoslovakia] 20:111-35; Jarecki, H. G. (1961b) Maternal attitudes toward child rearing: A cross-cultural pilot study, Arch Gen Psychia 4:340-56

[108]"Dangers of rape; perversions; sex crimes; leads to insane asylum; thinks about it; homosexuality; more susceptible to men who want to take the child with them; weakens loss of sense of shame (sic); can lead to domination by lust; later less satisfaction from spouse; emotional coldness; etc.)"

[109] Maccoby (1954:p382-4)

[110] Landy, D. (1959) Tropical Childhood. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1965 ed.

[111] Dolto, F. (1955) French and American children seen by a French child analyst, in Mead, M. & Wolfenstein, M. (Eds.) Childhood in Contemporary Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p408-23, at p418, 419

[112] Ribal, J. E. (1973) Learning Sex Roles: American and Scandinavian Contrasts. San Francisco, Calif.: Canfield

[113] Straver, C. (1986) De trapsgewijze interactie-carrière, in Rademakers, J. & Straver, C., Van Fascinatie naar Relatie: Het Leren Omgaan met Relaties en Sexualiteit in de Jeugdperiode; Een Ontwikkelingsdynamische Studie. Zeist [Holland]: NISSO, p1-128

[114] Martinson, F. M. (1994) The Sexual Life of Children. Westport, Conn: Bergin & Garvey

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[116] Brougere, G. & Tobin, J. (2000) Culture et sexualité enfantine a l'école maternelle: Étude comparée entre les États-Unis et la France, Éducation & Societés 2,6:167-85

[117]Harvey, O. L. (1932) Some statistics derived from recent questionnaire studies relative to human sexual behavior, J Soc Psychol 3:97-100; Harvey, O. L. (1935) The institutionalization of human sexual behavior: a study of frequency distributions, J Abn & Soc Psychol 29: 427-33

[118]Ramsey, G. V. (1943a) The sexual development of boys, Am J Psychol 56:217-33; Ramsey, (1943b) The sex information of younger boys, Am J Orthopsychia 13:347-52; Ramsey, (1950) Factors in the Sex Life of 291 Boys. Published by author

[119] Van Wyk, P. H. & Geist, C. S. (1984) Psychosocial development of heterosexual, bisexual and homosexual behavior, Arch Sex Behav 13,6:505-44

[120] Reiss, I. L. (1961) Standards of sexual behavior, in Ellis, A. & Abarbanel, A., (Eds.) The Encyclopedia of Sexual Behavior. Vol. II. New York: Hawthorn Books, p996-1004

[121]Op.cit.

[122] Asayama, Sh. (1957a) Comparison of sexual devlopment of American & Japanese adolescents, Psychologia 1:129-31

[123]Klausner, S. Z. (1961) Sex life in Islam, in Ellis, A. & Barbanel, A. (Eds.) The Encyclopedia of Sexual Behavior. New York: Hawthorn Books, p545-57

[124] Rennert, H. (1967) Die geschlechtlige Entwicklung der heutigen Jugend am Beispiel unserer Medizinstudenten, in Schwarz, H. (Ed.) Jugendprobleme In Pädagogischer, Medizinischer und Juridischer Sicht. Jena: Fisher

[125] Reng, B. (1968) Das sexuelle Verhalten junger weiblicher Prostituierter, in Reng, B. & Redhardt, R. (Eds.) Prostitution bei Weiblichen und Männlichen Jugendlichen. Stuttgart: Enke, p1-57

[126] Fröhlich, H. & Szewcyk, H. (1970) Sexualerfahrungen von Berliner Jugendlichen, Probl Erg Psychol 32:17-36

[127] Weinberg, M.S. & Williams, C.J. (1980) Sexual Embourgeoisment? Social Class and Sexual Activity: 1938-1970, Am Sociol Rev 45,1:33-48

[128] Wyatt, G., Peters, S. & Guthrie, D. (1988a) Kinsey revisited, Part I: Comparisons of the sexual socialization and sexual behavior of white women over 33 years, Arch Sex Behav 17,3:201-39; Wyatt, G., Peters, S. & Guthrie, D. (1988b) Kinsey revisited, Part II: Comparisons of the sexual socialization and sexual behavior of black women over 33 years, Arch Sex Behav 17,4:289-332

[129] Goldman, R. & Goldman, J. (1981) Children's Sexual Thinking: A Comparative Study of Children Aged 5-15 Years in Australia, the United States of America, England, and Sweden. London: Routledge: & Kegan Paul; Goldman, R. & Goldman, J. (1981) Sources of sex information for Australian, English, North American and Swedish children, J Psychol 109:97-108; Goldman, R. & Goldman, J. (1982) How children perceive the origin of babies and the roles of mothers and fathers in procreation: a cross-national study, Child Developm 53:491-504; Goldman, R. & Goldman, J. (1983) Children's perceptions of sex differences in babies and adolescents: a cross-national study, Arch Sex Behav 12,4:277-94; Goldman, R. & Goldman, J. (1984) An overview of children's sexual thinking: a comparative study of Australian, English, North-American and Swedish 5-15-year olds, in Segraves, R. T. & Haeberle, E. J. (Eds.) Emerging Dimensions of Sexology. New York. Praeger, p57-67; Goldman, J. (1990) Children's sexual thinking: a research basis for sex education in schools, in Perry, M. E. (Ed.) Handbook of Sexology. Vol. 7. Amsterdam; Elsevier, p211-31

[130]Friedrich, W., Sandfort, Th., Oostveen, J. & Cohen-Kettnis, P. (2000) Cultural differences in sexual behavior: 2-6 year old Dutch and American children, J Psychol & Hum Sex 12,1/2: 117-29; Larsson, I., Svedin, C.G. & Friedrich, W.N. (2000) Differences and similarities in sexual behaviour among pre-schoolers in Sweden and USA, Nordic J Psychia 54,4: 251-7

[131] Oostveen, J., Meulmeester & Cohen-Kettenis, P. (1994) Seksueel gedrag van kleuters, Ned Tijdschr Geneesk 138,44: 2200-4; Cohen-Kettenis, P. & Sandfort, Th. (1996) Seksueel gedrag van kinderen: een kwalitatief onderzoek onder moeders, Tijdschr Seksuol 20:254-65

[132] Schoentjes, E., Deboutte, D. & Friedrich, W. (1999) Child sexual behavior inventory: a Dutch-speaking normative sample, Pediatrics 104,4:885-93; Sandfort, Th. & Cohen-Kettenis, P. (2000) Sexual behavior in Dutch and Belgian children as observed by their mothers, J Psychol & Hum Sex 12,1/2:105-15

[133] Larsson, I. & Svedin, C. G. (2001) Sexual behaviour in Swedish preschool children, as observed by their parents, Acta Paediatr 90,4:436-44

[134] Luckey, E. B. & Nass, G. B. (1969) A comparison of sexual attitudes and behavior in an international sample, J Marr & Fam 31,2:364-79

[135] Whitam, F. L. & Mathy, R. M. (1986) Male Homosexuality in Four Societies. New York [etc.]: Praeger; Whitam, F. L (1980) The prehomosexual male child in three societies: The United States, Guatemala, Brazil, Arch Sex Behav 9:87-99

[136] Gesell, A. L., Ilg, F. L. et al. (1943) Infant and Child in the Culture of Today, New York: Harper, p333-46; Gesell, A. L., Ilg, F. L. et al. (1946) The Child From 5 to 10. London: Hamilton, p322-5; Gesell, A. L., Ilg, F. L. & Ames, L. B. (1956) Youth: The Years From 10 to 16. New York: Harper & Brothers, p287-90

[137] Michael, R. T., Gagnon, J. H. et al. (1994) Sex in America: A Definitive Survey. London: Little, Brown & Co.

[138] Abramson, P. R. & Imai-Marquez, J. (1982) The Japanese-American: a cross-cultural, cross-sectional study of sex guilt, J Res Personal 16:227-37

[139]Abramson, P. R., Moriuchi, K. D., Waite, M. S. & Perry, L. B. (1983) Parental attitudes about sexual education: cross-cultural differences and covariate controls, Arch Sex Behav 12,5:381-97

[140] Harman, M. & Johnson, J. A. (1995) Cross-cultural sex education: Aspects of age, source, and sex equity, TCA J 23,2:1-11

[141] Whiting, J. W. M., Chasdi, E. H., Antonovsky, H. F. & Ayres, B. Ch. (1974) The learning of values, in Levine, R. A. (Ed.) Culture and Personality. Chicago: Aldine, p155-87. Orig. in Vogt, E. Z. & Albert, E. M. (Eds., 1966) Peoples of Rimrock. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press

[142] Childers, A. T. (1936) Some notes on sex mores among negro children, Am J Orthopsychia 6,3:442-8

[143] Hammond, B. E. & Ladner, J. A. (1969) Socialization into sexual behavior in a negro slum ghetto, in Broderick, C. B. & Bernard, J. (Eds.) The Individual, Sex, and Society. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, p41-51

[144]. Rainwater, L. (1970) Behind Ghetto Walls: Black Families in a Federal Slum. London: Allen. Pelican, 1973

[145] Radin, N. & Kamii, K. (1965) The child-rearing attitudes of disadvantaged negro mothers and some educational implications, J Negro Educ 34,2:138-46

[146] Bender, L. (1939) Behavior problems in Negro children, Psychiatry 2,2;213-28

[147] Yates, A. (1978) Sex Without Shame. New York: William Morrow

[148] Paikoff, R. L. (1995) Early heterosexual debut: situations of sexual possibility during the transition to adolescence, Am J Orthopsychia 65,3:389-401

[149] Cf. GUS Vol. II, §4.5.1

[150] Berdie, R. F. (1947) "Playing the Dozens", J Abnorm & Soc Psychol 42:120-1; Golightly, C. L. & Scheffler, I. (1948) "Playing the Dozens": a note, J Abnorm & Soc Psychol 43:104-5; Johnson, C. S. (1941) Growing Up in the Black Belt. Washington: American Council on Education, p184-5, 228; Schulz (1969:p67-9); Abrahams, R. D. (1962) Playing the Dozens, J Am Folkl 75:207-20

[151] Walker, D. R. (1945)The Need of Sex Education in Negro Schools, J Negro Educ 14,2:174-81

[152] Kariner, A. & Ovesey, L. (1962) The Mark of Oppression. New York: Meridian Books

[153] Bernard, J. (1966) Marriage and Family among Negroes. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall

[154] Schulz, D. A. (1969) Coming Up Black: Patterns of Ghetto Socialization. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall

[155] Op.cit.

[156] Williams, M. D. (1985) Childhood in an urban Black Ghetto: two life histories, in Hiner, R. & Hawes, J. M. (Eds.) Growing Up in America. Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, p221-35

[157] Romer, D., Black, M. et al. (1994) Social influences on the sexual behavior of youth at risk for HIV exposure, Am J Publ Health 84-6:977-85

[158] Romer, D., Stanton, B. et al. (1999) Parental influence on adolescent sexual behavior in high-poverty settings, Arch Ped & Adol Med 153, 10:1055-62

[159] Boone, M. S. (1989) Capital Cubans: Refugee Adaptation in Washington, D.C. New York: AMS Press

[160] García, M. C. (1996) Havana USA: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida, 1951-1994. Berkeley ; Los Angeles & London: University of California Press

[161] Brim, O. G. et al. (1962) Personality and Decision Processes. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, p221-2, 223-4

[162] Mintz, J. R. (1992) Hasidic People: A Place in the New World. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press

[163] Mintz, J. R. (1968) Legends of the Hasidim. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press

[164] Poll, S. (1962) The Hasidic Community of Williamsburg. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, Inc.

[165] Rubin, I. (1972) Satmar: An Island in the City. Chicago: Quadrangle Books

[166] Featherman, J. M. (1995) Jews and sexual child abuse, in Fontes, L. A. (Ed.) Sexual Abuse in Nine North American Cultures: Treatment and Prevention. Thousand Oaks, CA, US: Sage Publications, Inc; Thousand Oaks, CA, US: Sage Publications, Inc., p128-55

[167] Elkholy, A. A. (1966) The Arab Moslems in the United States: Religion and Assimilation. New Haven: College & University Press; Cainkar, L. (1991) Palestinian-American Muslim women: living on the margins of two worlds, in Waugh, E., Abu-Laban, Sh. M. & Qureshi, R. B. (Ed.) Muslim Families in North America. Edmonton: The University of Alberta Press, p282-357

[168]Abu-Laban, B. (1980) An Olive Branch on the Family Tree: The Arabs in Canada. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart

[169] Jabbra, N. W. (1991) Household and family among Lebanese immigrants in Nova Scotia: continuity, change and adaption. [Calgary, Alta.]: [s.n.], 1991. p39-56 [eHRAF]

[170] Yans-McLaughlin, V. (1943) Family and Community: Italian Immigrants in Buffalo, 1880-1930. Ithaca: Cornell University Press

[171] Covello, Italo-American School Child, p313 [orig. footnote]

[172] Whyte, W. F. (1944) Sicilian Peasant Society, Am Anthropol 46:[p71]; MacDonald, Italy's Rural Social Structure, p447–8; Covello, p302–7 [orig. footnote]

[173] Alba, R. D.(1985) Italian Americans: Into the Twilight of Ethnicity. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

[174] Ware, Greenwich Village, p. 182 [orig. footnote]

[175]Ibid., p180-8

[176]Icovetta, F. (1993) Such Hardworking People: Italian Immigrants in Postwar Toronto. Montreal; Buffalo: McGill-Queen's University Press

[177] Wallis, W. D. (1965) Fresno Armenians (to 1919). Lawrence, Kansas: Coronado Press

[178]Scott, G. M., Jr. (1986) Migrants without Mountains: The Politics of Sociocultural Adjustment among the Lao Hmong Refugees in San Diego. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms

[179] Ukapatayasakul, B. B. (1983) Hmong Refugee Economic Adjustment in a California Community. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International

[180] Weinstein-Shr, G. (1987) From Mountaintops to City Streets: An Ethnographic Investigation of Literacy and Social Process among the Hmong of Philadelphia. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International

[181] Donnelly, N. D. (1994) Changing Lives of Refugee Hmong Women. Seattle: University of Washington Press

[182] Rumbaut, R. G. & Weeks, J. R. (1986) Fertility and Adaptation: Indochinese Refugees in the United States, Int Migration Rev 20,2:428–65

[183] Lynch, A. (1996) Transmission and reconstruction of gender through dress: Hmong American New Year rituals, Clothing & Textiles Res J 14,4:257-66

[184] See Anderson, C. J. (1986) A Collection of Hmong Games. Master's paper, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

[185] Lynch, A. (1995) Hmong American New Year rituals: generational bonds through dress, ¨:111-20

[186] Hammond, R. (1988) Young Love: Teen Marriage Threatens the Progress of Minnesota's Hmong, Twin Cities Reader, June 15–21

[187] Peterson, S. N. (1990) From the Heart and the Mind: Creating Paj Ntaub in the Context of Community. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International

[188] Simic, A. (1983) The Serbian family in America: cultural continuity, syncretism, and assimilation, in ¨[Chicago, Ill.]: North American Society for Serbian Studies, 1,4:21-35

[189] It is noted that parental conservatism was apparently not unsuccessful. "In fact, parents often succeeded in at least partially imposing their customs and standards on their American-born children. Sometimes they were so successful in this that, in the words of a Serbian parish priest, "their children were just like the old-timers from Yugoslavia". It is significant that the inculcation of conservative sexual and social values is inexorably tied to the perpetuation of filial and ethnic sentiments, and those who are most alienated from their parents also appear to be those who are most estranged from their national heritage. Thus, while many individuals have been lost to the Serbian community because of generational and cultural conflict, at the same time there has been a continuity from generation to generation of core ethnics who have maintained parental values and identity".

[190] Glick, C. E. (1980) Sojourners and Settlers: Chinese Migrants in Hawaii. Honolulu: Hawaii History Center; University Press of Hawaii

[191] Hoe, B. S. (1976) Structural Changes of two Chinese Communities in Alberta, Canada. Ottawa, Ont.: National Museums of Canada

[192] Nee, V. G. (1986) Longtime Californ': A Documentary Study of an American Chinatown. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press

[193] Weiss, M. S. (1974) Valley City: A Chinese Community in America. Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman, p85-6

[194] Wong, B. P. (1982) Chinatown, Economic Adaptation and Ethnic Identity of the Chinese. Fort Worth, Tex.: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc.

[195] Acosta Johnson, C. (1980) Breast-feeding and social class mobility: the case of Mexican migrant mothers in Houston, Texas, in Melville, M. B. (Ed.) Twice a Minority: Mexican-American Women. St. Louis, Missouri: Mosby, p66-82

[196] Whiteford, L. (1980) Mexican American women as innovators, in Melville, M. (Ed.) Twice a Minority. St. Louis, Missouri: Mosby, p109-26

[197] Johnston, C. M. & Deisher, R. W. (1973) Contemporary communal child rearing: a first analysis, Pediatrics 52,3:319-26

[198]Berger, B. M. & Hackett, B. H. (1974) On the decline of age grading in rural hippie communes, J Social Issues 30,2:163-83; Berger, B. M. (1977) Child-rearing research in communes: the extension of adult sexual behavior to young children, in Oremland, E. K. & Oremland, J. D. (Eds.) The Sexual Gender and Young Children: The Role of the Educator. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger, p159-63; Berger, B. M. (1981) Liberating child sexuality: a commune experience, in Constantine, L. & Martinson, F. (Eds., 1981) Children and Sex: New Findings, New Perspectives. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., p247-54

[199] Krivacska, J. (2001) Societal myths about sex offending and consequences for prevention of offending behavior against children and women, Iss Child Abuse Accus 11,1

[200] Weber, F. T., Gearing, J., Davis, A. & Conlon, M. (1992) Prepubertal initiation of sexual experiences and older first partner predict promiscuous sexual behavior of delinquent adolescent males--unrecognized child abuse? J Adolesc Health 13,7:600-5

[201] De Jong, A. R. (1989) Sexual interactions among siblings and cousins: experimentation or exploitation? Child Abuse & Negl 13,2:271-9

[202] Miller, B. A., Downs, W. R. et al. (1987) The role of childhood sexual abuse in the development of alcoholism in women, Violence Vict 2,3:157-72

[203]Tobin, J. J. (1997) Playing doctor in two cultures: The United States and Ireland, in Tobin, J. J. (Ed.) Making a Place for Pleasure in Early Childhood Education. New Haven, CT, US: Yale University Press, 119-58

[204] Money, J. (1991) Epidemic Antisexualism: From Onanism to Satanism. Paper presented at the 10th World Congress of Sexology, Amsterdam, June. Cf. Money, J. (1992) Epidemic antisexualism: from onanism to satanism, in Bezemer, W. et al. (Eds.) Sex Matters. Amsterdam [etc.] : Excerpta Medica, p201-9

[205] Krivacska, J. J. (1991) Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Programs: The Prevention of Childhood Sexuality? Paper presented at the 7th Midcontinent Annual Conference of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, June 9. Cf. Krivacska, J. J. (1992) Child sexual abuse in programs: the prevention of childhood sexuality? J Child Sexual Abuse 1,4:83-112; and Krivacska, J. J. (1993) Antisexualism in child sexual abuse prevention programs, Issues Child Abuse Accus 5,2; Underwager, R. & Wakefield, H. (1993) Antisexuality and Child Sexual Abuse, Iss Child abuse Accus 5,2:[72-7]

[206] Borneman, E. (1985) Das Geschlechtsleben des Kindes. München: Urban & Scharzenberg, p135-43, esp. p142

[207] Rind, B., Tromovitch, P. & Bauserman, R. (1998) A meta-analytic examination of assumed properties of child sexual abuse using college samples, Psychol Bull 124,1:22-53; Rind, B. & Tromovitch, P. (1998) A Meta-Analytic Review of Findings from National Samples on Psychological Correlates of Child Sexual Abuse. J Sex Res 34,3:237-55

[208] For a recent discussion of the original article, see Ondersma, S. J., Chaffin, M., Berliner, L., Cordon, I., Goodman, G. S. & Barnett, D. (2001) Sex with children is abuse: comment on Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman (1998), Psychol Bull 127,6:707-14; Dallam, S. J., Gleaves, D. H., Cepeda-Benito, A., Silberg, J. L., Kraemer, H. C. & Spiegel, D. (2001) The effects of child sexual abuse: comment on Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman (1998), Psychol Bull 127,6:715-33; Rind, B., Tromovitch, P. & Bauserman, R. (2001) The validity and appropriateness of methods, analyses, and conclusions in Rind et al. (1998): A rebuttal of victimological critique from Ondersma et al. (2001) and Dallam et al. (2001), Psychol Bull 127,6:734-58

[209] Krivacska, J. (2001) Societal myths about sex offending and consequences for prevention of offending behavior against children and women, Iss Child Abuse Accus 11,1

[210] Schneider, E. C. (2000) Performing Masculinity: Streetgangs in Postwar New York. Paper Presented at History of Childhood in America Conference, Washington, D.C., August 5 and 6

[211] Morris, R. E., Harrison, E. A., Knox, G. W. & Tromanhauser, E. et al. (1995) Health risk behavioral survey from 39 juvenile correctional facilities in the United States, J Adolesc Health 17,6:334-44

[212] E.g., Miller, W. B. (1973) Race, Sex, and Gangs: The Molls, Trans-Action 11,1:32-5

[213] Haroian, L. (1986) Psychosexual disorders, in Reisman (Ed.) Behavior Disorders in Infants, Children and Adolescents. New York: Random House, p319-44

[214] Cf. Vol. I, Appendix III

[215] For an annotated paper discussing the role of sexuality in classroom environments, see Middleton, S. (1996) Canes, Berets and Gangsta Rap: Disciplining Sexuality in School, 1920-1995. Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, April 8-12. Cf. Middleton, S. (1998) Disciplining Sexuality: Foucault, Life Histories, and Education. New York: Teachers College Press

[216] Kakavoulis, A. (1998) Early Childhood Sexual Development and Sex Education: A Survey of Attitudes of Nursery School Teachers, Eur Early Ch'h Educ Res J 6,2:55-70

[217] Wallis, A. & Van Every, J. (2000) Sexuality in the Primary School, Sexualities 3,4:409-23

[218] Cf. Skelton, Ch. (1997) Primary Boys and Hegemonic Masculinities, Br J Sociol Educ 18,3:349-69; Skelton, Ch. (2001) Schooling the Boys: Masculinities and Primary Education. Educating Boys, Learning Gender. Florence, KY: Taylor & Francis Inc./Open University Press, chapter "Heterosexuality in the Primary Classroom"

[219]Renold, E. (2000) "Coming Out": Gender, (Hetero)Sexuality and the Primary School, Gender & Educ 12,3:309-26

[220] Best, R. (1983) We've All Got Scars. Bloomington: Indiana University Press

[221]Op.cit. Cf. Thorne, B. (1993) Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. New Brunswick, NJ.: Rutgers University Press

[222] Thurlow, C. (2001) Naming the "outsider within": homophobic pejoratives and the verbal abuse of lesbian, gay and bisexual high-school pupils, J Adolesc 24,1:25-38

[223] Plummer, D. C. (2001) The quest for modern manhood: masculine stereotypes, peer culture and the social significance of homophobia, J Adolesc 24,1:15-23. Cf. Plummer, D. (1999) One of the Boys: Masculinity, Homophobia and Modern Manhood, New York: Haworth Press; Plummer, D. (March, 2000) Girls Germs: Sexuality, Gender, Health and Metaphors of Contagion. Paper, NSW Chapter Scientific Meeting. From http://www.acshp.org.au/sexual_health/transcripts/girls_germs.htm

[224] Epstein, D. (1997) Boyz' own stories: masculinities and sexualities in schools, Gender & Educ 9,1:105-15

[225] Epstein, D. (1996) Cultures of Schooling, Cultures of Sexuality. Paper presented at the 77th Annual Conference of the American Educational Research Association. New York, April 8-12

[226] Voss, L. S. (1997) Teasing, Disputing, and Playing: Cross-Gender Interactions and Space Utilization among First and Third Graders, Gender & Society 11,2:238-56

Non-Native North-America [IES]

Ethnic-Religious Index

Mormons, African Americans, Cuban Americans, North American Hasidic Jews, Arab Americans, Italian Americans, North American Armenians, North American Hmong, Serbian Americans, Chinese Americans, Mexican Americans

Contents of Section

Introduction: The Land of Child Sexology [up] [Contents]

Sexual Behaviour Socialisation: Historical Notes (particularly 1930s-1980s) and the "Masturbation" Discourse[9] [up] [Contents]