Growing Up Sexually

IES: Norway

NORWAY

A research project was conducted on primary school children in the late seventies, completed with a retrospective study[1]. Obscene folklore in Nordic school children was studied by Heitmann (1988)[2]. An authority on Norwegian childhood sexuality is Thore Langfeldt, who published widely on the matter in Norwegian and English[3] (cf. Almås and Pirelli Benestad, 2001:p468-9[4]; Martinson, 1994, ch. 2). His original data were derived from clinical material, according to communications, on between eighty and hundred subjects aged seven to 67. Additional data were derived from students attending courses in sexology, young individuals (9-18) in therapy because of sexual problems, and interviews with street boys, Oslo boy prostitutes, and male homosexuals and paedophiles (1981:p37-8).

“Ola Raknes, one of [Wilhelm] Reich’s most prominent Norwegian proponents, did extensive research on the results of the socialization of sexuality in childhood. Raknes was able to identify many adult sexual problems that were related to the repression of the natural sexual urge in childhood” ([no refs]; Almås and Pirelli Benestad, 2001:p450). Also, “[y]oung people are left to learn about sexuality from the media and their peer groups. Many parents still find it difficult to talk to their children about sexuality; they hope that the school will take care of this” (p452).

In a 1987 study by Sundet et al. (1992)[5], median coital debut age was 18 for females, and 18.4 for males, with definite cohort effects, especially for females.

Additional refs.:

· Ericsson, K. (2004) Child Welfare as Social Defense against Sexuality: A Norwegian Example, in Bernstein, E. & Schaffner, L. (Eds.) Regulating Sex, The Politics of Intimacy and Identity. Routledge.

· Hegna, K. (2003a) A Young Boy Selling Sexual Services – Agency and Constraint. NYRIS 8 Conference (8th Nordic Youth Research Symposium) 11. - 14. June 2003, RoskildeUniversity

· Hegna, K. (2003b) Same-Sex And Opposite-Sex Sexual Experiences Among Norwegian Adolescents - Experimentation, Heterosexual Scripts And Sexual Orientation. 6th Conference of Esa [European Sociological Association] Murcia, Spain, September 23-26

· Hegna, K., Mossige, S. & Wichstrom, L. (2004) Older adolescents' positive attitudes toward younger adolescents as sexual partners, Adolescence. Winter 39 (156) :627-51 [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2248/is_156_39/ai_n9487156/print]

· http://www.interpol.int/Public/Children/SexualAbuse/NationalLaws/csaNorway.asp

· Nielsen, A. G. (1998) Børns sexualitet er tabu, Børn & Unge 39,8

· Teiste, K. (1993) “Boys Should Ask and Girls Should Say No”: The Relation between Man and Woman in Ringerike and Hallingdal, 1652-1710, Ethnologia Scandinavica 23:36-44

· Pedersen, Willy & Samuelsen, Sven Ove (2003) Nye mønstre av seksualatferd blant ungdom, Tidsskr Nor Lægeforen 123: 3006-9 [http://www.tidsskriftet.no/lts-pdf/pdf2003/3006-9.pdf]

· Pedersen, Willy & Samuelsen, Sven Ove (2004) Sex, chat and the mobile telephone: A normal population study of adolescents. [http://www.fotf.ca/familyfacts/analysis/110404cellphones_teensex.pdf / http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/sv/iss/SOS4401/h04/undervisningsmateriale/sexandmobile.doc]

· Pedersen, W. (2004) Mobilbruk, chat og sex blant norske tenåringer, Tidsskrift for Den norske lægeforening, 124(13/14):1756-1759

· Pedersen, W. & S. O. Samuelsen (2003). "New patterns of sexual behaviors among adolescents." Tidsskrift for Den norske lægeforening 123:3006-0

· Pedersen, W., S. O. Samuelsen, et al. (2003). "Intercourse debut: Poor resources, problem behaviors or romantic appeal?" Journal of Sex Research 40:333-346 [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2372/is_4_40/ai_112247851/print]

· Valle, A. K., Torgersen, L., Roysamb, E., Klepp, K.I. & Thelle, D.S. (2005) Social class, gender and psychosocial predictors for early sexual debut among 16 year olds in Oslo, Eur J Public Health. 2005 Feb 22; [http://eurpub.oupjournals.org/cgi/rapidpdf/cki121v1.pdf]

· Pedersen, W. & K. Hegna (2003) Children and adolescents who sell sex: A community study, Social Science & Medicine, 56,1:135-147

Janssen, D. F., Growing Up Sexually. Volume I. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology

Last revised: Mar 2005

[1] Gundersen, B. & Skår, J. (1977) Der seksuelle utvikling fra f dsel til 3 års alderen belyst gjennom intervju med foreldre og dagheimspersonell. Research Report, Dpt. Of Somatic Personality Psychology, University of Bergen; Skår, J. & Gundersen, B. (1978) En Retrospektiv Studie av Kvinnelig Seksualitet. Unpublished data, cited by Gundersen, B., Melås, S. & Skår, J. (1981) Sexual behavior in preschool children: teachers’ observations, in Constantine, L. L. & Martinson, F. M. (Eds.) Children and Sex: New Findings, New Perspectives. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., p45-61

[2]Heitmann, V. (1988) Obsceniteit, Romantiek en Dood in de Mondelinge Traditie van Noorse Schoolkinderen. University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 2 vols. [Dutch]

[3] Langfeldt, Th. (1977/1979/1981) Processes in sexual development, in Constantine, L. & Martinson, F. (Eds., 1981) Children and Sex: New Findings, New Perspectives. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., p37-44; Langfeldt, Th. (1980) Child sexuality: development and problems, in Samson, J. (Ed.) Childhood & Sexuality: Proceedings of the International Symposium. Montréal: Éditions Études Vivantes, p105-9; Langfeldt, Th. (1981a) Sexual development in children, in Cook, M. & Howells, K. (Eds.) Adult Sexual Interest in Children. New York: Academic Press, p99-120; Langfeldt, Th. (1981b) Childhood masturbation: individual and social organization, in Constantine, L. & Martinson, F. (Eds.) Children and Sex: New Findings, New Perspectives. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., p63-72; Langfeldt, Th. (1983) Aspekter ved barns seksuelle utvikling of problemer, Nordisk Sexol 1:45-52; Langfeldt, Th. (1986a) Hypermasturbation in Children. Poster presented at 12th meeting Int Acad Sex Research, Amsterdam; Langfeldt T. (1986b) Børns Sexualitet. København: Mallings / Langfeldt, Th. (1987) Barns Sexualitet. [Swedish translation]. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur; Langfeldt, Th. (1990) Early childhood and juvenile sexuality, development and problems, in Perry, M. E. (Ed.) Handbook of Sexology, Vol.7. Amsterdam: Elsevier, p179-200; Langfeldt, Th. (1993) Early childhood and juvenile sexuality, development and problems, Nordisk Sexol 11,2:78-100; Langfeldt, Th. (1994) Aspects concerning the development and therapy of sexual deviant patterns in children, Nordisk Sexol 12,2:105-10

[4] Almås, E. & Pirelli Benestad, E. E. (2001) Norway, in Francoeur, R. T. (Ed.-in-chief) The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality. Vol. IV. New York: Continuum, p443-73

[5] Sundet, J. M. et al. (1989) Secular trends and sociodemographic regularities of coital debut age in Norway, Arch Sex Behav 21,3:241-52