“In
In 19th century forensic psychiatry sexual assault against children was seen as the result of either a pathological condition or social disability. The perpetrator might also have been tempted by a seductive girl, although boys were never seen as seductive and hence were held blameless. Further, the general opinion among professionals was that sexual assault, if not too violent, rarely led to severe or permanent damage to the child. Cases
concerning sexual crimes against
children in A historical report on the Swedish discourse on child sexuality is written by Bergenheim (1994)[3]. “No Swedish studies, either attitudinal nor
behavioral, have been done on sexual exploration and sex-rehearsal play among
children. These natural behaviors are probably more permitted today that half
a century ago. But no one talked about this at that time, and very few talk
about it now” (Trost and Bergstrom-Walan, 1997)[4].
The statement on studies is not correct. Two day-care centre oriented studies
are carried out on preschoolers: one (N=251)
reported by Larsson (1994)[5]
and Lindblad et al. (1995)[6];
the second (N=231, incl. parental
observations) reported by Larsson and Svedin (1999)[7],
Larsson et al. (2000)[8],
and Larsson and Svedin (2001)[9].
Comparison with American data is also reported in the latter studies. Goldman
and Goldman (1981)[10]
did study children’s sexual arguing in
Some earlier studies on adolescents prove to be informative on childhood (Israel et al., 1970; Busch, 1974; Lewin, 1982)[12]. In a study of Swedish high school students (Klanger et al., 1993)[13], the median age at sexual debut was about 17 years. Among girls who had had intercourse, the median age at debut was lower than 10 years ago. Interestingly, 2% thought that they had too much sex education at school. Still, 41% felt they could not talk about sex with their parents. Back
in 1980, McConaghy[14]
tentatively suggested that Swedish children may be advanced in awareness of
genital differences and the genital basis of gender as compared to Ullerstam[16] states
that sexual games between parents and infants in
Larsson and Svedin (2002a)[17] received anonymous questionnaires as answered by 269 final year, senior high-school students, mean age 18.6 years; 82.9% of the students reported solitary sexual experiences and 82.5% had mutual experiences together with another child.
Most of the children had their experiences together with a same-age friend. Girls had more same-sex experiences than boys did. Thirteen percent reported coercive experiences where they had been tricked, bribed, threatened, or physically forced into participation. Some children, 8.2%, had coerced another child into participation in sexual activities. The majority thought of their childhood experiences as normal. There were also 6.3% of the respondents who had had “inappropriate” sexual experiences (with someone at least 5 years older), the majority being girls. Gender differences were evident in several respects: girls were more often “coerced”, they felt more guilt, and they had far less experience of masturbation, whereas boys were somewhat more active in explorative activities on their own as well as with peers. The authors assert that “[s]ome kind of coercive sexual experiences appears to be part of growing up for quite a few children”.
Larsson and Svedin (2002b)[18] received questionnaires of parents and day-care teachers of 185 preschool children (3-6), from different socio-economic housing areas, answering questions about each child’s sexual and general behaviour. They were also asked about their own opinions on child sexual behaviour. Parental and staff attitudes toward child sexuality were quite open, although 67% of the parents and 41% of the teachers never spoke to the children on sexual matters. One fifth of the adults used no term for genitals at all, and even fewer had a name for girls’ genitals. In an earlier publication[19], Larsson sketches the Swedish “abuse transition”:
“In the 1970s and 1980s, in the spirit
of sexual liberalisation, some pedagogical literature on children and
sexuality was published in & Risán, 1976; Aigner & Centerwall, 1983)[[20]]. The books were based on the idea of “good sexuality” and included advice on how adults could teach small children to masturbate using a good technique and how daycare staff could encourage children to play explorative games of “doctors and nurses”. After the “discovery” of sexual abuse, the literature and adult education for professional groups working with children has primarily focused on children who are maltreated (see e.g. Akselsdotter, 1993) [[21]]” (p14).
Gisela Helmius[22] notes in
a 1992 lecture in
“research among young people in
contemporary
In an 1991 paper[23], the author notes:
“In
In a study by Långströmet al. (2002)[24], scores of CBCL items concerning (apparently) specific sexual behaviour “problems” (Plays with own sex parts in public and Plays with own sex parts “too much”) were summed and the influence of genetic and environmental factors on variability assessed.
Svedin[25] reports on 420 questionnaires answered by parents.
“The result shows that parents construct their children’s sexuality as something that reaches importance to them when the children get close to puberty. Described behaviour are largely connected to their child’s own body and language rather than interactions with other children, which can be interpreted as an effect of seven to twelve year old children being much out of reach from parental supervision during the day. Almost one third of the parents had no names for the genitals that the y used with the children, while the two thirds of parents who named their children’s genitals to a greater extent had a name for boys genitals. It was twice as common for mothers to have talks about sexual thing with their children, compared to fathers, and it was often as a response to questions from the child. The majority of the mothers considered the influence of sexuality from media to be far too big, while the fathers where more moderate in the views with reference to this issue. It was obvious in the results that children already from the age of seven are very conscious about their body and looks, where overweight was the most prominent cause of worry. For the older children also the size of the penis and the development of breasts created anxiety. Only fourteen percent of the parents had had information from the school about their sex education plans. A total of seventy three percent considered sex education to be of importance at school. The interviews with the teachers also show that sex education mostly took place within a special theme-week during the spring term every year, for children ten to twelve years old. It was evident that teachers saw early sexual development in girls as something that could cause problems, both for the teachers and the boys and the other girls.”
Janssen,
D. F., Growing Up Sexually. Last revised: Aug 2005 |
|
[1]Edgardh, K. (2002) Adolescent sexual health in
[2]
Bergenheim, Å. (1998) Brottet, offret och förövaren: om synen på incest och
sexuella övergrepp mot barn 1850-1910 [The crime, the victim, and the
perpetrator: attitudes toward incest and sexual assault against children,
1850-1910], Lychnos [
[3] Bergenheim, Å. (1994) Barnet, Libido och Samhälle: Om den Svenska Diskursen kring Barns Sexualitet 19301960. Dissertation, Umeå University. Grängesberg: Höglunds Förlag. [English summary, p357-61]
[4] Trost, J. E.
& Bergstrom-Walan, M. (1997) Sweden, in Francoeur, R. T. (Ed.) The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality.
[5] Larsson,
[6] Lindblad,
F., Gustafsson, P., Larsson,
[7] Larsson, I. & Svedin, C. G. (1999) Sexual behaviour in Swedish Preschool Children as Observed by their Parents. Unpublished Manuscript
[8] Larsson,
[9] Larsson, I. & Svedin, C. G. (2001) Sexual behaviour in Swedish preschool children, as observed by their parents, Acta Paediatr 90,4:436-44
[10] Goldman,
R. & Goldman, J. (1981) Children’s
Sexual Thinking: A Comparative Study of Children Aged 5-15 Years in
[11] Helmius,
G. & Lewin, B. (1983) [Youth and
sexuality: a sociological study of the sexual attitudes and experience of young
people].
[12]
Israel, J. et al. (1970) Sexuelle Verhaltensformen der Swedischen
Groþstadtjugend, in Bergström-Walan, M. et al. (Eds.) Modellfall Skandinavien? Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, p137-218; Busch
(1974 [1972]) Sexual behavior in Sweden, in Holmstedt, M. (Ed.) Second Seminar onSex Education and
Social Development in
p46-58; Lewin, B. (1982) The Adolescent Boy and Girl: First and Other Early Experiences with Intercourse from a Representative Sample of Swedish School Adolescents, Arch Sex Behav 11,5:417-28. See further a number of studies cited by Israel et al.: Hofsten (1944), Hohman & Schaffber (1947); Jonssen (1951); Hesseldahl & Hauptmann (1963); Linderoth & Rundberg (1964); Jacobsen (1965); Zetterberg (1969)
[13] Klanger, B., Tyden, T. & Ruusuvaara, L. (1993) Sexual behavior among adolescents in Uppsala, Sweden, J Adolesc Health 14,6:468-74
[14] McConaghy,
M. J. (1980) The gender understanding of Swedish children, Child Psychia & Hum Developm 11,
[15]
Barthalow-Koch (1980) A comparison of the sex education of primary-aged
children in the
International Symposium. Montréal: Éditions Études Vivantes, p345-55
[16] Ullerstam, L.
([1966]) De Erotiska Minoriteterna.
English transl., The Erotic Minorities,
p46-7. Dutch transl., De Seksuele
Minderheden. 2nd ed. The Hague: Oisterwijk. Cited
by Martinson, F. M. (1973) Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective.
[17] Larsson, I. & Svedin, C. G. (2002a) Sexual experiences in childhood: young adults’ recollections, Arch Sex Behav 31,3:263-73
[18] Larsson, I. & Svedin, C. G. (2002b) Teachers’ and parents’ reports on 3- to 6-year-old children’s sexual behavior- a comparison, Child Abuse & Neglect 26,3:247-66
[19] Larsson,
[20] Olsson, M-L. &
Risán, P. (1978). Sexuell Utveckling.
[21] Akselsdotter K.
(1993) Små Barns Signaler om Sexuella Övergrepp. Handbok för Förskolan.
[22] Helmius,
G. (Oct., 1992) Sex, Love and Socialization. Lecture given as part of
course “Philosophy of Sex and Love”, Queen’s University at
[23] Helmius,
G. (1991) Adolescent Sexual Joy, Physical Dependency and the Adult World’s
Troubled Concern. Paper presented at the IFHSB (International Federation
for Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida) 6th Congress, August 14-18,
[24] 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
[25] Carl Göran Svedin, Sexual behaviour in children aged 7-12, and mothers, fathers and teachers views on sexuality in girls and boys. Research: http://www.fas.forskning.se/en/project/showCasePrinterFriendly.asp?ID=6821