Index

Europe

IES:Ukraine

UKRAINE

 

Anderson[1], in augmentation to material offered by Wikman[2], reports on traditional night courting (bundling). Typical for former Europe, the phenomenon comes in two Ukrainian species: the individual form (houlyenka) and the communal (group) form (dosvitke). Chastity is stressed; no claims were made as for its timing.

 

Govorun and Vornyk (1997)[3] on childhood socialisation:

 

“[…] from early childhood, the deliberate manipulation of genitals is mostly prohibited by the family and social environment. Most children do not receive any information about their genitals as the source of pleasure and good feelings. Parents usually worry so intensely about the occurrence of masturbation that this initial sexual experience is immediately suppressed whenever discovered. Still, what surveys are available [?] suggest that by 6 years of age, between 2 and 10 percent of children have engaged in self-pleasuring”. “Recent studies conducted in Ukraine by sexologists Iryna Vovk, Ihor Gorpinchenko, Zoreslava Shkiriak-Nyzhnik, and Borys Vornyk; and psychologists Myrosluv Borishevskyj, Oksana Shurgan, Tamara Govorun, and Svitlana Kyrylenko investigated the attitudes of elementary school children […]. They also examined their knowledge of sexual reproduction”.

 

“To a large degree, sex and gender behavior begins in the home. At various stages, children should receive knowledge about sex and reproduction from their parents. Thus, the new program initiated efforts to encourage family-based sexuality education. A substantial gap, however, exists between the knowledge provided by the family and the average child's curiosity needs. This gap makes clear the need for child- and parent-oriented knowledge that revives national family customs and traditions”.

 

Mogilevkina et al. (2001)[4], in a 1999 classroom survey of sexual behaviour among 689 first-year medical students at Donetsk State Medical University, Ukraine, found a mean age of first intercourse of 15.7 years for the men and 16.6 years for the women.

 


Link:

 

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

 

 

 

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

Last revised: Dec 2004

 



[1] Anderson, R. T. (1962) Ukrainian Night Courting, Anthropol Quart 35,1:29-32

[2]Wikman, K. (1937) Die Einleitung der Ehe. Sonderabdruck der Acta Academiae Aboenis, Humaniora XI.I. Abo Akademi, Abo

[3] Govorun, T. & Vornyk, B. M. (1997) Ukraine, in Francoeur, R. T. (Ed.) The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality. New York: Continuum, Vol. III. Quoted from the online edition

[4] Mogilevkina, I. Tyden, T. & Odlind, V. (2001) Ukrainian medical students’ experiences, attitudes, and knowledge about reproductive health, J Am Coll Health 49,6:269-72