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Sexual Dev. in Infancy and Childhood--F.Martinson

Posted by Manstuprator on 2024-March-2 00:11:35, Saturday

NOTE: Next time someone tells you that children are not sexual beings, quote to them from this!
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 30-40 MINUTES


SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD
by Floyd M. Martinson

Sexuality is seldom treated as a strong or healthy force in the positive develop-
ment of a child’s personality in the United States. We are not inclined to be-
lieve that our children are sexual or that they should be sexual in any of their
behaviors. Although it is difficult to generalize in our pluralistic society, there is
typically no permission for normal child sexual experiences. Children are not
taught to understand their sexual experiences or to anticipate sexual experiences
as enjoyable. Rather, they are taught to be wary of most sexual experiences, both
interpersonally and intrapsychically.

There are conflicting and contradictory expectations in American society con-
cerning sexuality. Despite the inhibition of sexual knowledge and experience, we
expect adolescents to develop a secure sexual identity in preparation for healthy
adult relationships. We demand that adolescents develop a healthy sexual matu-
rity before engaging in learning experiences that make that maturity possible
(Gadpaille, 1975). Our society’s confusing expectations contribute to dysfunctional
sexual attitudes and behaviors.

In the protective paradigm (Lee, 1980) that we have generally accepted as the
proper perspective for rearing children, we attempt to protect children from even
knowing there is such a thing as sexuality. This protection, as traditionally carried
out, has meant that the child is shielded from all adult and adolescent, and most
childhood, sexual experience. There is no modeling on the part of adolescents or
adults, sex talk in the presence of children is avoided, nonlabeling or mislabeling
of' sexual parts and activities occurs, no sexual experimentation with peers or sib-
lings is allowed, and no age-appropriate sex education for younger children is sanc-
tioned. North American children know the least about sexuality, received their
sexual knowledge at older ages, and are least prepared for adult sexual experience
when compared with other English-speaking and with Swedish children (Gold-
man & Goldman, 1982).

Children nevertheless have capacities for sexual experiences and interactions,
and they do express sexual behavior in a variety of ways. An increased under-
standing of the child’s sexual development may enable us to increase our aware-
ness of the role that sexuality plays in both sexually abusive behaviors and the
development of deviant arousal. It also contributes to an understanding of the
impact of sexual victimization at various ages, the ability to identify problems re-
lated to dysfunctional sexual development, and early identification of sexually
abusive attitudes, interests, and behaviors.

The sexual development of the child is complex, involving a number of fac-
tors. During its intrauterine period, the fetus exhibits sensory development that
continues through the neonatal stage. The neonate is developing the capacity for
intimacy through its interaction with its mother or other primary caregiver. Dur-
ing this period, the capacities of both tactile responsiveness and sensual interac-
tion are enhanced. In the first year, the child exhibits increased interest in bodily
exploration, as well as autoeroticism and the development of orgasmic abilities.
In early childhood, there is increasing social interaction, especially with peers, that
involves experimentation with sexual behaviors and intimacy. Gender roles and
continued interactional sexual experimentation continue to develop through the
preadolescent years, and during adolescence youth appear to learn sexual and in-
timate behaviors that enable them to function as adults in sexual encounters.

Each child’s development is markedly influenced by the cultural norms and
expectations, familial interactions and values, and the interpersonal experiences
encountered. Organic capacities, cognitive development and integration, and in-
trapsychic influences further determine the rate and extent of development of the
sexual capacity. There are no predictable biological-psychological stages that occur
during the stages of growing up. There is no universal ontogeny; there are no in-
born, normal stages in the sexual development of the child. There are, however,
identifiable capacities and behaviors that appear to contribute to the child’s sex-
ual development.

The sensory capacity for erotic experience begins to emerge during the in-
trauterine development of the human organism. Eroticism, the condition of being
physically or psychically aroused, excited, or motivated, is an integral part of
human sexual functioning. The sources of the capacity and motivation for eroti-
cism are both organic and social in nature, whether one is aroused toward oneself
(autoeroticism) or by and toward another person, including experiences of desire,
tenderness, and passionate affection for and with another (alloeroticism). The rate
and extent of erotic capacities are markedly influenced by social experiences. The
capacities for eroticism, begun during the embryonic stage, continue to emerge
and develop through fetal, neonatal, and infantile stages given favorable condi-
tions. There is a developmental erotic continuum.

Sensory Development in Utero

Although children do not normally have a sufficiently strong, compelling, inborn
sex drive that will overcome all social obstacles to its expression, they do have a
significant sensory capacity, especially tactile responsiveness. All senses can be in-
volved in erotic excitation and satisfaction. For humans, touch is more intimately
related to erotic arousal and activity leading to orgasm than are the other senses,
such as smell or taste. The potential for sensory capacity for touch appears to
begin its development early. The fetus is responsive to pressure and touch; at times
the fetus appears to move intentionally for the sensual reason of making itself
more comfortable in the uterus. Just as children have the capacity to develop a
very robust appetite for sexual experience, including orgasm, the fetus may also
be experienced in autostimulation before birth.

The intrauterine period of development is an active one for the sensory de-
velopment and experience of the human organism. One of the earliest sensory
systems to become functional in the embryonic stage is the skin (Montague, 1978).
The skin enables the human organism to experience its environment.

The fetus is massaged with each movement of the mother as she carries on
her daily activities. Stroking, massaging, and rocking of premature infants who
have missed the stimulating activity in the womb have dramatic results: significant
increases in body weight and improved neurological and bodily functioning. With-
out stimulation and activity, normal growth and maturation are hampered. The
fetus is active in the womb because movement is absolutely essential to full human
development, and perhaps because activity reduces tensions and increases plea-
surable feelings.

The areas of cutaneous reflex are generalized over the body (Langworthy,
1933). Although the embryonic response to tactile stimulation appears reflexive,
the fetus may also engage in purposeful autostimulation before birth. Habituation
and perhaps even some sensate learning take place even before birth, as well as
the early development of a system of tensional outlets. Genital erectile capacity
is in functional readiness during the fetal period (Calderone, 1983), and some fetal
genital play is possible.

The fetus also becomes acquainted with its extrauterine environment through
hearing. It can hear the mother’s heartbeat and other organic sounds, hear the
rhythm and tone of conversations between the mother and others, and detect the
difference between male and female voices (Pines, 1982). Since the mother’s voice
will be the one the fetus hears most regularly, if the rhythm, intensity, and timbre
of that voice provide a pleasant experience, it may well be that the fetus is proso-
cially primed to a positive relationship with that mother as a neonate.

Development of Attachment and Sensory
Responsiveness in the Neonate

The newborn infant continues to develop responsiveness to sensory stimulation
through contact with the mother. Beginning with the initial moments of contact
with the mother, the first social experiences become the basis for future patterns
of communication and intimacy. The neonate is capable of beginning a bond
with the mother immediately on birth in spite of its total inability to fend for it-
self. Klaus and Kennell (1976), who coined the term maternal sensitivity period, see
this sensitive period in the first minutes and hours after birth as vital for parent-
infant attachment and the “wellspring for all the infant’s subsequent attachments”
to other individuals.

Infants are capable of interactional behaviors in spite of being almost totally
dependent on the mother or other primary caregiver for food, protection, and
early interaction. With favorable early attention and stimulation, babies respond
to attachment behaviors (fondling, caressing, kissing, gazing at, looking en face, talk-
ing to, and being held close) by forming an attachment relationship. Eye-to-eye
contact is an especially significant aspect of initial mother-neonate interaction
since neonates lack definitive vocal symbols. A high degree of eye-to-eye contact
between mother and infant has been observed to lead to the infant’s immediate
cessation of crying and a stronger bond with the mother (Clark-Stewart, 1973).
Vocal interaction occurs between the mother and the neonate during the first few
days of life, and the neonate’s motor behavior becomes entrained by and syn-
chronized with the speech behavior of the mother. Synchrony is an important
element in mother-infant interaction. Establishing mutual attention is generally
only the first step in a whole series of behaviors beginning the patterns of com-
munication (Honig, 1982) and learning.

The true locus of intimacy is the dyad. Because of neonates’ dependency and
immobility, their first social experience is by necessity within a dyad, usually with
the mother. The earlier, the more, and the better the time mother and infant spend
together, the more intimate their relationship becomes. Attachment and intimacy
result from the consistency of this relationship.

Neonates’ interactive resources are meager indeed. They engage in infant-
parent interaction, but it is not symbolic interaction. Neonates’ initial motivations
are not socially acquired; rather, they are physiological and psychological givens.
In this first experience with others, babies are at a zero point as far as symbolic
meanings are concerned, but they nevertheless have energy, capacities, some in-
herent predispositions, and needs. The neonate’s interpersonal competency be-
gins development through interaction with the parents and is enhanced by the
variety and complexity of those interactions.

Although neonates are totally incapable of fending for themselves, it is not
accurate to assume that they are only passive and receptive. Neonates from the
moment of birth have a relatively advanced sensory system (Harris, Cassel, &
Bamborough, 1974). They appear to have a “capacity for curiosity,” and their
first impulse appears to be the desire to establish contact with the outside world
(Kanner, 1939). As a general principle, neonates appear to have an “instinct to
master” (Hendrick, 1942), to want to do what they are able to do, a basic psy-
chobiological impulse or urge to experience and to control as large a segment of
the outside world as is compatible with their very obvious locomotive limitations,
and their limitation in the use of symbols. Neonates appear to derive pleasure by
the affective use of those sensory, motor, and intellectual functions physiologically
available to them. Healthy infants appear to possess an immediate desire to use
each ego function and to perfect it as soon as it becomes physiologically possible.
The whole body of impulse can be regarded as a yet undifferentiated desire for
physical, emotional, and intellectual satisfaction (Martinson, 1973). Those who
observe newborns are struck with the active part, the initiative, that infants show
in the development of attachment to others.

As a result of her observations, Ainsworth (1964) hypothesized that it is largely
through an infant’s own activity that attachment is effected with the mother rather
than through stimulation by the mother or through her satisfying the neonate’s
creature comfort needs. The early attachment may be defined as a unique rela-
tionship between two people that is specific and endures through time. Mother-
infant bonding behaviors such as fondling, kissing, cuddling, and prolonged gazing
are seen as the indicators of attachment (Klaus & Kennell, 1976). Such behaviors
serve both to maintain contact and exhibit affection toward an individual.

Early infant-mother interaction patterns are established at a fundamental bod-
ily level of giving and receiving. Each partner is biologically primed to develop
reciprocal contacts and interaction patterns (Honig, 1982). The physical involve-
ment is intense, because the caretaking interaction involves extensive physical in-
timacy. Physical handling that is gentle, firm, close, and relatively frequent has a
beneficial effect on the infant’s attachment and responsiveness to the mother, as
well as on cognitive and motor development (Clark-Stewart, 1973). Infants who
have been held tenderly and carefully tend later to respond positively to close bod-
ily contact as well (Honig, 1982). It is the nonanxious mother who is most likely
to hold her baby tenderly and carefully.

Rossi (1978) suggests that we might distinguish among degrees of intimacy
according to the sense organs involved in the interaction. Her continuum begins
at one end with ear and eye contact between two persons, which can range from
casual, distant contact to very close contact. Other sensory interaction involves
the senses of scent, touch, and taste and requires physical nearness. Most intimate
on Rossi’s continuum is contact involving sexual organs: erotic contact of mouth,
tongue, breasts, and genitals (Levinger, 1977). Using these criteria of sense organs
involved, infant-mother intimacy is extremely close. It involves ears, eyes, nose,
hands, mouth, lips, tongue, breasts, and some genital contact in caregiving to the
baby. Only extensive and prolonged genital contact is normally excluded from in-
timate infant-mother interchanges.

Intimate-sensate dyadic relationships can become so intense, consuming, and
concentrated as to appear almost hypnotic; indeed, they are sometimes referred
to as “hypnotic role taking” (Burr et al., 1979). Activities such as those involved
in sucking at the breast for the infant and coitus for the adult fall into this cate-
gory of hypnotic role taking. Ecstasy is another term interactionists use to charac-
terize activity that is intense and perhaps erotic. In an ecstatic state, a person is so
“carried away” by the interaction that there is usually a suspension of voluntary
action. Such ecstatic, intimate experience occurs at least on occasion for both in-
fant and mother, and it may even be orgasmic for both. Lewis (1965) reports hav-
ing observed such ecstatic behavior in infants eight to ten months old when “in a
moment of apparent delight, the child clasps the mother and begins rapid, rotat-
ing pelvic thrusts” at a frequency of about two per second and lasting ten to fif-
teen seconds. Thrusting behavior is most characteristic of adult coital behavior.

The most physiologically charged interactions between infant and mother
occur during breast feeding. Sucking at the breast is primarily a food-getting re-
sponse for the neonate. The reactions, particularly of older babies, to breast feed-
ing show signs of eagerness, including rhythmic motions of hands, feet, Ungers,
and toes that may occur along with the rhythm of sucking. With an older baby
there is more than mouth-breast stimulation. Suckling infants often put their fin-
gers into the mother’s mouth; she responds by smiling. Babies also pat the mother’s
breast while sucking or during breaks in feeding, pat her face, turn a cheek to be
kissed, clasp her around the neck, lay a cheek on hers, hug, and bite (Hurlock,
1950). Such scenes can be observed in endless variation in a mother-child inter-
change. The sensuous enjoyment of infant feeding is likely to increase the baby’s
desire to suckle frequently and fully, thus also stimulating the mother’s secretion
of milk. After feeding there is likely to be a relaxation that some observers char-
acterize as being akin to that of the relaxation that occurs with the conclusion of
satisfactory coitus among adults (Newton & Newton, 1967).

The physiological responses to coitus and lactation are closely allied. Uterine
contractions occur during suckling and during sexual excitement; nipple erection
occurs during both.

Emotions aroused by sexual contact with an adult partner and breast feeding
of an infant both involve skin changes as well. Excitement causes marked vascu-
lar changes in the skin, and the breast-feeding act raises body temperature as mea-
sured in the submammary and mammary skin areas (Newton & Newton, 1967).
There is a great increase in maternal touching during suckling, in many cases with
the hand that is holding the baby while the free hand is used to prevent the breast
from occluding the baby’s nostrils (Dunn & Richards, 1977).

The sensory and sexual responses of infant and mother to their stimulating
dyadic experiences appear to be almost wholly reflexive in nature, that is, neither
planned nor intended. Although society generally disapproves of or is generally
ambivalent about intimacy, it approves of intimate infant-mother interaction.
Mothers expect that this interaction should be intimate and sensual. Infants are
supposed to be stimulated, cuddled, fondled, and aroused by the mother from the
moment of birth. Intimacy even at ecstatic and hypnotic levels is possible in phys-
iologically and emotionally charged infant-parent interaction.

Developmental studies suggest that infants’ emotional maturation depends
on such stimulation. If one were to design an infant socialization model that was
designed to lead to the development of full erotic potential and eventual capac-
ity for intimacy, one could hardly improve on the model currently in vogue and
recommended for the care of infants during the first year of life in the United
States. Clinical studies credit insufficient physical contact between infant and par-
ent as the cause of later inability to form attachments. It is suggested that if sex-
ual identification is to develop in a child, parental attachments must evoke and
encourage corresponding responses from the infant. On the other hand, case stud-
ies attest to the disastrous consequences of parental overstimulation and contin-
ued arousal, suggesting that the enactment of diffuse sexual actions that might
bind dependency patterns is harmful.

Most activities associated with nurturance and hygienic care of neonates is
intimate, and sexual as well, in that it involves contact with sensitive organs: lip,
mouth, anus, and genitals. These activities include breast feeding, toilet training,
diapering, and bathing. Such activities may not be purposely sensual or sexual so
far as the parent or caretaker is concerned. Mothers generally do not attribute
erotic motives to their neonate, even to an infant son who has erections. Roberts
(Roberts, Kline, & Gagnon, 1978) found that most mothers and fathers were thor-
oughly relaxed about self-stimulation, for instance, infants’ touching their geni-
tals, and most often described such self-exploration as “natural.”

Bodily Exploration and Autoeroticism
in the First Year of Life

During the first year of life, there is progression in infants’ discovery of their body
and manual exploration of parts of the body, including the genitals. By the age
of five to six months, many infants have found their ears and appear to derive sat-
isfaction from pulling them or sticking their fingers in them, although after six
months, this behavior gradually diminishes (Levine, 1957). Most boys in one study
(Galenson & Riophe, 1974) began genital play at six or seven months, and most
girls began at ten or eleven months. This type of genital play involves fingering,
simple pleasurable handling, and random exploration. Girls’ genital play tended
to disappear within a few weeks of onset, but boys continued casual play, adding
visual and tactile exploration of the genitals at about eleven or twelve months.
Large-muscle control is sufficiently coordinated as early as six months for infants
to develop rocking behavior. An infant who is able to sit up may engage in many
types of rocking, all of which appear to bring the infant a great deal of satisfac-
tion. Some infants sit and sway rhythmically, some lift the trunk and pelvis and
bounce up and down off the surface on which they are sitting, and some combine
these movements. Elevating to hands and knees and rocking forward and back-
ward appears to be the most frequent type of rocking and is not uncommon as
early as six to twelve months (Levine, 1957).

Many infants form a pattern of rocking that is likely to be much more in-
tensely rhythmic and repeated than is manual genital play. Infants may discover
the pleasure of rhythmic genital sensation through rocking activity before they
have adequate hand and arm control to masturbate. Rocking appears more sat-
isfying, for infants engaged in manual genital play may be fairly easily distracted,
in contrast to infants who rock with great vigor and tension and are not easily dis-
tracted. The majority of rockers engage in the activity before going to sleep and
immediately on rising. Many cease the rocking behavior before they are eighteen
months to two years old, but a few continue to age three or later (Levine, 1957).

There is an important distinction between genital play and masturbation in
infancy. Infants in the first year of life generally are not capable of the direct vo-
litional behavior required for the behavior pattern that we call the masturbatory
act. Some pleasurable experience may result simply from pressing the thighs to-
gether, especially for girls. The greatest autoerotic satisfaction, and certainly the
occurrence of orgasm, is dependent to a large extent on manipulations that are
rhythmic and repeated. But rhythmic manipulation with the hand does not ap-
pear to occur until children are approximately two and a half to three years old,
likely because small-muscle control is not sufficiently well developed (Levine,
1957). Some infants under one year old have the hand and muscle coordination
necessary to masturbate and do stimulate themselves in that way. Kinsey, Pomeroy,
and Martin (1948) reports one record of a seven-month-old infant and five infants
under one year who were observed to masturbate. Nevertheless, the average in-
fant is not innately motivated and lacks the muscular capacity for the degree of
self-stimulation necessary to produce orgasm.

Do most infants have the physiological capacity for genital response and sat-
isfaction? We know that erection in the male baby and vaginal lubrication in the
female baby are present from birth. It is reported that during sleep, spontaneous
erection or vaginal lubrication occurs every eighty to ninety minutes throughout
the entire life span, but only erections in males have been observed and recorded
in any systematic way (Sears, Maccoby, & Levine, 1957). In a study of nine male
babies ages three to twenty weeks, Halverson (1938) noted that tumescence was
exhibited at least once daily by seven of the nine. Tumescence was often accom-
panied by restlessness, fretting, crying, and stretching and flexing the limbs stiffly.
Following the detumescence, the babies appeared to be more playful and relaxed.
As early as 1883, Pouillet reported that if the edge of an infant’s foreskin was tick-
led with a feather, the penis would swell and become erect, and the infant would
grab at it with his hand. Kinsey et al. (1948, 1953) reported that orgasm is not at
all rare among preadolescent boys or girls and has been observed in boys of every
age from five months to adolescence and in girl infants from four months old.

Kinsey, Pomeroy, and Martin (1948) described stimulation to orgasm in nine
male infants under one year of age as a series of gradual physiologic changes: the
development of rhythmic body movements with distinct penis throbs and pelvic
thrusts; an obvious change in sensory capacities; a final tension of muscles, espe-
cially of the abdomen, hips, and back; a sudden release with convulsions, includ-
ing rhythmic anal contractions; followed by the disappearance of all symptoms. A
fretful baby quiets under the initial stimulation, is distracted from other activities,
begins rhythmic pelvic thrusts, becomes tense as climax approaches, and is thrown
into convulsive action, often with violent arm and leg movements and sometimes
with weeping at the moment of climax. After climax the child loses erection quickly
and subsides into the calm and peace that typically follows adult orgasm. Thirty-
two percent of boys two to twelve months old were able to reach climax. One boy
of eleven months had been stimulated to ten climaxes in an hour, and another of
the same age had fourteen climaxes in thirty-eight minutes, although for most there
is some time required before erection could be induced again following climax.
Halverson (1938) reviewed the findings and concluded that penile erection in in-
fants can be a purely reflexive response resulting from mechanical stimulation.

Male infants have the capacity for sexual response. The stimulus for penile
erection can be internal or external. A full bladder or a full bowel can initiate the
reflexes; after evacuation, the erection slowly subsides. Strong sucking or frustra-
tion in attempting to get nourishment can initiate the same penile reflexive re-
sponse. When the sucking stops or the milk is easily attained, the erection often
subsides. Such erections, unlike the ones induced by external stimulation, are less
likely to be accompanied by signs of intense pleasure followed by relaxation (Sears,
Maccoby, & Levine, 1957). According to Spitz and Wolf (1946), autoerotic activ-
ity, that is, genital play, in the first eighteen months of life is a reliable indicator of
the adequacy or inadequacy of parenting. They found that when the relationship
between mother and infant was optimal, genital play on the part of the infant was
present in all cases.

During the first year of life there are significant events that contribute to the
child’s erotic, sexual capacity: an attachment or bond that becomes the basis for
later capacity for intimacy; an appreciation of and practice in the aspects of phys-
ical and emotional attachment and intimacy (hugging, kissing, clutching, petting,
gazing, vocalization, stroking, sucking, and biting); sensory-erotic intimacy and
response comparable to that of optimal sensory-erotic experience in adult love-
making, but without the specific and direct genital stimulation and response; an
awareness of one’s body, including genitals, and the development of rhythmic,
pleasure-inducing behaviors; and the capacity for orgasmic response, although
the threshold of genital orgasm is generally too high to result from optimal infant-
mother intimate behaviors and requires stimulation by another to occur.

Young Children

Young children continue to develop erotic capacity, in part through more pur-
poseful autoerotic behaviors. They exhibit a capacity to fantasize and begin in-
volvement in intimate relationships with others. From their observations, Riophe
and Galenson (1981) hypothesize an endogenously rooted early genital phase that
emerges early in the second year of life. In the child’s interaction with self and
others, the exploration of genitalia becomes increasingly influential in organizing
the infant’s development, especially in forming the basic core of sexual identity.
It is different from the less organized genital awareness of infancy because it ap-
pears to occur in a regular developmental sequence, is characterized by psycho-
logical awareness of the genitals, and affects all areas of functioning.

Galenson and Riophe (1974) observed that genital manipulation at thirteen to
sixteen months is accompanied by distinct signs of pleasure, including giggling and
smiling, visual and tactile attention to the genital area, and definite affectionate
gestures and behavioral signs of feeling directed toward other people. In boys, mas-
turbation began at fifteen to sixteen months, whereas in girls a pattern of intermit-
tent genital play was noted. Levine (1957) observes that most of the sexual activity
at this young age remains genital play rather than true masturbation. He reports
that most children, even through twenty-four to thirty-six months, indulge in gen-
ital play with a certain degree of satisfaction, but in most cases without any ap-
parent emotional excitement or increased stimulation. During self-stimulation in
the second year of life, both boys and girls frequently make affectionate gestures
toward the mother and touch the mother’s body during or subsequent to genital
self-stimulation (Riophe & Galenson, 1981).

Masturbation appears to be a common experience in the development of nor-
mal infants and children and has long been recognized as nearly universal. At
three years old, most boys masturbate manually by rubbing the penis or by wrap-
ping the fingers around the erect penis and moving the hand. Other boys lie on
their stomachs on a flat surface and writhe while engaged in other activities such
as watching television. Some raise themselves slightly and propel themselves
forward and backward, rubbing the genitals against the leg of a chair or other ob-
ject, and derive satisfaction in that way. In girls at three years old, there are man-
ifold varieties of masturbation: placing a soft toy or blanket between the legs in
the region of the genitals and wriggling the body, manually titillating the clitoris,
and, less frequently, inserting objects in the vagina (Levine, 1957). Following mas-
turbation that leads to orgasm, children relax and sometimes go to sleep, although
a few appear to be stimulated by the activity.

Masturbation, often observed among preschool-aged children (Dillon, 1934),
is recognized as a tension reliever. It unquestionably increases during periods of
emotional tension, but three-year-old children have also been observed to mas-
turbate as an expression of delight when they are not tired, stressed, or unhappy
(Levine, 1957).

The question is appropriately raised concerning the extent of eroticization in
the young child. Do they see others as objects of sensory and sexual attention? Do
they fantasize sexually? Within every person there is a constellation of thoughts,
images, wishes, and fears that differ greatly in the degree to which they are fan-
tastic to the individual (Pitcher & Prelinger, 1963). At whatever age fantasizing
first occurs, it is the case that the fantasy life of an inexperienced person (a child)
will not be as rich in content or as sexually explicit as will that of an experienced
adult. In adolescence, and especially in adulthood, the sexual life is informed and
organized by a store of experiences, actual and vicarious. The kind and content
of prior sexual experiences influence, produce, and structure subsequent experi-
ences of a sexual nature.

It is assumed that sometime in the first year, before beginning to speak, the
infant probably fantasizes, for understanding precedes speech (Gardner, 1969).
Riophe and Galenson (1981) observed that the affectionate touch of the mother
during the infant’s genital self-stimulation begins to disappear after a few weeks
and is replaced by an “inward gaze and a self-absorbed look. This development
would seem to indicate that a fantasy feeling state had now become a regular com-
ponent of the genital self-stimulation and that this new type of genital activity is
true masturbation.”

Since little evidence can be collected until the child is old enough to talk, sev-
eral studies relate to the fantasy content of children aged two years and older.
Ames (1966) studied the themes or topics in stories told by two- and three-year-
old children. He found that 60 percent of the boys and 68 percent of the girls had
themes of violence. Among the other themes reported were food and eating, sleep,
good and bad, possible sibling rivalry, possible castration, and reproduction. None
of the group of two-year-olds described stories overtly concerning anal activities.
Pitcher and Prelinger (1963) analyzed stories of children two to five years old and
identified eight main themes: aggression, death, hurt or misfortune, morality, nu-
trition, dress, sociability, and crying. With boys, aggression tended to be much
more violent than with girls, characterized by the two-year-olds in relationship to
concerns about violation of body intactness, that is, some part of the body is bro-
ken or severed. This theme is almost absent in the stories of the three-year-olds.

What of themes that relate to the sensory and sexual experiences of life, such
as intimacy, kindness, and eroticism? Ames (1966) found that although kind and
friendly stories were uncommon at any age, they occurred most commonly at two
and three years. Pitcher and Prelinger (1963) found that girls referred to love,
courtship, and marriage, and they were more likely than the boys to express emo-
tion and affect around a parental figure, particularly the mother. These authors
found that the younger children appeared at times to make quite a transparent
reference to the issue of pregnancy in their stories, but the connections of the var-
ious details tended commonly to be illogical or poorly motivated. They also ob-
served that it was rare that the phenomenon of excitement and of aggression
between a man and woman took place in the stories. A major flaw in these stud-
ies may be that American children learn early that they must not talk about sex,
and that may be why the subject does not appear in their stories.

One of the most striking findings of Conn and Kanner’s (1947) play inter-
view study of two hundred children aged four to fourteen was the inability or un-
willingness of the children to use words referring to sex. In the play interviews,
Conn and Kanner found that sexual fantasies accompanying masturbation
imagining sight or touch of genitals, buttocks, or breasts and thoughts of coitus—
were reported by a very small number of boys below age nine and by no girls of
any age. For instance, in play interviews, the children even as young as four years
old spoke up unhesitatingly and without embarrassment of the boy’s “thing” and
the girl’s “thing,” but other distinctions had something secret or hidden about
them. It was not so much that they did not know names for the genitals—in fact,
these children used no fewer than sixty-one different names—but that they re-
garded the names as bad, nasty, or dirty and hence not to be uttered. Children
with such inhibitions would be unlikely to report stories they have made up about
sex or sexual activity.

That children who had more information available to them would likely fan-
tasize about sex is evident in their questions. In Hattendorf’s (1932) collection of
sex questions, preschoolers asked the most questions (49.1 percent), those from six
to ten asked 40.1 percent of the questions, and those ten to fourteen asked only
16.8 percent. The questions asked most frequently concerned the origin of ba-
bies, the coming of another baby, physical differences, organs and functions of
the body, the process of birth, relation of the father to reproduction, intrauterine
growth, and marriage. Apparently children want to know about these matters.

Two- to three-year-olds exhibit intimate involvement with others. Freud (1938)
observed that children from three to five years old were capable of “evincing a
very strong object selection which is accompanied by strong affect,” but it can
occur earlier than that. Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, and Gebhard’s (1953) interviews
with a small sample of two-year-olds and their mothers reveal a good deal of cud-
dling and kissing of parents and others by both boys and girls. Infants who are se-
curely attached to a parent are compliant and cooperative by twenty-one months.
Schvaneveldt, Frye, and Ostler (1970) report that children as young as three years
old, when asked what “good” and “bad” parents do, report that good mothers
kiss you and bad mothers do not, and a good father is one who kisses and hugs
you and a bad father is one who is not nice to you.

By ages three to four, children are beginning to be socialized away from body
contact with self as well as with others (Lewis, 1958). Children begin early to sense
consciously that touching patterns (as part of their tactile communication system
with their parents) have gradually become nonreciprocating. Blackman (1980) has
shown that at least by the age of four, children no longer have permission to touch
their parents. Beyond the age of infancy, it becomes quite apparent that parents
hold gender-specific attitudes about intimacy and affectionate relationships with
their children. There are a number of distinctions as to what body parts can be
touched in interacting based on the gender of the child and the gender of the par-
ent. “Too much” touching, especially among boys, causes discomfort for many
parents (Roberts, Kline, & Gagnon 1978).

Even by eighteen to twenty-four months, infants have been observed to dis-
play a variety of forms of direct prosocial activity, such as helping and comfort-
ing peers, siblings, and parents (Johnson, 1982). Gesell and Ilg (1946) indicate that
children three and a half years old are interested in marriage and marrying and
may propose to their parents and others, of either sex. They use the expression
“I love” frequently. Pitcher and Prelinger (1963) found that in their stories, the
girls referred to love, courtship, and marriage. Children of this age begin to show
an interest in babies and want to have one in their family. They like to look at and
touch adults, especially mothers, and babies.

Children up to three years of age may show no marked distinction between
sexes in play with peers. Some of the play with peers may be sexual if several chil-
dren of this age are left together unsupervised with nothing else that interests them
more. Their interest in sex play is episodic (Ilg & Ames, 1955). Spiro (1958) found
that heterosexual behaviors between children of this age included simple embrace
as its most common expression, followed in frequency by stroking and caressing,
kissing, and touching the genitals. Bell (1902) divided manifestations of “the emo-
tion of love between the sexes” into two stages. The first stage included children
from three to eight years old and was characterized by “hugging, kissing, lifting
each other, scuffling, sitting close to each other, confessions to each other and ex-
cluding others, grief at being separated, giving of gifts, extending courtesies to
each other that are withheld from others, making sacrifices such as giving up de-
sired things or foregoing pleasures, jealousies, etc.” Moll (1913) also divided child-
hood into two phases, the first of which ends at age seven. This first phase is
characterized by a process tending toward bodily and mental approximations to
another individual but is more social (that is, less sexual) than the period from eight
years old and up. Young children appear to prefer sex play with peers rather than
with persons of older ages (Constantine & Martinson, 1981). It is a way of relat-
ing to others and can be enjoyable, providing coercion is not used. Child devel-
opment experts generally believe that peer sex play is normal and is generally a
harmless growing-up experience.

Preadolescence

Preadolescence, defined here as the ages from eight through twelve, is a period of
anticipation and growth. This has long been considered a period of latency, dur-
ing which sexual activity and interest is diminished, but it now appears that this
concept has been overstressed. Sexual awakening—the beginning awareness of
the self as a sexual being and of the opposite sex as potential affectional and erotic
partners—is very real for many preadolescents. The sexual, psychological, and social
changes that begin during these years and mature later are essential to the tran-
sition to full adult sexual functioning. Even in a sexually restrictive society such as
ours, children go through stages of heterosexual involvement, in both fantasy and
actuality, during the preadolescent years. Sexual-erotic responses and encounters
occur more commonly than previously acknowledged.

Many children in preadolescence experience sexual awakening as their phys-
iological sexual development occurs. The biological sexual changes—appearance
of pubic hair, development of breasts, wet dreams, and so on—can be awesome to
the child, who is often not sure how to react to such phenomena. Biological pu-
berty, announced by the beginning of menarche in girls and by the capacity for
ejaculation in boys, begins between the ages of eight and fifteen. Sexual develop-
ment varies in timing and rate for each child and is different for boys and girls.

Children go through stages of heterosexual involvement in relationships that
may not be characterized by overtly sexual behavior. In some communities, chil-
dren begin these stages in preadolescence or earlier; in others they may begin in
puberty or later. The youngsters begin to form attachments, or “crushes,” on per-
sons outside the family. The love feeling is expressed to the other person in a form
that depends on the youngster’s age, sexual and social maturity, and the permis-
siveness of the adults who supervise the child’s behavior. It may appear in the form
of roughhouse love play (hitting a boy, pulling a girl’s hair), writing notes, inviting
the other to a party, or simply walking home together. If the other person responds
to this attention, the two may enter into the first of what often becomes, through
adolescence, a series of close relationships with peers of the opposite sex. They
also provide a set of learning experiences, such as learning how to kiss, how to
dance, how to talk to a person of the opposite sex, as well as how to fondle and
caress. The process of learning these skills is often exciting and dramatic, but it
can also be painful and embarrassing.

A U.S. Office of Education Survey conducted in 1958 supports the observa-
tion that boys and girls do not appear to feel a need to separate from each other
during preadolescence. In most schools, some dating begins as early as the fourth
grade, and youth in grades four through six frequently asked for activities that
would allow both boys and girls to participate. Boys groomed themselves (some
beginning in the fourth grade), carried a comb and used it, washed their hands
voluntarily, and occasionally wore a tie. Girls wore lipstick and nail polish and
groomed their hair. A few children wore “going steady” rings. Broderick and
Fowler’s (1961) studies revealed that the majority of children in each primary
grade claimed to have a sweetheart, and most of these children expected recip-
rocation. In the fifth grade, nearly 45 percent of the boys and 36 percent of the
girls claimed to have had dating experience. By the seventh grade, nearly 70 per-
cent of the boys and 53 percent of the girls claimed to have had at least one date.
Some experience with kissing is common at these ages.

Broderick and Fowler (1961), and later Ruppel (1979), reported a pyramidally
structured set of stages of social heterosexual maturation. This more-or-less or-
derly pattern or progression is discernible during the preadolescent years, and suc-
cess or failure in each step appears to have consequences for more advanced stages
of heterosexual development. Each stage is not an absolute prerequisite to the
next, but the stages are closely interrelated. The beginning point seems to be the
child’s attitude, with the most advanced stage for preadolescents being going out
on a date. The steps or stages they delineated in the process of heterosexual de-
velopment are desire to marry someone, having a certain girlfriend or boyfriend,
having been in love, preferring a companion of the opposite sex over one of the
same sex or no companion at all when going to a movie, and having begun to
date. There has been a marked trend toward greater heterosexual experience of
preadolescents with their peers in the United States, as compared with studies in
the 1920s and 1930s, which demonstrated that preadolescent boys were generally
disinterested in sex and only covertly interested in.girls.

Masturbation is much more common in preadolescent boys than is hetero-
sexual experience. The incidence is not precisely known, although Ramsey’s (1943)
research indicates that masturbation occurs at some time in the sexual histories
of nearly all males; 75 percent reported their first experience as occurring between
the ages of ten and sixteen. In Ramsey’s sample, 14 percent of eight-year-olds re-
ported having masturbated, as did 23 percent of those nine years old, 29 percent
of those ten years old, 54 percent of those eleven years old, 73 percent of those
twelve years old, 85 percent of those thirteen years old, 95 percent of those four-
teen years old, and 98 percent of those fifteen years old. Boys often learn of mas-
turbation from each other; for girls masturbation may be less common, or may
be less often self-reported to investigators.

Erection occurs more quickly in preadolescent boys than it does in adult
males, and the capacity to achieve repeated orgasms in limited periods of time
exceeds the corresponding capacity of teenage boys, who in turn are more capa-
ble of repeated orgasms than adult males are. The speed with which preadoles-
cent males reach climax varies considerably, as it does in adult males. Ramsey
(1943) found a wide variation in the erotic responsiveness of each preadolescent
boy in his study The following items are arranged in declining order based on the
ratings as stimulants by the group as a whole: sex conversation, female nudity, ob-
scene pictures, motion pictures, daydreams, burlesque or stage shows, nude art,
motion when riding, literature, own body, male nudity, dancing, and music.

About 50 percent of the boys in Ramsey’s study reported erections resulting
from some type of nonerotic stimulus as well. The situation in which nonerotic
responses occurred usually involved elements of fear, excitement, or other emo-
tional experiences. The items reported as nonerotic stimuli included carnival rides,
war motion pictures, being late to school, reciting before class, fast rides, playing
a musical solo, band music, and fear of punishment. These responses were most
frequently reported in boys aged ten, eleven, and twelve.

First experiments with copulation are not unusual between the ages of ten and
fourteen. According to Kinsey, Pomeroy, and Martin (1948), by age twelve, ap-
proximately one boy in every four or five has at least tried to copulate with a fe-
male, and more than 10 percent of preadolescent boys experience their first
ejaculation in connection with heterosexual intercourse. Kinsey’s data on the ac-
tive incidence for each year show that for boys who later attend college, hetero-
sexual play of all kinds dropped off after about age ten, presumably in response to
a redefinition of the meaning of this type of behavior. But among boys who did
not finish high school, there was reportedly little withdrawal; rather, heterosexual
activity continued at a high level through preadolescence and into adolescence.

Broderick and Fowler (1961) found some racial differences in the pattern of
heterosexual development, with the most striking differences between black and
white children noted during the preadolescence ages of ten and thirteen. At these
ages, the white children showed the traditional pattern, with girls far more ro-
mantically oriented than boys, although at about the same level in terms of het-
erosexual interaction. Black boys, however, did not have the heterosexual reserve
of the white boys and exhibited a higher level of heterosexual interaction at ages
twelve and thirteen than did black girls.

The incidence of preadolescent heterosexual sex play at particular ages ap-
pears to be highest for girls in the younger years of preadolescence rather than
the older. Some 8 percent of the females in the Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, and
Gebhard (1953) sample recalled heterosexual play at ages five and seven, but fewer
recalled it at later years of preadolescence, and only 3 percent reported having
sex play just before pubescence. Few of the girls seemed to have developed any
pattern of frequent or regular sexual activity. (Again, it is not possible to know to
what extent girls might be reticent to self-report these behaviors.) Retrospective
reports of adults appear to indicate more female activity in childhood than is re-
ported in interviews with children (Ryan, Miyoshi, Metzner, Krugman, & Fryer,
1996). One girl for every seven boys reported having heterosexual play near the
approach of adolescence. At each age of preadolescence, prepubertal boys report
more sexual activity of every kind than do girls (Broderick & Fowler, 1961).

The marked differences in reported incidence of heterosexual sex play for
boys and girls just prior to puberty may depend in part on the increased restraints
that are placed on girls by their parents as the girls approach puberty—restraints
that girls often resent after a carefree childhood (Martinson, 1973). Additionally
the female subculture does not advocate sexual activity for girls as the male sub-
culture does for boys.

Recent studies by Friedrich and others (1992) and Gil and Cavanagh-Johnson
(1993) report on parental observations of children’s sexual behaviors and confirm
that children continue to engage in both autoerotic behaviors and sexual interac-
tions with peers throughout childhood. Girls may be somewhat more active than
in previous generations, although it is not possible to separate changes such as less
secrecy and less parental denial from actual changes in behavior. Some differences
seem likely in the light of the much greater exposure of children to sexual stim-
uli in the culture when comparing studies from the 1940s, 1960s, and 1980s; how-
ever, it is apparent that children have always been sexual and continue to be
sexual. In some ways, it may be more surprising to note that the differences are
not greater than they appear to be despite differing norms and exposure. This
may provide some evidence that childhood sexuality is primarily affected by in-
ternal developmental processes.

In societies where children are permitted to do so, they increase rather than
decrease their sexual activities during preadolescence. Sexual encounters first in-
clude genital autostimulation and mutual masturbation with the same and the op-
posite sex, but with increasing age, they are characterized more and more by
attempts at heterosexual intercourse. By the time children reach puberty in sexu-
ally permissive societies, their expressions of sexuality consist predominantly of
the accepted adult form of heterosexual intercourse, and they will continue to fol-
low this pattern throughout their sexually active years of life (Ford & Beach, 1951).

Eroticization of Children

Child-parent intimate interactions in the United States are heavily circumscribed by
social norms. In early infancy, mother-infant interaction is close, intimate, permis-
sive, and highly sensual; society accepts that. As the child grows, the relationship
moves further along the continuum toward role- and gender-based relationships
(Douvan, 1977), and the parent represents a more demanding authoritative struc-
ture. The habits of sensory and sexual interaction are left behind, and the child
is not expected to engage in these behaviors until later in life.

Although we do not yet have societal agreement about what constitutes age-
appropriate child sexual behavior, we do have a universal norm that infants and
children should not be sexually abused. It is generally agreed that adult and child
sexual involvement is fraught with the greatest dangers for the child. The possibil-
ity of full eroticization of the relationship between a parent and child is great given
the interactive opportunity and emotional access to each other (Rosenfeld, 1976;
Rorty, 1972). Although intimacy at ecstatic and hypnotic levels is possible in child-
parent encounters, it may also occur in erotically charged parent-child encounters.
Sexual stimulation such as fondling, caressing, and masturbation are more com-
mon in erotic parent-child encounters; physical involvement to the point of coitus
and the use of physical force are less common (Constantine & Martinson, 1981).

Erotic interactions that are seductive, exploitative, coercive, or manipulative and
serve to use the child’s sexual developmental behavior to meet the parent’s needs
have negative ramifications for a child.

Finkelhor (1978), in concentrating on the sexual dimension of family intimacy
and affection, categorized families as sex positive and sex negative, and high-sex-
ualized and low-sexualized. Family sexuality has at least three dimensions ac-
cording to Finkelhor: a family’s attitude toward sexuality (family culture), the
actual eroticization of family relationships, and the family’s respect for personal
boundaries. In sex-positive families, children receive accurate information about
sex, are given positive attitudes about their bodies, and are shown physical affec-
tion. In sex-negative families, sex and discussions about sex are loaded with anx-
iety and taboos. In high-sexualized families, members use one another as objects
in their role playing. Each member tries to test out his or her powers of attraction
and adequacy on the others. Low-sexualized families discourage sexual role play-
ing and posturing from occurring inside the family. Regarding personal bound-
aries, one interpretation of clear boundaries is a family in which the privacy of
each family member is respected. In such families, there is likely to be a clear dif-
ferentiation of what the sex roles are between adults and children. In families with
poor personal boundaries, family members intrude on one another, and child sex-
uality is not clearly distinguished from adult sexuality.

Unless eroticized by an older person, most children are more exploratory than
goal (orgasm) oriented. Being affectionate is not the same as being eroticized, and
being eroticized is not a pathology in and of itself. An erotic activity can have ei-
ther adaptive or maladaptive potential, “depending on the child’s flexibility and
appreciation of reality” (Yates, 1978).

Cases of premature erotic awakening clearly support the appetitional theory
of sexual motivation, that is, that motives are learned in association with affective
experience. This can bring on early eroticization. Once true arousal has occurred,
a host of acts may serve as sexual stimuli to the child. Some eroticized children
calm themselves by masturbating in private; others make inappropriate advances
toward others (Yates, 1978). Many prematurely awakened children are uncom-
monly erotic, easily aroused, highly sexually motivated, and readily orgasmic.
They are easily aroused by a variety of circumstances and may not be able to dis-
criminate erotic from nonerotic relationships. Being readily orgasmic, they can
also maintain a high level of arousal without orgasm. They often appear to find
sexual activity eminently pleasurable. “In fact, erotic expressions may be so grat-
ifying that it is difficult to find comparable rewards to reinforce socially accept-
able behavior” (Yates, 1978).

Many, but not all, eroticized children also demonstrate problems, such as anx-
iety, depression, underachievement, somatic complaints, and self-defeating be-
havior patterns. However, the eroticization process may be independent of these
emotional disturbances. Not every child is severely traumatized by early sexual
encounters with parents or with others. Constantine and Martinson’s (1981) study
concluded, “The more negative outcomes are associated with ignorance of sex-
uality; with negative attitudes towards sex; with tense situations; with force, bru-
tality, or coercion; or with unsupportive, uncommunicative, or judgmental adult
reactions.”

Early erotic pleasure by itself does not damage the child. From a theoretical
standpoint, it is clear that a major consequence of overt sexual experience is an
increase in the specificity of acts that the child learns to perform in satisfying sex-
ual needs. We would also expect an increase in desire to perform sexual acts and
a greater degree of frustration when the acts are prevented from occurring (Sears,
Maccoby, & Levine, 1957). Early eroticized sexual experiences appear to lead to
activity, not latency. From a developmental perspective, a competency may be
learned at a teachable moment, even though the experience or the competency
may be judged morally and legally wrong.

That infants and small children have the physiological capacity for sexual re-
sponse, that they are curious about their bodies and the bodies of others, and that
they are attracted to intimate interaction with others have been established. With
modeling, encouragement, and education, there appears to be no need for a ces-
sation of sensory and sexual activity from first discovery through childhood. The
capacity for sexual response is very much shaped by experience; thus, parents have
the potential to help their children learn from their experiences to develop healthy
sexual functioning later in life.

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SOURCE:
CHAPTER FOUR
of
JUVENILE SEXUAL OFFENDING Causes, Consequences, and Correction
New and Revised Edition
1997
Editors
Gail Ryan
Sandy Lane
Jossey-Bass Publishers
San Francisco




We, as BoyLovers, deal a lot with "children". We should know about them, and their behavior, shouldn't we?

The rest of the book chapters are of variable quality. They mostly support the "child sexual abuse" narrative. This chapter by Martinson apparently was included so the editors can claim the book is "fair" in its treatment of the topic of juveniles committing (so-called) "child sexual abuse".

Oh, well, you know how it is...

M.

AVAILABLE AT ANNA'S ARCHIVE (SEVERAL EDITIONS, DIFFERENT YEARS)
https://annas-archive.org/search?q=JUVENILE+SEXUAL+OFFENDING+Causes%2C+Consequences%2C+and+Correction
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