Sex Across the Lifespan

1. Sex Across the Lifespan Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality Teenage Sexuality Young Adulthood and Middle Adulthood Sexuality The Elderly and Sexuality Love and Emotions

2. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality Infancy (0-2 years): • Self-stimulation - infants have been observed fondling their own genitals. • Infant-infant sexual encounters - may kiss, hug, pat, stroke and gaze at each other. • Nongenital sensual experiences: • Sucking on a mother’s breasts • Sucking on his or her own fingers • Being cuddle or rocked can also be sensuous.

3. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality • Attachment - psychological bond that forms between an infant and the mother, father, or other caregiver. • Knowing about boy/girl differences: • At first infants think the difference between girls an boys is a matter of clothes or haircuts. • By age 3 there is increasing interest in the genitals of other children.

4. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality Early Childhood (0-7 years): • Masturbation • Learns that masturbation is something that one does in private • Heterosexual behavior • “Playing doctor” can be popular. • Same-gender sexual behavior • Sexual play with members of one’s own gender may be more common than sexual play with members of the other gender.

5. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality • Sex knowledge and interests • Begins to have notion of genital differences between males and females • Enjoys hugging and kissing parents • Becomes more modest at age 5 • Restriction on conversation about sex comes at precisely the same time child is becoming more aware of, and curious about, sexuality.

6. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality Preadolescence (8-12 years): • Masturbation • More and more children gain experience. • Boys learn from peers and from reading. • Girls learn through accidental self-discovery. • Heterosexual behavior • Very little because of the social division of males and females into separate groups. • Children commonly hear about sexual intercourse for the first time.

7. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality • Same-gender sexual behavior • Social organization is essentially homosocial (boys play separately from girls) • Same-gender sexual activities may involve masturbation, exhibitionism, and fondling of other’s genitals. • Many lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth report their first experience of sexual attraction at age 10 or 11.

8. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality Dating: • Around ages 10 or 11, children begin to spend time in mixed-gender or heterosocial groups. • The first romantic or sexual behaviors often occur in this context. • Dating emerges in the seventh grade. • Romantic dyadic relationships involve a small percentage of youth. • In some cultures, boys and girls are married at age 13.

9. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality Masturbation: • According the the Kinsey data, there is a sharp increase in the incidence of masturbation for boys between ages 13 and 15. • Girls also begin masturbating in adolescence, but the increase in behavior is much more gradual and continues past adolescence. • Was once believe to cause everything from warts to insanity, but current attitudes are more positive.

10. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality

11. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality • Same-gender behavior • About 10% of college men and 6% of college women report having had one homosexual partner in high school. • Heterosexual behavior • More and more young people engage in heterosexual sex with more and more frequency. • Over four years, there is a regular progression from kissing, through French kissing and fondling, to intercourse and oral-genital contact.

12. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality • How many people have premarital intercourse? • 70% of females • 78% of males • First Intercourse - major transition with psychological and social significance • Fewer men have premarital sex with a prostitute than in the past. • Techniques in premarital sex include increased use of oral-genital contact.

13. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality

14. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality

15. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality Attitudes toward Premarital Intercourse: • Abstinence • Wrong for males and females regardless of the circumstances. • Permissiveness with affection • Permissible for males and females if it occurs in a stable relationship of love, commitment, or being engaged. • Permissiveness without affection • Permissible for males and females, regardless of emotional commitment, simply on the basis of physical attraction. • Double standard • Acceptable for males but not for females.

16. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality Abstinence: • In one recent survey, 74 percent of teens ages 15 to 17 said they had “made a conscious decision to wait.” • In some surveys, high intelligence is associated with postponing intercourse and delaying other partnered sexual activities. • Some schools and community-based programs campaign to persuade teens to publicly sign virginity pledges.

17. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality Motives: • Love • Physical arousal and pleasure • Peer pressure • Women are more likely to mention love and affection. • Men mention physical pleasure.

18. Childhood and Adolescent Sexuality • Dating and going steady occurs at younger ages. • Serial monogamy - while in a relationship, the partners are monogamous; when relationship ends, partners move on to another partner. • Conflicts: • Between restrictive sexual ethic and permissive one • Between parents and children • Between behaviors and attitudes or standards