{"title":"Defining Normal Childhood Sexuality: An Anthropological Approach","authors":"Suzanne G. Frayser","doi":"10.1080/10532528.1994.10559896","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"[ p173 ] From the outset, the concept \"normal childhood sexuality\" raises questions of meaning: What is normal? What is childhood? and What is sexuality? Beyond questions of conceptual precision and theory are those about empirical research on the topic: What is the nature of available data on normal childhood sexuality? How reliable and valid are the empirical findings? To what populations do these data apply? To what extent can the array of findings be generalized? In addition, the very notion of normal childhood sexuality may arouse strong emotions in professionals and laypeople alike, based on their personal experiences of sexuality during childhood within the social and cultural context within which they were raised. (Ryan et al., 1988, found that among 87 professionals who worked with abused children and their abusers, 43% reported instances of childhood sexual abuse, almost twice the 22% rate reported for the general population.) However, relative to other research on child development and human sexuality, there is a paucity of systematic data on normal childhood sexuality. The available theory and research are scattered over a wide range of fields (e.g., biology, history, anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, social work, ethology, and law), and much of it is dated. The paucity of data alone raises questions of why so little recent research is available on this topic, particularly in light of the current proliferation of claims about the deleterious long-term effects of child sexual abuse. Because definitions of abnormality and abuse usually relate to baselines of what is normal, data on normal childhood sexuality are conspicuous because of their scarcity. Regardless of their discipline, investigators who have focused on sexual normality in childhood comment on this gap in empirical research. In his recent overview of childhood sexuality, Martinson concluded that \"rational discussions of age-appropriate sexual behavior and research on human sexual development have scarcely begun\" (1994a, p. 115). Goldman and Goldman, in their review of the theoretical background for their cross-cultural study of children's sexual thinking remarked,","PeriodicalId":79558,"journal":{"name":"Annual review of sex research","volume":"5 1","pages":"173-217"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2012-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10532528.1994.10559896","citationCount":"11","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Annual review of sex research","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10532528.1994.10559896","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 11
Abstract
[ p173 ] From the outset, the concept "normal childhood sexuality" raises questions of meaning: What is normal? What is childhood? and What is sexuality? Beyond questions of conceptual precision and theory are those about empirical research on the topic: What is the nature of available data on normal childhood sexuality? How reliable and valid are the empirical findings? To what populations do these data apply? To what extent can the array of findings be generalized? In addition, the very notion of normal childhood sexuality may arouse strong emotions in professionals and laypeople alike, based on their personal experiences of sexuality during childhood within the social and cultural context within which they were raised. (Ryan et al., 1988, found that among 87 professionals who worked with abused children and their abusers, 43% reported instances of childhood sexual abuse, almost twice the 22% rate reported for the general population.) However, relative to other research on child development and human sexuality, there is a paucity of systematic data on normal childhood sexuality. The available theory and research are scattered over a wide range of fields (e.g., biology, history, anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, social work, ethology, and law), and much of it is dated. The paucity of data alone raises questions of why so little recent research is available on this topic, particularly in light of the current proliferation of claims about the deleterious long-term effects of child sexual abuse. Because definitions of abnormality and abuse usually relate to baselines of what is normal, data on normal childhood sexuality are conspicuous because of their scarcity. Regardless of their discipline, investigators who have focused on sexual normality in childhood comment on this gap in empirical research. In his recent overview of childhood sexuality, Martinson concluded that "rational discussions of age-appropriate sexual behavior and research on human sexual development have scarcely begun" (1994a, p. 115). Goldman and Goldman, in their review of the theoretical background for their cross-cultural study of children's sexual thinking remarked,