Defining Normal Childhood Sexuality: An Anthropological Approach

Suzanne G. Frayser
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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,
定义正常的童年性行为:一个人类学的方法
从一开始,“正常的儿童期性行为”这个概念就提出了一些意义问题:什么是正常的?什么是童年?什么是性?除了概念精确性和理论的问题之外,还有关于这个主题的实证研究:关于正常儿童性行为的现有数据的本质是什么?实证研究结果的可靠性和有效性如何?这些数据适用于哪些人群?在多大程度上可以概括这些发现?此外,正常童年性行为的概念可能会引起专业人士和非专业人士的强烈情绪,这是基于他们在成长的社会和文化背景下童年性行为的个人经历。(Ryan等人,1988年发现,在87名与受虐儿童和施虐者打交道的专业人士中,43%的人报告了儿童性虐待的情况,几乎是普通人群报告的22%的两倍。)然而,相对于其他关于儿童发展和人类性行为的研究,缺乏关于正常儿童性行为的系统数据。现有的理论和研究分散在广泛的领域(例如,生物学、历史学、人类学、心理学、精神病学、社会学、社会工作、行为学和法学),其中许多都是过时的。数据的缺乏本身就引发了一个问题:为什么最近关于这一主题的研究如此之少,尤其是在目前关于儿童性虐待有害长期影响的说法激增的情况下。由于异常和虐待的定义通常与正常的基线有关,因此关于正常儿童性行为的数据因其稀缺而引人注目。不管他们的学科是什么,专注于儿童期性正常的研究人员都对实证研究中的这一差距发表了评论。在他最近对儿童性行为的概述中,Martinson总结道:“对适龄性行为的理性讨论和对人类性发展的研究几乎没有开始”(1994a,第115页)。戈德曼和戈德曼在回顾他们对儿童性思维的跨文化研究的理论背景时说,
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