CHILDHOOD SEXUALITY: MASTURBATION, SEX PLAY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
Masturbation is common during childhood, but not all children between the ages of three and seven masturbate. We have no accurate count as to the number who do, nor the frequency for those who do. Based on data from pre-1955 interviews conducted with boys (upper-white-collar class) with an average age of 7.2 years (age range was 4 to 14 years), Elias and Gebhard report that thirty-eight percent reported having masturbated, with more beginning in the three to seven-year-age range than at any subsequent time. Miller and Swanson asked parents if, at or before age five, their children had “touched” their sex organs. About fifty-eight percent of the mothers said that they had not, while some thirty-four percent said that they had. In the Sears study, only two-fifths of the mothers said that they had never noticed their children doing anything that could be referred to as masturbation. In a study of 284 boys, Ramsey reports that five percent in the age group six or less had had masturbatory experience, and ten percent of those seven-year-olds.
Touching or holding the genitals is not necessarily associated with erotic pleasure; it appears to be a source of security for some infants when learning to walk or doing other things.
The child’s initial attempt at masturbation often is inspired by the observation of other children engaging in such activity or through deliberate instruction given by some older child or adult. According to Kinsey, these are the first sources of information for most males. The great majority of females who masturbate, on the other hand, learn to masturbate by discovering by themselves the possibility of such activity.
Often siblings, close to each other in age, engage in sex play with each other. This is most likely to be true when they share a bedroom, and the rate is higher when they share the same bed. Cuddling, fondling, and handling the genitals of others of the same or opposite sex occurs frequently during unsupervised play. Other forms of sexual activity occasionally include oral-genital contacts and attempted copulation with another child. If begun early, masturbation may continue at varying intervals throughout childhood. The child learns that in our society masturbation is not done in public.
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