<< Significance of Pre-adolescent Sex Play >>

Significance in Psychosexual Development
In the course of their pre-adolescent sexual contacts with boys and with other girls, many of the females in the sample had acquired their first information about sex. They had acquired factual information about male and female genitalia and sometimes about reproduction, about masturbatory, petting, and coital techniques, and about the significance of adult sexual activities. In fact, many of the contacts had been incidental to and not infrequently the direct outcome of the discussion of such matters. Most of the information so acquired represented a part of the necessary education which most parents carefully avoid giving their daughters at any age.

Mammalian Backgrounds
Most mammals, both female and male, engage in coitus or try to engage in coitus as soon as they are able to make the necessary physical coordinations. This happens within a matter of weeks after birth in the case of most of the rodents and in some of the other smaller mammals, and within the first year among the larger mammals. Similarly early activity is found even in such large and higher primates as the chimpanzee and the orang-utang where adolescence does not appear until some seven to ten years after birth, which is not much earlier than it appears in the human species.
There are data on the attempts of very young or pre-adolescent mammals to effect coitus in the following, among other references: Stone 1922 (rat). Bingham 1928:82-86, 89-112 (chimpanzee). Louttit 1929 (guinea pig). Zuckerman 1932:259, 272-274, 289 (baboon). Boling et al. 1939 (guinea pig). Beach 1948; Beach in Hoch and Zubin 1949:43 (rat, hamster, guinea pig, bull). Ford and Beach 1951:192-193 (lamb, bull, monkey, orang-utang). We have data from the personnel of the Brookfield Zoological Park in Chicago (antelope and orang-utang), and our own observations cover the guinea pig, porcupine, and bull. Our observations on coitus among adult mammals include, in addition, the baboon, chimpanzee, monkey, dog, cat, mink, guinea pig, rat, rabbit, chinchilla, hamster, skunk, horse, cattle, pig, and sheep.

The males of all the lower mammals are erotically responsive and become aggressive in initiating sex play and actual coitus at a somewhat earlier age than the females of the same species. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that the pre-adolescent human female is not so often involved in sex play and actual coitus as the average pre-adolescent male (Table 14; see our 1948:162).
The earlier sexual development of the mammalian male has been confirmed in personal communication with a number of students of sexual behavior in the lower mammals. See also the careful observations of Louttit 1929 on the guinea pig.

Since there is no institution of marriage among the lower mammals, and since coitus for them is a direct outgrowth of early infantile and pre-adolescent play, there can be, strictly speaking, no distinction between pre-marital and marital activity in any group lower than man. While human custom and man-made law may make a sharp distinction between coitus which occurs before marriage and the identical physical acts when they occur within a marriage, it is important to realize that physically and physiologically they are one and the same thing in man, just as they are in the lower mammals.

Anthropologic Data
In most human cultures outside of our own, sex play starts, just as it does among the lower mammals, as soon as there is a sufficient muscular coordination and any sort of social integration, 3 Children as young as two or three may engage in some sort of play, and by five or six they may regularly engage in play which at least imitates coitus. Much of the play may amount to nothing more than inter-femoral or inter-labial intercourse (placing the penis between the thighs or the genital lips of the female), but vaginal penetrations can be effected by some young boys. Sometimes this play receives the admiring encouragement of the adults of the community. The techniques of adult coitus are gradually developed out of this early play. This is precisely what we have found among younger children of the more uninhibited segments of our own American population.
Early sex play in children is described in the following, for example: Malinowski 1929:55-59 (for the Trobrianders in Melanesia). Powdermaker 1933:85 (for the Lesu of Melanesia). Devereux 1936:31-32 (for the Mohave Indians). Gorer 1938:310 (for the Lepcha in India). Henry in Hoch and Zubin 1949: 94-98 (for the Pilaga in Brazil).

In some cultures pre-adolescent sex play continues without a break into adolescent and teen-age relationships. In other cultures there are social restrictions on the continuation of such play as adolescence approaches. In many primitive groups, and in some Asiatic and European groups including, for instance, some Mediterranean and Latin American groups, complete nudity and at least some open sex play may be allowed among younger pre-adolescent girls until they are five or six years of age. Until they are nearly adolescent, boys may go nude in rural and small urban areas and sometimes even on city streets which are not frequented by European or American tourists. With the approach of adolescence, however, social contacts between boys and girls in such cultures may be restricted, and mature sexual activities subsequently start as more or less new developments.
For attitudes toward sex play at the approach of adolescence, see, for example: Du Bois 1944:69-70, 83, 98 (for the Alor in Melanesia). Elwin 1947:436-437 (for the Muria in India). Ford and Beach 1951:183 (for the Hopi Indians).

In nearly every culture in the world except our own, there is at least some acceptance of coital activities among unmarried adolescent and teen-age youth, both female and male. About 70 per cent of the cultures are overtly permissive to at least some degree. There are usually tribal restrictions on relations between relatives, or between members of the same clan or of particular clans, but in the majority of instances it is considered socially desirable that there should be pre-marital coitus. In some groups, places are provided in which coitus may occur, as in the bachelors’ huts which are customary in some tribes, or in the temporary homes which other groups provide for courting couples.
Summarizations of the data on the acceptance of pre-marital coitus in primitive cultures may be found in: Hobhouse, Wheeler, and Ginsberg acc. Wester-marck 1922(1):157 (found 50 per cent permissive in 120 cultures). Ford 1945:100 (says 40 per cent are overtly permissive). Murdock 1949:264-265 (estimates less than 5 per cent of the peoples of the earth have over-all prohibitions on sexual relations outside or marriage, finds 70 per cent of 158 cultures are definitely permissive to some degree).

In ancient Greece and Rome, and in Mediterranean, Moslem, and Oriental cultures, there has been a widespread acceptance of coitus for unmarried males, even though usually there have been sharp restrictions on such activities for females, or at least for females of the middle and upper classes. Consequently the unmarried males in such cultures must find their heterosexual contacts among prostitutes or among other lower level females, or clandestinely on occasion among girls of their own social levels.
The extent and acceptance of pre-marital coitus for the male, with restrictions on the female, is noted for Europe, for instance, in: Lecky 1881(2):345. Bloch 1908:237. Michels 1914:134-142. Eberhard 1924:406-408. Beauvoir 1949; 1952. For Arabia: Dickson 1949:202-206. For Japan: Becker 1899. Krauss, Satow, and Ihm 1931. Azama Otoko, Ikkyû Zenshi Shoshoku Monogatari [ca. 1845J: Book I, III. Takara Bunko [ca. 1885]: I (The Lower Part). For Greece and Rome: Aristophanes [5th-4th cent, b.c.]: Peace, 887-899 (1912(1):203; 1924(2):81); The Wasps, 500-502 (1912(2):32; 1924(1): 455). Theocritus [3rd ceiH. b.c.]: 11.40-41 (1912:29); 11.138-143 (1912: 37); XXVII.53-71 (1912:343-345). Ovid [1st cent, b.c.]: Amores, 1.5. 13-25 (1921:335). Lucian [2nd cent, a.d.]: Lucius, or the Ass, 8-10 (1895:12-15). Apuleius [2nd cent, a.d.]: The Golden Ass, 16-17 (1935:72-74; 1822: 33).

In some European countries, particularly in Scandinavia and in parts of Central Europe, there has been some wider acceptance of pre-marital coitus for both females and males of all social levels.
The acceptance of pre-marital coitus for the female as well as for the male in parts of Europe is noted, for instance, in: Sundt 1857:51-58 (night courting in Norway). Stiles 1869 and later editions (Scotland, Holland). Rohleder 1907:237 (East Prussia). Henz 1910:743-750. Bauer 1924:77, 287-290 (Germany, Switzerland). Gurewitsch and Woroschbit 1930:68-74 (Russia). Wikman 1937 (an outstanding survey). Jonsson in Wangson 1951 (Sweden).

In American Cultures
There are curiously mixed attitudes in our own country concerning coitus. Religious and legal codes, the psychologic and social sciences, psychiatric and other clinical theory, and public attitudes in general, agree in extolling heterosexual coitus as the most desirable, the most mature, and the socially most acceptable type of sexual activity. Simultaneously, however, the religious and legal codes and much clinical theory condemn such activity when it occurs outside of marriage and thereby, to a greater extent than most persons ordinarily comprehend, negate all of these claims concerning the desirability of coitus. Such conflicting appraisals of similar if not identical acts often constitute a source of considerable disturbance in the psychosexual development of American youth. These disturbances may have far-reaching effects upon subsequent adjustments in marriage. Our case histories show that this disapproval of heterosexual coitus and of nearly every other type of heterosexual activity before marriage is often an important factor in the development of homosexual activity.

Because of this public condemnation of pre-marital coitus, one might believe that such contacts would be rare among American females and males. But this is only the overt culture, the things that people openly profess to believe and to do. Our report on the male has indicated how far publicly expressed attitudes may depart from the realities of behavior—the covert culture, what males actually do.

Effect on Adult Patterns
In the course of their pre-adolescent contacts, a significant portion of the females in the sample had discovered what it meant to be aroused erotically, and to be aroused to the point of orgasm. What was still more significant for their ultimate sexual adjustments, many of the females in the sample had learned how to respond in socio-sexual contacts. Some of the pre-adolescent contacts had provided emotional satisfactions which had conditioned the female for the acceptance of later sexual activities.

In not a few instances, guilt reactions had made the childhood experiences traumatic. This was especially true when the children had been discovered by adults, and when reprimands or physical punishment had been meted out to them. These guilt reactions had, in many instances, prevented the female from freely accepting sexual relations in her adult married relationships. When the parents had not become emotionally disturbed when they discovered the child in sex play, there was little evidence that the child’s experience had done any damage to its later sexual adjustment. Davis 1929:58-59 reports no significant correlation between pre-adolescent sex play and happiness in marriage.    

Interestingly enough the overt sex play of pre-adolescence had only infrequently carried over into the overt sexual activity of the adolescent or more adult female. Among the males a very much larger percentage had carried their pre-adolescent play directly into their adolescent and more adult activities. Among the females who had pre-adolescent sexual activity, the number who had continued the same type of activity into adolescence was as follows:

Pre-adolescent experience Experience continued
 into adolescence
Percent Number
of Cases
Female Male Female Male
Petting13 65 807 1227
Coitus8 55 247 628
Homosexual play 542 1071 1412

These discontinuities between the adolescent and pre-adolescent activity of the female appear to be products of the social custom and not of anything in the female’s biologic or psychologic equipment. Such breaks do not occur between the early and more adult sexual activities of lower mammalian females; they do not occur among most of the primitive groups on which sexual data are available; and they do not occur among the females in lower level and less inhibited segments of our own American population.

As the child approaches adolescence, parents may increasingly restrict the female’s contacts with the opposite sex. They may warn her against kissing, general body contacts, genital exposures, and more specific sexual relationships. In many cultures the girl is more restricted at this age than the boy. In Europe, in Latin America, and in this country, the opportunities for the girl to be alone with other children are fewer than those available to the developing boy. The cessation of pre-adolescent sex play in the later pre-adolescent years was taken by Freud and by many of his followers to represent a period of sexual latency. On the contrary, it seems to be a period of inactivity which is imposed by the culture upon the socio-sexual activities of a maturing child, especially if the child is female. Pre-adolescent masturbation is, on the other hand, usually carried over from the pre-adolescent to the adolescent and adult years, probably because it does not fall under the restraints which are imposed on a socio-sexual activity. This provides further evidence that no biologic latency is involved in the discontinuity of the socio-sexual activities.

For general discussions of the Freudian concept of latency, see: Freud 1910:37-40; 1938:582-584 (latency organically determined although education contributes much to it). Sadger 1921:73 (no progress of sexuality between ages 6-12). Stekel 1923:12; 1950:25 (does not accept Freud’s theory of latency). Sears 1943:45-47 (rejects concept, on basis of available data). Kinsey, Pomeroy and Martin 1948:180-181. Bender and Cramer in Eissler 1949:63. Fenichel 1945:62 concludes that latency might be either cultural or biologic. Kadis in Brower and Abt 1952:361-368, summarizing recent literature, points out the confusion in interpreting the term latency and our previous lack of adequate data on sexual activity between ages 5 to 10.

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