<< Pre-adolescent Activity >>

For two-thirds (68.4%) of the boys, self masturbation provides the first ejaculation. For most for the other boys, nocturnal emissions and heterosexual coitus provide the first ejaculation. There is little variation in these data for different social levels. Masturbation is more likely to provide the first experience (72%) for the boys who become adolescent at an early age, less likely (52%) for the boys who are slowest in development (Table 68, Figure 89).

We have records of 67 infants and small girls three years of age or younger who were observed in masturbation, or who as adults recalled that they had masturbated at that age. We have one record of a seven-month-old infant and records of 5 infants under one year of age who were observed in masturbation. There were undoubtedly many more females who engaged in true masturbatory activities when they were young; but it has been impossible to calculate incidence figures from the available records.
Similar cases of definitely erotic performances in masturbation in very young girls are reported by: Townsend 1896:186-189 (5 cases under 1 year of age). Moll 1909:52-53; 1912:57-58. Talmey 1910:92-93 (one 9 months, acc. Jacobi, and several 3-year-old girls). Stekel 1920:34; 1950:72 (at 4 years). Hirschsprung acc. Rohleder 1921:66 (at 4, 13, 18 months). Blache (1877) acc. Rohleder 1921:68 (at 17 months). Kraft acc. Rohleder 1921:66 (at 11 months). Krafft-Ebing 1922:55-56 (at 2, 3, 4 years). Krafft-Ebing (Moll ed.) 1924:81 (at 18 months). Riolan 1927:73 (at 3 years). Hodann 1929:28. Friedjung and Hetzer acc. Biihler 1931:616-617 (6, 11, 16 months). West acc. Havelock Ellis 1936 (II,1):155 (6-9 months). Spitz 1949:95 (rocking and genital play observed in over half of 248 children under one year of age ). Levine 1951:118-121 (“typical orgasms even prior to the age of three”—sex not specified). Tactile stimulation, some of it genital but some of it less specifically sexual, is reported in Levy 1928:889. Dillon 1934:165-166. Koch 1935:145. Hattwick 1937:347.

Our records, however, include specific and repeated observations on several children whose responses were unmistakably erotic. We have records of 23 girls three years old or younger who reached orgasm in self-masturbation. There are more records of small girls than there are of small boys masturbating to orgasm at such an early age. It requires some experience and some development of muscular coordinations to effect the rhythmic manual movements on which masturbation depends, and the small boy does not so often manage to achieve that end. Some 19 per cent of the girls had masturbated prior to adolescence.

The inspiration for the first experimentation in masturbation is a matter which will need more extensive consideration in a later study on sex education. It may be stated now that nearly all boys have heard about masturbation before they attempt it themselves, and a high proportion has observed companions masturbating. This is particularly true in the grade school and high school levels of society; but some males of the college level will be surprised that there are so few boys who discover masturbation on their own initiative, because it is chiefly at that level that masturbation is independently discovered by some boys. After early adolescence, there are many males who never have an opportunity to observe another male in sexual performance, and consequently it is notable that so many boys do observe masturbation in connection with their initial experiences. The female more often discovers masturbation independently and without any previous knowledge that any other person has ever been involved in similar activity.

However extensive the incidental touching of genitalia may be, specific masturbation is quite rare among younger boys. Of course, there are cases of infants under a year of age who have learned the advantage of specific manipulation, sometimes as a result of being so manipulated by older persons; and there are some boys who masturbate quite specifically and with some frequency from the age of two or three. But most young boys, in attempting masturbation, engage in such desultory motions and so quickly cease their efforts that no satisfaction is obtained and they are, therefore, not interested in trying again. When an older person provides the more specific sort of manipulation which is usual among adults, the same child may be much aroused, and in a high proportion of the cases may be brought to actual orgasm (Chapter 5).

As far as the available data indicate it is, then, a relatively small number of the younger pre-adolescents who, in any strict sense, masturbate. Not more than 10 per cent seems to have done so before the age of nine, and 13 per cent before the age of ten. Most boys are ten, eleven or twelve years old before they become involved. These are minimum data, derived chiefly from the memories of adults, and adults sometimes forget their childhood experiences. Comparisons of records from children and from adults (Chapter 5) indicate that the actual figures may be somewhat higher, but not more than 20 per cent higher, i.e., instead of 13 per cent it may be as many as 16 per cent of the boys who masturbate before age ten.

There appear to be some differences between social levels in the incidences of pre-adolescent masturbation, but such differences are fewer than are ordinarily found between social levels in adolescence. Actually, few boys begin masturbation until they are near the age when regular erotic responses are recognizable, which means not more than a year or two before adolescence for most of them, even though a larger proportion would be capable of definite response at a much earlier age if sufficient contacts were had. It is, of course, quite understandable that the boy should not be interested until there is a sufficient return for his efforts.

Some of the pre-adolescents carry their masturbation through to a definite and satisfactory orgasm, although in some instances the boy may not recognize what is happening, and does not identify the experience by either name or description as something that other boys have had. Nevertheless, masturbation in the younger boy is usually a definite sort of performance which is often limited to a few minutes in time, and which ceases abruptly when, as he may report, he has had enough of it. This means either that he has reached orgasm, or that he has found at least some sort of release from the tension which initiated the activity and which may have been augmented in the course of the performance. Some adolescent boys and many adults recall specific orgasm with all of its adult characteristics occurring before they had acquired the ability to ejaculate; and there are definite records (Chapter 5) on several hundred boys who have been observed in pre-adolescent orgasm which was achieved either through self masturbation or through socio-sexual contacts. Among the older psychiatrists there are some who go so far as to state, dogmatically, that no pre-adolescent ever experienced orgasm unless he was neurotic. Such a statement smacks of something other than scientific objectivity and is, of course, unacceptable in view of the observations now at hand.

Adults are often disturbed when they discover young children masturbating, and many a clinician supports the parents’ fears and lends little comfort to the child who is taken to the doctor to be cured of his biologically normal capacities. Inasmuch as nearly all boys arrive at masturbation sooner or later, it may be asked why one should worry over pre-adolescent or even infantile masturbation. If it is a moral issue, the answer must come from someone else than the scientists, and be treated as a question of morals (as it is in Kirsch 1930, Ruland and Rattler 1934, Fleege 1945, Davis 1946 vol. 2). If it is a question of physical outcome, the issue is for the biologist; and it should be made clear that there is no evidence, among the thousands of histories now at hand, that the boy who begins masturbating at an early age suffers any more harm than the boy who delays the beginning of his experience until some time in adolescence or later. And most scientists and clinicians are now agreed that masturbation does no harm at the later ages.

If the question is one of social values, it may be stated that there is no record of early masturbation disturbing the child’s adjustments except in some of the cases where adults discovered the activity, reprimanded or punished the youngster, made a public exhibition of the offense, or upset the child’s peace of mind in some other way. Even the parents who try to avoid reprimands may cause some disturbance in the child because they, the parents themselves, are inhibited, or because they are not accustomed to observing sexual behavior of any sort. It takes no more than a show of surprise on the part of the parent, a supercilious smile, or even a studied avoidance of the issue to make it apparent to the child that the parent is emotionally upset, and that sexual activity is in a different category from other everyday affairs. Children, even infants and very young children, are especially sensitive to the reactions of other persons. If the child is seriously disturbed over his behavior, the disturbance may color his personality throughout life, as the psychiatrist and psychologist well know.

For the parent who intends that the child, or even the older adolescent, shall not be upset over masturbation, it is a matter of accepting the behavior without allowing it to appear important (Weiss and English 1943), while still making it clear that such activity in front of other individuals may bring social difficulties. The careful adjustments which are worked out in the home may be completely upset by the violent reactions of other children or adults who become aware of the child’s masturbation. Nevertheless, there are cases of parents who have succeeded in accomplishing this delicate adjustment between things that are acceptable in the home and things that other people outside the home “just don’t understand.”

>>