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Article Excerpt
Empirically determined characteristics that mental health counselors can use as a reference when assessing the normalcy of sexual behaviors in preadolescent children are summarized. Once sexual behaviors have been determined to be problematic, mental health counselors need to be aware of and address factors that will affect children's sexual attitudes and behaviors.
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Mental health counselors are often asked to determine whether a preadolescent child's sexual behaviors are normal or problematic. Pairing sexuality with children makes many parents and mental health counselors uncomfortable. Parents are concerned and often confused about the most appropriate ways to respond to their children's emerging sexuality, and parents often consult mental health counselors to determine whether their children's sexual behaviors are indicative of a problem or merely normal childhood development. Because researchers have found that there is a direct correlation between the frequency of childhood sexual behaviors and sexual abuse (Beitchman, Zucker, Hood, DaCosta, & Akman, 1991; Friedrich, 1993; Friedrich & Grambsch, 1992; Kendall-Tackett, Williams, & Finkelhor, 1993), many mental health professionals feel an urgency to correctly determine the source of the child's sexual behaviors. It is important that mental health counselors have the ability to define what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate sexual behaviors in children. The purpose of this article is to identify normal and abnormal childhood sexual behaviors and to examine factors that mental health counselors should be aware of as contributing to children's problematic sexual attitudes.
NORMAL SEXUAL BEHAVIORS
Psychosexual development begins in infancy and progresses with age, along with the other realms of development. At birth, boys are capable of having erections, and girls' vaginas are capable of lubrication (Johnson, 1999). Children's sexual development is marked by curiosity about, first, their own bodies and, then, those of others (Schuhrke, 2000). Children's attempts at sexual exploration and the repercussions of these attempts help to shape the child's sexual development (Mrazek & Mrazek, 1987). Children learn when they are allowed to satisfy their sexual curiosities as well as when they are not allowed to. Some parents are able to respond to children's emerging sexuality in a caring, healthy manner; yet others feel threatened and react harshly. Adults' and other children's shame and embarrassment often play a role in a child's developing modesty and inhibition (Schuhrke).
Many sexual behaviors in children are common, and the variability of those normative behaviors is extensive (Friedrich, Grambsch, Broughton, Kuiper, & Beilke, 1991; Hibbard, Roughmann, & Hoekelman, 1987). Friedrich et al., using the sexual behavior items from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBL) and the Child Sexual Behavior Inventory (CSBI), performed a comprehensive benchmark study to determine what sexual behaviors were normal in the preadolescent population. This study is unique because it is one of very few known to examine nonclinical samples of children. The researchers relied on parental report for their data on 2-through 12-year-old children without a history of suspected or confirmed sexual abuse. In identifying sexual behaviors of boys and girls 2-6 and 7-12 years of age, the researchers found that the frequency of some observed sexual behaviors commonly decreased (i.e., undresses other people, wants to be the opposite sex, rubs body against people, shows sex parts to children, touches sex parts in public) or increased (i.e., looks at nude pictures, uses sexual words, asks to watch explicit television) with age in either or both genders. Some behaviors, such as imitates sexual behavior with dolls, inserts objects into vagina/anus, talks flirtatiously, and pretends to be the opposite sex, were noticeably more common in girls than in boys. Conversely, behaviors observed more frequently in boys than in girls included making sexual sounds, looking at nude pictures, touching sex parts in public, and trying to look at people undressing. Friedrich et al. found that all sexual behaviors assessed occurred in at least one of the groups. Although some behaviors were much less common (i.e., puts mouth on sex parts, asks to engage in sex acts, inserts objects in vagina/anus, masturbates with objects, initiates intercourse), they still occurred to some extent, thus making it inappropriate to determine any of these behaviors to be indisputably abnormal. Similarly, Hibbard et al. reported that few 3-to 7-year-old children...
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