Sexual behavior in dutch and belgian children as observed by their mothers

Theo G.M. Sandfort; Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis

doi:https://doi.org/10.1300/J056v12n01_07

Sexual behavior in dutch and belgian children as observed by their mothers

Theo G.M. Sandfort, Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis

Medical psychology (VUmc)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

29 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Mothers’ observations (N = 670) of child sexual behavior have been collected using an adapted version of the Child Sexual Behavior Inventory as developed by Friedrich et al. (1991). The ages of the boys (N = 351) and girls (N = 319) observed range from 0 to 11 years. The results show that there is a lot of variance in the frequency with which specific sexual behaviors are observed. The occurrence of specific behaviors varies with age. While some behaviors are observed more frequently as the child gets older, others are observed less frequently. Boys and girls only differ in a few behaviors. The finding that the behavioral items form an internally consistent scale suggests that there is a general tendency to show sexually related behaviors, which is more or less strongly present in children, which might be a precursor of differential levels of sexual desires in adults.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	105-115
Number of pages	11
Journal	Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality
Volume	12
Issue number	1-2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1300/J056v12n01_07
Publication status	Published - 12 Oct 2000

Keywords

Age differences
Child sexual behavior inventory
Gender differences
Parents’ observations

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https://doi.org/10.1300/J056v12n01_07

Cite this

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abstract = "Mothers{\textquoteright} observations (N = 670) of child sexual behavior have been collected using an adapted version of the Child Sexual Behavior Inventory as developed by Friedrich et al. (1991). The ages of the boys (N = 351) and girls (N = 319) observed range from 0 to 11 years. The results show that there is a lot of variance in the frequency with which specific sexual behaviors are observed. The occurrence of specific behaviors varies with age. While some behaviors are observed more frequently as the child gets older, others are observed less frequently. Boys and girls only differ in a few behaviors. The finding that the behavioral items form an internally consistent scale suggests that there is a general tendency to show sexually related behaviors, which is more or less strongly present in children, which might be a precursor of differential levels of sexual desires in adults.",

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Sexual behavior in dutch and belgian children as observed by their mothers

Abstract

Keywords

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