Sexual maturation in adolescence and adulthood

¶ … Sexual Maturation: The Implications of Early Childhood Sexual Development and Awareness

Gilbert Herdt and Martha Mcclintock (2000) examine that aspect of early sexual maturation following the onset of adrenal puberty, clinically referred to as adrenarche, precipitating the development of stable and memorable attraction toward others by the age of ten (p. 587). This is consistent with recent theory and research holding that children are experiencing early sexual maturation, and have identified the onset as beginning earlier in life, between the age of eleven and twelve, as opposed to what was previously identified as occurring between ages fifteen to sixteen. The eleven to twelve year sexual maturation is what Herdt and Mcclintock refer to as gonadal puberty (p. 587).

This early sexual maturation, beginning at age ten, and what Herdt and Mcclintock call adrenal puberty, is the first step to pursuing a physical relationship. The physical attraction is what happens first between people, and physical contact, the touching of that to which we are attracted to in one another, follows as an irresistible developmental phase of the initial attraction. Herdt and Mcclintock are supported in their conclusions by Weston M. Edwards and Eli Coleman (2004), who cite the World Health Organization (WHO) as determining that sexual health involves a psychological component that provides the basis in understanding of the sexual experience without the confusion that accompanies the immaturity of puberty (p. 189). That while children begin to feel the attraction to others that will, as Herdt and Mcclintock point out, forms their early sexual experiences (Herdt and Mcclintock, p. 587), those experiences are often without the psychological maturity that helps the adolescent to be able to understand what they are experiencing (Edwards and Coleman, p. 189).

Herdt and Mcclintock and Edwards and Coleman provide ideas for further discussion and consideration. Their research is thought provoking, and raises the immediate question of: what are the implications when we have children who are aged ten whose basis of attraction to others (regardless of gender) is forming, and whom, when they come into their gonadal maturation, which is occurring much sooner in today's world than had previously occurred; but who lack the psychological and intellectual maturity to understand and put into the proper perspective their initial attraction, and their subsequent physical response to that attraction?

The Intellectually Immature Sexual Experience

Emma Renold (2005) says that there is a presumption that exists in the minds of people that a child who is ten years old, or even the eleven to twelve-year-old, is an innocent, untroubled by the thoughts associated with social, intellectual, and physical maturity (p. 17). Renold's chapter on presumed innocence interrogates "both the gendering and sexualisation of innocence within the generational cultures, 'boyhood' and 'girlhood' (Renold, p. 17)."

In keeping with the consistency of the ideas introduced by Herdt and Mcclintock relating to early sexual maturation, Renold examines in detail the primary school setting as that place wherein the production and regulation of sexuality manifests itself based on the early childhood memories of attraction (p. 17). This setting is consistent, too, with the ideas introduced by Edwards and Coleman; that the early physicality associated with attraction manifests itself in the action that becomes the next step to the attraction with physical sexual awareness at the gonadal stage. The gonadal stage would develop in the primary school setting, as Renold has said happens.

This does not mean that the adolescent is experiencing an accompanying level of intellectual maturity that helps him or her to take the appropriate steps to inform their selves or protect their selves from their own behaviors and physical urges. There is innocence in the child's emerging sexual physicality and emotional and intellectual awareness. At the primary school level it is one that is combined with social awareness in the primary school setting. Primary school has historically been the place where young children are able to connect their emotional needs through the instructor, who helps guide them through the learning process. As the instructor guides the students, it would not seem unusual for the students to begin to admire those traits in the instructor, and that perhaps even the physical resemblances of the instructor are those to which the young student might be attracted to during the gonadal stage of development.

With early maturation, however, the young student, especially male students, are experiencing adrenal and gonadal awareness at earlier stages. We have seen the implications of early maturation in this primary school setting, especially in recent years as cases like that of the school teacher, Mary Kay Letourneau, a Washington State school teacher, who responded to what was probably initially a manifestation of a young student's adrenarche phase when Letourneau, an adult teacher who was married and had children of own, took advantage of her young student's early maturation by engaging in a physical sexual relationship with the student (Levine, Kay L., 2006, p. 357). Letourneau's affair with her young student is not as uncommon as many people might wish to believe. Kay Levine (2006) has cited several cases in addition to Letourneau's that demonstrate the implications of early maturation.

1)for eight months in 1999, a special education teacher in Montrose, New York had sex with several teenaged students during private, in-home tutoring sessions.

2)in December of 1998, a thirty-year-old church choir supervisor in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts had a sexual relationship with a fourteen-year-old member of the choir.

3) in Gwinnett County, Georgia, in 1998, a thirty-six-year-old school bus driver exchanged alcohol for sex with a fourteen-year-old classmate of the driver's daughter.

4) in 2002, the forty-six-year-old music director of a private school in a Boston suburb had sex with a fourteen-year-old at the school.

5) in 1998, in Antioch, California, a foster parent-foster child relationship led to the birth of a baby boy (Levine, p. 357)."

These are just a few of the reports made that came to the public spotlight in recent years concerning adults who take advantage of the vulnerability and emotional immaturity of children in their charge. A child who experiences early maturation lacks the emotional and intellectual ability to put into the proper context the emotions and physical changes that they are experiencing. Therefore it cannot be possible that they can fully understand the consequences of their actions, especially if those actions produce a child.

There is already much that a young child experiencing early maturation has to cope with. In 2007, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy issued a report that surveyed teens asking the question: "When it comes to your decisions about sex, who is most influential (2007, p. 1)?" The overwhelming response by teens in the 12-14 age range was parents, at 59%; second, friends at 13%; teachers at 5%; the media at 2%; religious leaders at 5%; siblings at 5%; and someone else at 7%; and "yourself" at 1%. This indicates that while these children are looking to their parents for the cues, behaviors, and choices revolving around the expression of their own sexuality, they remain vulnerable to those others figures of authority on whom they should be able to rely upon to guide them in the direction away from poor choices based on their own inclinations as a result of early maturation and attraction that could easily be mistaken for something much greater than what it is.

The differences between the percentages in the teen 12-14 age range, and that of the surveyed teens in the age range of 15-19, demonstrates the immaturity of the teens during the attraction phase of maturation. The percentage of teens 15-19 citing their parents as the biggest influences in their lives when it comes to the decisions they make for their selves concerning sex was 39%; down 20% from the 12-14 age group. The 15- to 19-year-olds cited their friends as influencing their decisions in matters of sex at 21%, up 8% from the 12-14 age range. The other remarkable variance was in the "someone else," category, where the 15- to 19-year-olds were 12% over the 12- to 14-year-olds 7% in citing someone else, but not specifying who, was influencing their choices (the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, p. 1).

What is perhaps even more interesting is that 41% of the parents surveyed in both categories of teenagers cited their friends as having the greater influence over their decisions their teens make for their selves regarding sex (p. 1). Eighty-eight percent of parents in both categories admit that when it comes to discussing sex with their children, they find they do not know how to comfortably approach the subject (p. 1). As we look at the statistics, we might be able to draw some conclusions as pertains to the lack of emotional and intellectual intelligence demonstrated by the teens regarding sex as a result of their maturation. If these teens in the 12-14 group are looking to their parents to establish the base of knowledge for them in their decision making and choices about sex, then they are encountering their parents' own lack of emotional and intellectual intelligence in being able to discuss the subject with their children. It might be fair to say that the emotional and intellectual intelligence of the teens as it concerns sex and the choices they make for their selves is only as mature as that of their parents.

This means that there remains much work to be done in helping parents acquire the necessary skills and mindset to engage in coherent and informative conversations about sex with their children when their children are experiencing the gonadal physiological and social changes as a result of early maturation. As Levine has pointed out in her article, the number of female predators that are preying upon adolescent boys has only in recent years drawn the attention of law enforcement as a criminal behavior (p. 357). There are some states, such as Louisiana, that have actually taken steps to limit the school's ability to provide introductory sex education to adolescents (Yoo, Seunghyun, Johnson, Carolyn, Rice, Janet, and Manuel, Powlin, 2007, pp. 329-334). In Louisiana, the state, by choice of the voters, allows the public schools to teach teens only abstinence as a form of birth control (p. 329). Even though there are sexually transmitted diseases that sexually active teens need to be aware of, which could be prevented by use of a condom, the state prohibits discussion on condoms (p. 329). In Louisiana, the consequence of early maturation is the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD) because the majority of parents are uneasy discussing sex with their children.

The forces beyond the concept of self to which the adolescent becomes susceptible to are serious, but so are those with which the adolescent must contend as a result of their own lack of emotional and intellectual intelligence. J. Sinkkonen, R. Anttila, and M.A. Siimes (1998) examined the early childhood perceptions of self-image as children experienced early maturation (p. 209). They say:

Onset of puberty is known to be a stressful period of life. The young adolescent must face several simultaneous developmental challenges, which are reflected as a gap in self-image. In this study, relationships between biological pubertal events and self-image were analyzed in a sample of 59 healthy adolescent boys from the Helsinki area. Detailed information on pubertal development was collected by a pediatrician at three-month intervals. The subjects filled in the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire at 13 and at 14 years and were interviewed by a child psychiatrist. During the year, self-image increased in four domains: Impulse Control, Emotional Tone, Sexual Attitudes, and Psychopathology. The changes in the first two domains were related to pubertal events. In contrast, changes in emotional health and in sexual attitudes did not correlate with bodily changes or testosterone. As regards body image, differences were not found in relation to age, but in relation to genital stages. These findings indicate that some aspects of self-image develop as a function of psychological and cognitive maturation, while other aspects are related to biological events (p. 329)."