PUBERTAL DISORDERS AND SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN MAN
Deviations from the usual timetable of pubertal development lead to discrepancies of several variables that are usually highly correlated: chronological age, physique age, and psychosocial age (Money and Ehrhardt). When physique age is advanced or retarded in relation to chronological age, it depends to some extent on the particular environment, for example, social pressures from peers and adults, whether or not and to what extent the psychosocial age will coincide with or deviate from the physique age on the one hand and the chronological age on the other. Usually, the child or adolescent will be aware of these discrepancies. The degree of his or her emotional response and the quality of coping will depend largely on support from the outside. Principles of psychological management of disorders in puberty have been described in detail elsewhere. The general social impact of differential maturation has been reviewed by Clausen.
To the extent that the hormonal changes of puberty are causally involved in human psycho-sexual development, variations of the timing of puberty should correlate with differences in the onset of mature sexual behavior. For normal variations of puberty, such correlations are suggested by the classical Kinsey reports: early-normal maturing boys started sexual activity earlier, became involved in more types of sexual activity, had higher frequency rates in each type of activity, and subsequently remained at higher rates of total orgasmic outlet (Kinsey and others). Early-normal maturing girls, however, showed only a slight tendency to start their orgasmic sexual activity (including masturbation) earlier than their peers, and there was also a trend for earlier onset of petting experiences which might reflect the response of males to the mature-looking young girl as well as the girl’s own sexual motivation.
More extreme variations of pubertal timing can be found in clinical syndromes such as precocious or delayed puberty or in hypogonadism in which puberty must be induced artificially. The examination of such syndromes permits a quasi-experimental separation in time of the hormonal from some of the institutionalized social changes; they serve as “experiments of nature.” For instance, a boy in mid-puberty at age seven years—with an almost adult-size penis, marked pubic hair, and testosterone levels in the (low) adult male range—will usually not be able to share his sexual feelings and interests, if any, with a pubertal teenage peer group in junior high school; instead he will be with second graders who do not have much understanding of his advanced development. Thus, whatever effects his raised hormone levels may have on his sexual motivation and behavior will manifest themselves relatively independent of social entraining of sexuality.
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