Children's sexual play and behavior in pre-school settings: staff's perceptions, reports, and responses

The aims of this study were to learn about the nature, frequency, and patterns of young children's observed sexual play and behavior in pre-school settings, and staff responses to them.

Fifty eight staff in 11 pre-school settings were interviewed and data obtained about their recall of observed sexualized play and behaviors of children in their care. Responses were sought both to an open question and to 20 different hypothetical scenarios describing children's behaviors with a genital or sexual content. They were asked about the proportion of children observed and the frequency of the behaviors. They were also asked for their predicted responses to encountering each of these scenarios.

Children's curiosity about genitalia, looking and limited touching were more commonly observed, and drawing or modeling of genitalia and simulating sexual intercourse were also reported. Children inserting anything into another child and oral-genital contact had only rarely been observed. Rare behaviors always caused concern and led to some intervention. Concern about the more common behaviors was related to additional factors such as frequency, manner and talk accompanying the behavior and to other information known about the child.

The results confirm findings from studies in other countries about the reported prevalence of more and less commonly observed sexual and genitally orientated behaviors in young children. They lend justification for concerns about children showing rarely observed behaviors or showing preoccupation with genitalia and indicate the need for a search for an explanation of these behaviors when observed.