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The magical age of 10.

G Herdt1, M McClintock

  • 1Program in Human Sexuality Studies, San Francisco State University, California 94132, USA.

Archives of Sexual Behavior
|January 11, 2000
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study explores the onset of sexual attraction before puberty, hypothesizing it links to adrenal puberty (adrenarche) around age 10. Evidence from New Guinea and the US is compared to assess this developmental timing.

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Human Sexuality
  • Anthropology

Background:

  • Puberty involves complex developmental processes influencing sexual subjectivity.
  • The emergence of sexual attraction prior to gonadarche requires further investigation.
  • Cultural contexts significantly shape the understanding of sexual development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To critically examine developmental processes of puberty and cultural contexts.
  • To investigate the hypothesis that sexual attraction follows adrenarche (adrenal puberty).
  • To compare evidence from New Guinea with US studies on early sexual development.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative analysis of ethnographic data from New Guinea.
  • Review of recent clinical studies from the United States.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Examination of findings related to "precocious puberty".

    • Main Results:

    • Adrenarche, or adrenal puberty, is hypothesized to precede stable sexual attraction.
    • Evidence suggests a potential link between adrenarche and the emergence of attraction around age 10.
    • Cross-cultural comparisons highlight variations and potential universals in sexual development.

    Conclusions:

    • Adrenarche may play a crucial role in the development of sexual attraction.
    • The age of 10 is proposed as a significant period for the emergence of stable attraction.
    • Further research is needed to determine if this developmental timing is a human universal.