Where did I come from? US parents' and preschool children's participation in sexual socialisation

Abstract

This paper applies a sociology of childhood approach to the study of the sexual socialisation of young children in the USA. It examines both children's and parents' active participation in this dynamic and collaborative process through conversations between 49 parents and their 54 preschool children that were audio-recorded while they read books about ‘where babies come from’. Parents also participated in a brief survey. The authors found that, while parents do foreclose such conversations as previous research has indicated, they also use a variety of other tactics, including adding information and emotion management. These findings illustrate children's active engagement in their own sexual socialisation through their questions, confusions and distractions, which affected the amount and type of information that was elicited.

Keywords::

• parents
• children
• sexual socialisation
• USA