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Copyright of Journal of College of Education is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over the last quarter century the incest model, with its image of helpless victims exploited and traumatized by powerful perpetrators, has come to dominate perceptions of virtually all forms of adult-minor sex. Thus, even willing sexual relations between gay or bisexual adolescent boys and adult men, which differ from father-daughter incest in many important ways, are generally seen by the lay public and professionals as traumatizing and psychologically injurious. This study assessed this common perception by examining a nonclinical, mostly college sample of gay and bisexual men. Of the 129 men in the study, 26 were identified as having had age-discrepant sexual relations (ADSRs) as adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age with adult males. Men with ADSR experiences were as well adjusted as controls in terms of self-esteem and having achieved a positive sexual identity. Reactions to the ADSRs were predominantly positive, and most ADSRs were willingly engaged in. Younger adolescents were just as willing and reacted at least as positively as older adolescents. Data on sexual identity development indicated that ADSRs played no role in creating same-sex sexual interests, contrary to the "seduction" hypothesis. Findings were inconsistent with the incest model. The incest model has come to act as a procrustean bed, narrowly dictating how adult-minor sexual relations quite different from incest are perceived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a qualitative analysis of the experience of parenting of mothers with dissociative disorders. This analysis was performed to complement the quantitative analysis of problems of mothers with dissociative disorders that Benjamin, Benjamin, and Rind (1996) presented previously. They found that the functioning of these mothers, as well as their subjective experience of mothering, was poorer than that of either clinical or nonclinical control mothers. Our goal was to provide a clearer, richer picture of their problems in parenting. Using the mothers' own words, we describe how the five symptom areas of dissociation (amnesia, depersonalization, derealization, identity confusion, and identity alteration) impeded their parenting efforts. We conclude with a discussion of the necessity of addressing parenting in the treatment of client-mothers with dissociative disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dominant view among researchers is that boys' sexual interactions with adult men are traumatizing. In contrast, many gay men recall childhood sexual experiences with adult males as positive. The current study tested for both of these outcomes by examining recalled boyhood sexual experiences of older gay men. Interviews were conducted in the 1970-1980s, and thus, before the public view became popular that child-adult sexual interactions must be traumatizing. Quantitative analyses suggested that gay men with boyhood sexual experiences with adult males (n = 7, mostly aged 11-16 at first experience with men aged 20s to 50s) were as well adjusted as those without these experiences (n = 10), and these experiences were usually viewed positively (71%). Narrative analyses indicated that adjustment problems in adulthood were not related to these early sexual experiences but to other factors such as parental abusiveness, societal intolerance, internalized homophobia, or social isolation., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

In the present study, relations between same-sex sexual behavior (SSB), age-class, and coalitional behavior in male rhesus macaques were examined in a re-analysis of data first analyzed and reported by Clive et al. (2023). Age-class as a focal variable was indicated in an extensive literature review, which showed that male non-adult (juvenile, adolescent) participation in SSB is extensive in this and related primate species and associated with various benefits. Clive et al. (2023) excluded juveniles from their analysis. In the re-analysis (n = 995 mounting events), it was found that non-adult involvement was substantial (51%). Most dyads contained at least one non-adult (76%). Young and prime adult mounters most often selected non-adults to mount. Mounters were often sexually motivated: most for adolescents (72%); equally for juveniles (57%) and adults (56%). Finally, the highest rate of SSB with coalitional context appeared in adolescent-adult dyads involved in multiple repeated mounts. SSB, age-class, special friendships, bonding, and coalitions were linked, as reported in some other primate species and human societies cross-culturally. Employing age-class in male SSB analysis improved description and explanation., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Analysis of a Finnish nationally representative student sample found that subjective reactions to first intercourse (mostly heterosexual; usually in adolescence) were highly positive for boys and mostly positive for girls, whether involved with peers or adults (Rind, 2022). The present study examined the generality of these findings by examining subjective reactions to first coitus (heterosexual intercourse) in a German nationally representative sample of young people (data collected in 2014). Most first coitus was postpubertal. Males reacted mostly positively and uncommonly negatively in similar fashion in all age pairings: boy-girl (71% positive, 13% negative); boy-woman (73% positive; 17% negative); man-woman (73% positive, 15% negative). Females' reactions were more mixed, similar in the girl-boy (48% positive; 37% negative) and woman-man (46% positive, 36% negative) groups, but less favorable in the girl-man group (32% positive, 47% negative). In logistic regressions, adjusting for other factors, rates of positive reactions were unrelated to age groups. These rates did increase, in order of importance, when participants were male, their partners were close, they expected the coitus to happen, and they affirmatively wanted it. Reaction rates were computed from the Finnish sample, restricting cases to first coitus occurring in the 2000s, and then compared to minors' reactions in the German sample. The Finns reacted more favorably, similarly in both minor-peer and minor-adult coitus, with twice the odds of reacting positively. It was argued that this discrepancy was due to cultural differences (e.g., Finnish culture is more sex-positive). To account for the reaction patterns shown in the adolescent-adult coitus, sizably at odds with expectations from mainstream professional thinking, an evolutionary framework was employed., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Felson et al. (2019) used a large-scale nationally representative Finnish sample of sixth and ninth graders to estimate the population prevalence of negative subjective reactions to sexual experiences between minors under age 18 and persons at least 5 years older and between minors and peer-aged partners for comparison. They then accounted for these reactions in multivariate analysis based on contextual factors. The present study argued that focusing exclusively on negative reactions short-changed a fuller scientific understanding. It analyzed the full range of reactions in the same sample, focusing on positive reactions. For reactions in retrospect, boys frequently reacted positively to minor-older sex (68%, n = 280 cases), on par with positive reactions to boy-peer sex (67%, n = 1510). Girls reacted positively to minor-older sex less often (36%, n = 1047) and to girl-peer sex half the time (48%, n = 1931). In both minor-older and minor-peer sex, rates of positive reactions were higher for boys vs. girls, adolescents vs. children, when partners were friends vs. strangers or relatives, with intercourse vs. lesser forms of sexual intimacy, with more frequent sex, and when not coerced. Boys reacted positively more often with female than male partners. In minor-older sex, partner age difference mattered for girls but not boys, and the minor's initiating the sex (14% for girls, 46% for boys) produced equally high rates of positive reactions. Most of these factors remained significant in multivariate analysis. The frequency of positive reactions, their responsiveness to context, the similarity in reaction patterns with minor-peer sex, and the generalizability of the sample were argued to contradict the trauma view often applied to minor-older sex, holding it to be intrinsically aversive irrespective of context., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

The Irish Study of Sexual Health and Relationships, based on a nationally representative sample of Republic of Ireland adults in 2004-2005, was used to examine adult adjustment in individuals who had their first sexual intercourse as a minor with an adult. Participants were classified into one of four groups based on their age at first intercourse and their partner's age: minors under 18 with peers; minors under 16 with adults; minors 16 to 17 with adults; and adults with adults. Adjustment (health, general relationships, satisfaction with most recent sexual partner, self-confidence, education and career achievement, and sexual problems) was compared across groups separately by gender. The vast majority of cases involved postpubertal heterosexual coitus. Overall, minors involved with adults were not significantly less well adjusted than adults involved with other adults on a majority of measures, effect size differences in adjustment were mostly small, and mean adjustment responses consistently indicated good rather than poor adjustment. Sex differences in first-intercourse characteristics and reasons for engaging reliably occurred for all age groups. In general, males compared to females were more willing, wanted more to lose their virginity, felt more ready for it, did it more often on the spur of the moment, and were less often involved in a relationship or in love when it occurred. Sex differences were greatest for boys versus girls under 16 with adults. Mediation and moderator analyses were also performed. Results were discussed in relation to competing perspectives on the effects of minor-adult sex.

Kinsey's prison male same-sex sample (consisting of prisoners who were gay, bisexual, or had had extensive postpubertal same-sex sex regardless of sexual attractions) was compared with Kinsey's general (i.e., non-prison) same-sex sample (previously analyzed by Rind and Welter, 2016) in terms of reactions to and characteristics of first postpubertal same-sex sex, with a focus on minor-adult contacts. Prison participants had a minor-adult contact as their first postpubertal same-sex sex twice as often as general participants, and their experience involved penetration in three-quarters of cases compared to only half the time for general participants, and it was paid for (i.e., prostitution) three times as often. Despite these differences, reactions to these events by prison and general participants were the same, with combined results of 66% positive reactions (i.e., enjoyed it "much") versus 15% emotionally negative reactions (e.g., shock, disgust, guilt). Results added to those from a series of studies done since 2000 using male same-sex samples in showing that minor-adult same-sex sexual experiences in this population do not conform to the child sexual abuse (CSA) model of trauma and harm. Comparing prison and general participants also showed that the CSA-trauma-crime link often claimed (i.e., where minor-adult sex is said to produce trauma that leads to later criminal behavior) did not hold in the Kinsey same-sex samples, because trauma (the middle element) was mostly missing. This null result for the link alerts that trauma needs to be shown rather than assumed when considering this link. The positive reaction profile obtained was discussed in terms of cultural factors dominant in Kinsey's time.

This study used an important data set to examine long-term adjustment and functioning in men, who as adolescents had sexual experiences with men. The data came from the National Health and Social Life Survey, which used a national probability sample (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, 1994). Three perspectives were considered, which offered different predictions. From the "child sexual abuse" (CSA) paradigm, which dominates clinical, legal, and lay views, expected was robust evidence for poorer adjustment, given that intense harm is assumed to be intrinsic. From the "mainstream psychological" perspective, derived from the CSA paradigm but more scientifically based, poorer adjustment was also expected, but with less magnitude, given that minor-adult sex is seen as posing a serious risk of harm, which may not universally apply. From the "relevant-empirical" perspective, which infers response to male adolescent-adult same-sex sex from relevant prior empirical research (as opposed to clinical cases or the female experience), expected was little or no evidence for poorer adjustment. Results supported the relevant-empirical perspective. Compared to several control groups (i.e., men whose first postpubertal same-sex sex was as men with other men; men with no postpubertal same-sex sexual experience or child-adult sex), men whose first postpubertal same-sex sex was as adolescents with men were just as well adjusted in terms of health, happiness, sexual functioning, and educational and career achievement. Results are discussed in relation to cultural influences, other cultures, and comparative data from primates.

This study examined reactions to first postpubertal same-sex sexual experience in the Kinsey female same-sex sample (consisting of females with extensive postpubertal same-sex experience) as a function of participant and partner ages. As such, it complemented the Rind and Welter (2016) study, which examined the same in the Kinsey male same-sex sample. Data were collected by Kinsey interviewers between 1939 and 1961 (M year = 1947). Girls under 18 (M age = 14.9), whose sexual experience was with a woman (M age = 26.3), reacted positively just as often as girls under 18 (M age = 14.1) with peers (M age = 15.0) and women (M age = 22.7) with women (M age = 26.3). The positive-reaction rates were, respectively, 85, 82, and 79 %. In a finer-graded analysis, younger adolescent girls (≤14) (M age = 12.8) with women (M age = 27.4) had a high positive-reaction rate (91 %), a rate reached by no other group. For women (M age = 22.2) with same-aged peers (M age = 22.3), this rate was 86 %. Girls with peers or women had no emotionally negative reactions (e.g., fear, disgust, shame, regret); women with women rarely did. Results contradicted prevailing clinical, legal, and lay beliefs that minor-adult sex is inherently traumatic and would be distinguished as such compared to age-concordant sex. The findings are discussed in terms of the time period in which the sexual experiences occurred.

Rind and Welter (2014) examined first postpubertal coitus using the Kinsey sample, finding that reactions were just as positive, and no more negative, among minors with adults compared to minors with peers and adults with adults. In the present study, we examined first postpubertal male same-sex sexual experiences in the Kinsey same-sex sample (i.e., participants mostly with extensive postpubertal same-sex behavior), comparing reactions across the same age categories. These data were collected between 1938 and 1961 (M year: 1946). Minors under age 18 years with adults (M ages: 14.0 and 30.5, respectively) reacted positively (i.e., enjoyed the experience "much") often (70 %) and emotionally negatively (e.g., fear, disgust, shame, regret) infrequently (16 %). These rates were the same as adults with adults (M ages: 21.2 and 25.9, respectively): 68 and 16 %, respectively. Minors with peers (M ages: 13.3 and 13.8, respectively) reacted positively significantly more often (82 %) and negatively nominally less often (9 %). Minors with adults reacted positively to intercourse (oral, anal) just as often (69 %) as to outercourse (body contact, masturbation, femoral) (72 %) and reacted emotionally negatively significantly less often (9 vs. 25 %, respectively). For younger minors (≤14) with adults aged 5-19 years older, reactions were just as positive (83 %) as for minors with peers within 1 year of age (84 %) and no more emotionally negative (11 vs. 7 %, respectively). Results are discussed in relation to findings regarding first coitus in the Kinsey sample and to the cultural context particular to Kinsey's time.

Using the original Kinsey sample, enjoyment and emotionally negative reactions to first postpubescent coitus were examined in relation to whether the coitus occurred as a legal minor (aged under 18) with an adult (5 or more years older), a minor with a peer (within 4 years of age), or an adult with an adult (both 18 or older). These responses were further examined in subdivisions of the minor–adult and adult–adult categories. Given widely held professional and lay assumptions that minor–adult sex is intrinsically traumatic or aversive, tested was whether reactions to minor–adult coitus were characteristically negative, irrespective of gender, and distinctly more negative than minor–peer and adult–adult coitus. In general: minors with adults enjoyed the event as much as minors with peers or adults with adults; boys (i.e., male minors) enjoyed it substantially more than girls, irrespective of partner age; and minors with adults did not have more emotionally negative reactions than the other groups. Younger boys (14 and under) with women (mean ages: 13.37 and 24.27, respectively; mean age difference: 10.90 years), compared to men with peer-aged women (mean ages: 21.76 and 21.58, respectively; mean age difference: 0.18 years), enjoyed the coitus a great deal (the top scale value) significantly more often (63 % vs. 44 %) and had emotionally negative reactions no more often (15 % vs. 12 %). Younger girls (14 and under) with men (mean ages: 13.19 and 26.42, respectively; mean age difference: 13.23 years), compared to women with peer-aged men (mean ages: 22.38 and 23.78, respectively; mean age difference: 1.41 years), enjoyed the coitus a great deal at the same rate (17 % vs. 18 %) and had emotionally negative reactions no more often (18 % vs. 16 %). Assumptions of characteristic trauma or aversiveness in minor–adult first coitus, as well as gender equivalence in response, were contradicted.

Roberts, Glymour, and Koenen (2013), using instrumental variable models, argued that child abuse causes homosexual orientation, defined in part as any same-sex attractions. Their instruments were various negative family environment factors. In their analyses, they found that child sexual abuse (CSA) was more strongly related to homosexual orientation than non-sexual maltreatment was, especially among males. The present commentary therefore focused on male CSA. It is argued that Roberts et al.'s "abuse model" is incorrect and an alternative is presented. Male homosexual behavior is common in primates and has been common in many human societies, such that an evolved human male homosexual potential, with individual variation, can be assumed. Cultural variation has been strongly influenced by cultural norms. In our society, homosexual expression is rare because it is counternormative. The "counternormativity model" offered here holds that negative family environment weakens normative controls and increases counternormative thinking and behavior, which, in combination with sufficient homosexual potential and relevant, reinforcing experiences, can produce a homosexual orientation. This is a benign or positive model (innate potential plus release and reinforcement), in contrast to Roberts et al.'s negative model (abuse plus emotional compensation or cognitive distortion). The abuse model is criticized for being based on the sexual victimological paradigm, which developed to describe the female experience in rape and incest. This poorly fits the gay male experience, as demonstrated in a brief non-clinical literature review. Validly understanding male homosexuality, it is argued, requires the broad perspective, as employed here.

Blanchard et al. (2009) demonstrated that hebephilia is a genuine sexual preference, but then proposed, without argument or evidence, that it should be designated as a mental disorder in the DSM-5. A series of Letters-to-the-Editor criticized this proposal as a non sequitur. Blanchard (2009), in rebuttal, reaffirmed his position, but without adequately addressing some central criticisms. In this article, we examine hebephilia-as-disorder in full detail. Unlike Blanchard et al., we discuss definitions of mental disorder, examine extensive evidence from a broad range of sources, and consider alternative (i.e., non-pathological) explanations for hebephilia. We employed Wakefield's (1992b) harmful dysfunction approach to disorder, which holds that a condition only counts as a disorder when it is a failure of a naturally selected mechanism to function as designed, which is harmful to the individual in the current environment. We also considered a harmful-for-others approach to disorder (Brülde, 2007). Examination of historical, cross-cultural, sociological, cross-species, non-clinical empirical, and evolutionary evidence and perspectives indicated that hebephilic interest is an evolved capacity and hebephilic preference an expectable distributional variant, both of which were adaptively neutral or functional, not dysfunctional, in earlier human environments. Hebephilia's conflict with modern society makes it an evolutionary mismatch, not a genuine disorder. Though it should not be classified as a disorder, it could be entered in the DSM's V-code [corrected] section, used for non-disordered conditions that create significant problems in present-day society.

This article comments on the Najman, Dunne, Purdie, Boyle, and Coxeter (2005) study on the relationship between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and later sexual functioning in an Australian national sample. We note the value of the Najman et al. study, being well conducted and using a generalizable sample, but critique Najman et al.'s interpretation that their study showed "significant impairment" due to the CSA. We computed effect sizes to show that the "effects" were small, and then show using meta-analysis that these small effects were consistent with results in a series of national samples from other countries. We argue that Najman et al.'s causal statement about CSA's "impairment" effect was unwarranted given their lack of causal analysis, the well-established fact in other research that CSA is often confounded with third variables, and the fact that CSA was confounded with a key third variable in Najman et al.'s study. Given the hyperbole that surrounds the issue of CSA, we emphasize the need for researchers to adhere to valid scientific principles in inference and precision when reporting the results of CSA research.

The authors respond to 2 victimological critiques of their 1998 meta-analysis on child sexual abuse (CSA). S. J. Dallam et al. (2001) claimed that B. Rind, P. Tromovitch, and R. Bauserman (1998) committed numerous methodological and statistical errors, and often miscoded and misinterpreted data. The authors show all these claims to be invalid. To the contrary, they demonstrate frequent bias in Dallam et al.'s criticisms. S. J. Ondersma et al. (2001) claimed that Rind et al.'s study is part of a backlash against psychotherapists, that its suggestions regarding CSA definitions were extrascientific, and that the moral standard is needed to understand CSA scientifically. The authors show their suggestions to have been scientific and argue that it is Ondersma et al.'s issue-framing and moral standard that are extrascientific. This reply supports the original methods, analyses, recommendations, and conclusions of Rind et al.

Many lay persons and professionals believe that child sexual abuse (CSA) causes intense harm, regardless of gender, pervasively in the general population. The authors examined this belief by reviewing 59 studies based on college samples. Meta-analyses revealed that students with CSA were, on average, slightly less well adjusted than controls. However, this poorer adjustment could not be attributed to CSA because family environment (FE) was consistently confounded with CSA, FE explained considerably more adjustment variance than CSA, and CSA-adjustment relations generally became nonsignificant when studies controlled for FE. Self-reported reactions to and effects from CSA indicated that negative effects were neither pervasive nor typically intense, and that men reacted much less negatively than women. The college data were completely consistent with data from national samples. Basic beliefs about CSA in the general population were not supported.

Researchers have generally neglected sexual experiences of boys with adults, assumed them to be the same as those of girls, or tried to understand them by referring to clinical research while ignoring nonclinical research. A review of nonclinical research allows a more complete understanding of boys' sexual experiences with adults and the outcomes and correlates of those experiences. Research with nonclinical samples reveals a broad range of reactions, with most reactions being either neutral or positive. Clinical samples reveal a narrower, primarily negative, set of reactions. Comparison of the reactions of boys and girls shows that reactions and outcomes for boys are more likely to be neutral or positive. Moderator variables, including presence of force, perceptions of consent, and relationship to the adult, also relate to outcomes. Incestuous contacts and those involving force or threats are most likely to be negative. Problems in this field of research include broad and vague definitions of "abuse" and conflation of value judgments with harm. Effects of boys' early sexual experiences with older persons in general cannot be accurately inferred from clinical research alone or from girls' experiences.

This study examined to what extent the symptoms of dissociative mothers interfered with their parenting and their subjective experiences of mothering. A group of 54 dissociative inpatient or day-patient mothers, 20 nondissociative inpatient mothers, and 20 hospital staff mothers were screened for Dissociative Disorders using the Structured Clinical Interview for Dissociative Disorders (SCID-D). They were then asked to fill out a self-report questionnaire on various aspects of mothering. This questionnaire, the Subjective Experiences of Parenting Scale (SEPS), examined 14 parenting characteristics: parenting partner support; relative support; abusiveness towards the child; extent to which symptoms interfered with parenting; constructive parenting traits; supportive versus hurtful discipline; extent of showing affection; ability to express affection; attachment behaviors; cognitive distortions; regulation of anger; self versus mother in parenting; subjective experience of mothering; and actions to promote the developmental growth of the child Dissociatives presented significantly more negative parenting behavior and related attributes than staff controls on 13 of the 14 parenting characteristics. Compared to nondissociative patients, the dissociative cohort presented poorer parenting behavior and related attributes on 9 of the 14 characteristics. Overall, the dissociatives experienced more problems with parenting attitudes and behaviors than either comparison group. Dissociative mothers manifested affective, behavioral, and cognitive difficulties in parenting.

Previous research has indicated that individuals can accurately judge certain personality dispositions of unacquainted peers after viewing facial photographs of them. The present investigation attempted to replicate and extend this finding. In Study 1, American high school seniors watched a videotape containing a series of facial photographs of twenty-two 14-year-old boys, and judged the social adjustment, good-worker attributes, and aggressiveness of each of these boys, using a series of bipolar scales. These impressions were then correlated with objective measures of these factors that had been taken previously. The subjects judged social adjustment, but not the other two factors, accurately. A second study evaluated the reliability of these findings. College students who were unacquainted with these boys rank-ordered them on the same three dimensions, using photographs of their upper bodies. The results of Study 2 were identical to those of Study 1, despite the differences in the judges' ages, the stimulus materials, and the methods of measurement.