Perceptions of Children’s Age-Appropriate and Problematic Sexual Behaviors Among Adults Living in the United States

Abstract

The present study examined how adults living in the United States perceive children’s developmentally-appropriate and problematic sexual behaviors before and after receiving psychoeducation on these topics. The purpose of the present study was to inform future psychoeducational programming. The present study specifically focused on whether male and female adult participants experienced biases regarding children’s sexual behaviors based on their own genders, children’s genders, and their own histories of adverse sexual experiences during childhood (ASECs). Participants from a national sample were presented with 8 vignettes describing situations in which male children (4 vignettes) and female children (4 vignettes) engaged in developmentally-appropriate childhood sexual behaviors (CSBs) and problematic sexual behaviors (PSBs). Participants were then asked to rate how likely they were to recommend that the children’s families seek services for CSBs and PSBs, before and after receiving psychoeducation. Results showed that the likelihood of female participants and participants with histories of ASECs recommending that families seek services significantly differed (p < .05) from male participants and participants without histories of ASECs—both overall and contextually. Additional research is warranted on how to effectively disseminate information about CSBs and PSBs to adult females as well as with histories of ASECs.