Developmental 

Karin Martin, Professor, Sociology, University of Michigan

Monday, February 11, 2013, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
B247 East Hall

Event Information

After decades of research devoted to understanding adolescent and pre-adolescent sexual socialization, recent research has begun to investigate how much younger children in the U.S. learn about sexuality. While we know some about how parents feel and what they say from parental reports, we know little about the role of children or the dynamics of the these early conversations that constitute the beginning of sexual socialization. This study analyzes qualitative data from audio-recorded conversations of parents and their preschoolers talking about sexuality, reproduction, and “where babies come from” in order to understand better the collaborative dynamics between parents and children in the construction of early understandings of sexuality.

Karin A. Martin received her PhD from UC Berkeley and has been a Professor of Sociology at UM for 17+ years. She does research on gender, sexuality, and childhood in their various intersections. She is author of Puberty, Sexuality, and the Self: Boys and Girls at Adolescence (Routledge 1996) and publishes widely in places such as the American Sociological Review, Gender & Society, Sex Roles, and Journal of Family Issues.