The Socialization of Sexual Identity

The research reported in this paper tests three theoretical descriptions of the relative impact of childhood and later socialization experiences on adult behavior, using the specific context of female sexual socialization. The theories tested are derived from Freud, Brim, and Gagnon and Simon. Two aspects of adult sexual behavior serve as dependent variables: sense of sexual vulnerability toward strangers, and ability to cope with problems in serious intimate relationships. Results indicate that no single theory adequately accounts for the data. The importance of postchildhood experiences for the stable personality trait of sexual self-esteem in these data raises serious questions about theories which assume the primacy of early experiences for personality formation, especially in the sexual area. Substantively, the models can explain much more of the variance in sexual vulnerability than in coping ability. This finding supports the expectation that these two dependent variables respond to different antecedents, and deserve separate treatment in socialization research.