Overview

Only a generation or two ago, childhood in the United States was understood to be a unique and vulnerable stage of development; a time for play and protection from adult preoccupations and responsibilities. In recent decades however, we appear to have jettisoned these norms, and the lines that separate the lifestyles of even very young children from adults are blurring. As widely known experts on the team that created this book explain, children begin formal education now in preschool, dress like adults, listen to the same music, play the same video games, explore the same Internet sites, and watch explicit depictions of sex and violence on TV and in movies. What is the impact of immersing children in a sexualized world? The Sexualization of Childhood first explains the nature of healthy sexual development. It then describes the ways in which children are being sexualized, and the physical and psychological consequences. It then looks at the lower and lower age at which girls are experiencing puberty, that reduction being fueled by the pseudoestrogens in so many of our foods and products, as well as obesity. Finally, it examines what we can do legally, politically, and as caregivers to protect children from developmentally inappropriate sexual experiences.

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9780275999858

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Reviews

An articulate, compelling expose of the numerous ways in which the psychosexual and gender development of U.S. children has been derailed by an overly sexualized culture negligent in safeguarding its youngest members. Professor Olfman's exceptionally fine editing is again apparent. She has assembled a set of first-rate contributions by leading authorities who lay out the evidence with clarity and conviction and who also help us move toward solutions--by detailing ways that parents, mental health professionals, educators, and policy makers can intervene effectively. -Laura E. Berk, Distinguished Professor of Psychology Emerita, Illinois State University

<p> The volume fully brings to one place the best and worst examples of the sexualization of children, and many chapters review up-to-date research. - <p>PsycCRITIQUES

Author Information

Sharna Olfman is Series Editor for the Praeger series Childhood in America. A Clinical Psychologist and Full Professor of Developmental Psychology at Point Park University, she is also Founding Director of the annual Childhood and Society Symposium held at the university. Olfman is the author or editor of six previous Praeger books, including All Work and No Play (2003), Childhood Lost (2005), No Child Left Different, (2006), and Bipolar Children (2007).

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