Socializing Agents of Sexuality: The Family Volume 6 - Issue 4

Gunther Balarezo López*

• Sociologist, Peruvian University of Applied Sciences, Peru

Received:February 16, 2022;   Published: February 23, 2022

Corresponding author: Gunther Balarezo López, Sociologist, Peruvian University of Applied Sciences, Peru

DOI: 10.32474/JAAS.2022.06.000243

Abstract PDF

The human being is socially dependent from birth and is the family in the first instance (the basic social group). The first social responses of babies are directed at adults, because normally these are the first social contacts that are established with them. The infant learns through images first, seeing, for example, the relationships of her parents with her siblings within their home; but they also perceive images of relationships between other people, including parents with nannies, domestic workers. Early childhood constitutes the most intense period of socialization, where parents tend to socialize boys more intensely than girls, to punish them more, but also to reward and stimulate them more frequently. In addition, the family plays an important and essential role in transmitting to the children’s norms, values, beliefs, patterns of behavior, abilities and skills to act in society; thus laying the foundation for children’s basic personality, which has a lasting effect. The way of being the personal criteria, feelings, opinions and attitudes largely reflect those of the parents or relatives. It should be noted that parents are also influenced by the culture in which they have been raised and will therefore treat their sons and daughters in the way that they have been raised.

The father seems to be much more concerned with male and female stereotypes than the mother, as she often accepts that her daughters play with trucks and her sons with dolls, but this kind of undefined sex game tends to anger the father, especially with regard to males. The man accepts a temperamental son with a difficult character more than a girl with the same characteristics, and he tends to physically punish his sons more than his daughters. On the other hand, the father is more sociable, accommodating, and affectionate with his preschool-age daughters, but more directive and controlling with his sons, and is more concerned with their cognitive achievements than with his daughters. The attitude of adults towards these behaviors of children, as well as the teaching they receive about what a man and a woman should be, will influence the future experience of their children’s sexuality. In this regard, the American psychologist Albert Bandura, states that: “Children whose father or mother have a strong tendency to punish or are indifferent, do not manage to properly reaffirm the masculinity or femininity of their children.”

The socialization process in children consists of three elements that are fundamental but are not independent, but rather influence and complement each other:

a) Rewards and punishments-from the beginning, parents educate their children by rewarding or reinforcing some responses and punishing others. Rewarded responses become stronger, manifest frequently, and are often generalized to many situations. Punished responses become extinct (disappear) or become weaker and less frequently exhibited.

b) Observation-children acquire many of their responses by observing the actions of others. In addition to influencing children through rewards and punishments, parents are also the role models (positive and negative) that children observe and imitate most frequently; The child’s socialization is achieved, in part, through imitation.

c) Identification-is the process by which the child believes that she is similar to another person (model); In other words, the child shares some of her attributes and is led to act as if they were the model and possess her thoughts, feelings and characteristics.

On the other hand, the socialization problems of children are multiple and important differences appear according to the sex of the child who lives without a father. Single parent mothers tend to be overprotective of their children and discourage their independence. The total or relative absence of the father affects the male child in the identification process in the sexual role, since the model to be imitated is little present in daily life; in reality there is a greater identification with the mother who stays with him longer. Hence, the boy learns her masculine role through rather “negative” requirements; that is, how he must not behave to be a man.

Several studies have shown that the absence of a father has negative effects for children, being more serious for children, particularly if they are young. Children of absent fathers tend to be more dependent, less aggressive, less competent in their relationships with their peers, less efficient in school, more retarded in their moral judgments, and have a weaker masculine identity. The effects of paternal deprivation may be minimal in childhood but are most clearly manifested in early adolescence Young girls also need the figure of the father because by observing and interacting with him, they learn how to react to the men. Likewise, the absence of the maternal figure has been addressed by the relationship between maternal employment and child development, since there are few cases of homes in which the mother is missing. It was found that when the woman works because she likes to do it, the negative effect on children appears to be less than when she does so motivated by the desire to escape from family responsibilities. The children of working mothers perceive fewer differences between the feminine and masculine roles, since they consider that men and women should share responsibilities outside and inside the home, and they have higher esteem for the capacity of women. Also, the children seem to be more independent. Finally, the conflicts that occur in relationships between men and women have a lot to do with practices and myths of both in the household as fathers and mothers in front of their children.