Autoeroticism: Attitudes of Para Health students
1. Masturbation ,it is also called as orgasmic experience. 2.Orgasmic experience, is a distinctive
individuals conduct, habitually observed as an apt sexual outlet. It is also been linked variously
to untimely onset of sexual activity.[4-6] (Ref4. Lidster CA, Horsburgh ME. Masturbation – beyond myth and taboo. Nurs
Forum 1994;29:18-27.
6. Smith AM, Rosenthal DA, Reicher H. High schooler’s masturbatory practices: Their relationship to sexual intercourse and personal
characteristics. Psychol Rep 1996;79:499-509.
7. Sathe AG, Sathe S. Knowledge and behavior and attitudes about adolescent sexuality amongst adolescents in Pune: A situational analysis. J
Fam Welfare 2005;51:49-59.)
In India, masturbation is known to be connected with good feelings when viewpoint toward it is
positive. 3.Masterbation is an intricate subject to study because of the profound sensitivity of
participants to questions on the topic. It makes potential study participants very uncomfortable,
and masturbation is one of the least precisely reported sexual behavior as per the polygraph tests.
Even though accurate prevalence numbers are not easy to determine, we are aware that
masturbation is an enormously common human experience(referecec:
Bradburn,N.M.,Sudman,S.,Blair,E.,&Stocking,C.(1978).Question threat and response bias. Public Opinion Quarterly, 42, 221–234.
Clark,J.P.,& Tifft,L.L.(1966).Polygraphandinterviewvalidation of self-reporteddeviantbehavior.AmericanSociologicalReview,31, 516–523.
Halpern, C. J. T., Udry, J. R., Suchindran, C., & Campbell, B. (2000). Adolescent males’ willingness to report masturbation. Journal of Sex
Research, 37, 327–332.
. 4. Generally, masturbation is practiced ranging from 10% to 33% among girls and 39.7% to
63% among boys .[3,5]. Nevertheless, girls also do practice masturbation. This may be due to the
actuality that only small number of them in fact report masturbation (12.7%) and much lesser
number of sexual activities (17.18%). As a result, it becomes more essential that educational
programs on sexuality should also focus with issues related to masturbation (Ref:
3. Grover V. Sexual behaviour in a rural community of Delhi. Health and Population Perspectives and Issues.1999;22:156-67.
4. Lidster CA, Horsburgh ME. Masturbation – beyond myth and taboo. Nurs Forum 1994;29:18-27.
5. Leitenberg H, Detzer MJ, Srebnik D. Gender differences in masturbation and the relation of masturbation experience in preadolescence
and/or early adolescence to sexual adjustment in young adulthood. Arch Sex Behav 1993;22:87-93.
)
. 5. Over the centuries, Indian boys have harboured feelings of guilt related with the Dhat
Syndrome, that compares/connects the loss of semen with loss of vital life-force.
Correspondingly, girls in India have to deal with diverse social structures and limitations
associated to the process of menstruation(Ref:
GLJITA , M. (1994) Sexuality in the Indian sub-continent, Sexual and Marital Therapy, 9, pp. 57-69
SHARMA, V., SHARM.4, A., DAVE, S. & CHAuHAN, P. (1996) Sexual behaviour of adolescent boys-a cause for concern, Sexual and Marital
Therapy, 1 1, pp. 147-1 5 1.
SHARMA, V. (1 996) The why and how of sex education in India (Editorial), Indian Journal of Maternal and Child Health, 7, pp. 85-87.
SHARMA, A. & SHARMA, V. (1996) Sexual knowledge and practices of college girls in rural Gujarat, India, Journal of Family Welfare, 42, pp. 19-
26.)
. 9.One study of interviews with 20 girls observed that a lot of them held negative views
towards masturbation and also of women who masturbated (Hogarth & Ingham, 2009).
The sexual category of a child as well appears to influence parental attitudes towards
masturbation.In one of the study, just under half, parents of sons, wanted their child to
have a positive attitude toward masturbation .On the other hand, only a third of parents of
daughters wanted them to have a positive attitude towards masturbation (Gagnon,
1985).Hardly any of the parents had dissused masturbation with their children and to
discuss the topic with boys it was common for parents. It was noted that even if the parents
did approve of their child masturbation, though it was not talked about it much, the child
was not likely to know it (Gagnon,1985).
6.To a great extent existing research on masturbation has paid attention on gender differences
between men and women, with constant results that men masturbated more frequently than
women (Arafat & Cotton, 1974; Oliver & Hyde, 1993; Petersen & Hyde, 2011), women
experienced more disgrace (Kaestle & Allen, 2011), and have more negative attitude (Clark &
Wiederman, 2000) about masturbation when compared men. 8. Before marriage sexual activities
are still considered as intolerable in orthodox and traditional societies, consequently , it provides
the only channels of sexual vent for adolescents. There have been a small number of studies on
masturbation among young boys and girls in India. 11. Past study point out that including
masturbation in sexuality education can improve attitudes towards masturbation and
throw light on myths or false beliefs (LoPresto,Sherman,&Sherman,1985)
However, there is a death of data with reference on the attitudes of nursing students in Indian
society concerning sexual matters. Supplementary research is considered necessary to empathize
the outlook of nursing students towards masturbation.
Additionally, because women and men so rarely discuss masturbation with others (e.g., mothers,
friends, and partners), and because all women and men in our sample reported masturbating at
least once. In this context, the present study which is institution based, taken on to learn what
kind of perspective are likely to be coupled with masturbation (both optimistic and pessimistic
attitudes). In doing so, we contribute to a much-needed gap in the literature about women’s and
men's attitude towards masturbation.
