I brought up the latency stage to a friend and she seemed to think that girls do not have the same latency feelings that boys do. She thinks that girls are still attracted to boys but that boys are absolutely repulsed by girls. Is there truth to this?
By: John at: 20th July, 2009
Status:
Answered
Answer:
Well, girls’ feelings in latency are in some respects different and in others the same as those of boys in latency – just as they are in all stages of development. In latency and early adolescence both boys and girls do tend in most cultures to value peer relationships highly and to congregate in ‘gangs’ which tend to be exclusionary. This is so for a variety of reasons. In both girls and boys identification with their own sex and favouring same-sex company and even homosexual feeling can be
quite strong at this time; but it would be an exaggeration to suggest that on the whole boys are repulsed by girls but boys are attractive to girls. These are labile times for both sexes, with much ambivalence, change and individual variation.