Ephebophilia

Ephebophilia - Symptom, Cause and Treatment

Ephebophilia is the sexual attraction of an older person to a newly pubescent person of the same sex .

Ephebophilia (adjective, ephebophilic): a paraphilia of the eligibilic/stigmatic type distinct from nepiophilia and pedophilia in that the age of the partner is postpubertal and adolescent [from Greek, ephebos, a postpubertal young person + -philia] The technical term for the reciprocal paraphilic condition in which an older person impersonates an adolescent is paraphilic adolescentilism.

Some argue that only men who consistently prefer prepubescent girls are practicing an unsound reproductive strategy ( pedophilia ), while men who prefer postpubescent girls may practice a very sound reproductive strategy (Ephebophilia). Sociobiological research shows that all primate males prefer young females. A study on human male preferences showed that all males in the study from 7 years and up preferred the faces of 17-year-old girls.

While ephebophilia (or hebephilia ) is the preferential attraction to adolescents, pedophilia is the preferential attraction to children who have not reached puberty. According to some researchers, the two phenomena may be quite different in causes, characteristics, function, and prevalence. Pedophilia is listed as a mental disorder in the American Psychiatric Association's DSM, but ephebophilia is not.

Often pedophilia and ephebophilia are confused. The reason for this is that definitions of the legal age and the biological age of a child conflict. According to some Catholics, the child abuse cases in the American church often are instances of ephebophilia rather than pedophilia.

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Site last updated: March 4, 2008

Ephebophilia Paraphilias Sexual Disorders Guide