Psychologists, sex therapists, and researchers tend to agree that masturbation is generally normal, healthy, and developmentally appropriate regardless of age. It is through masturbation and accompanying sexual fantasy that most people learn about their sexuality and their body’s capacity for sexual arousal, orgasm, and pleasure. To illustrate, individuals who found masturbation pleasurable and enjoyable in their earlier years of life tend to have more fulfilling and pleasurable sex lives as adults. Masturbation might be the only means of sexual expression and fulfillment for people who are unable or unwilling to have partnered sex. As examples, many young people feel unprepared for the complexities and risks of partnered sex and romantic relationships; people with stigmatized sexual orientations face obstacles in courting the people they are attracted to; people might be bereaved or single, or their partners might be ill or not interested in sex.
However, for many people, masturbation is a source of inner conflict and spiritual agony due to the widespread stigma against masturbation stemming from lack of sex education, religious teachings, and misinformation regarding its purported harmful effects. Thus, many people try to abstain from masturbating (usually unsuccessfully), feel deep shame over masturbating, or believe masturbation is a form of infidelity or caused by demonic influences.
The Percy Foundation is therefore funding the first-ever nationally representative survey of masturbation among 2500 American adults under the leadership of Prof. David de Jong of Western Carolina University. An international team of over a dozen scholars will be working with Prof. de Jong to analyze and publish articles on various aspects of the data gathered by this survey, which includes questions about prevalence and frequency among demographic subgroups, motives, methods, use of imagery, and interactions with religiosity, mental health, partnership status, and other factors that may affect subjects’ attitudes toward masturbation. Although the survey is limited to adult participants, they will be asked questions about their memories of masturbation as minors, so this study will also yield valuable information about child and adolescent sexual development.