The acquisition of basic sex information

Previously unpublished data from the Kinsey sample concerning the acquisition of basic sex information are presented. These are contrasted to data obtained from a similar, but smaller sample of respondents from the current generation. Basic facts about sex are being learned at considerably younger ages today, apparently as a result of increased maternal effort to provide information, increased sex education in the schools, and more explicit treatment of sex in the media. Same‐sex peers remain the dominant educators, but other sources, notably mothers, have increased in importance. The sex differences in age of acquisition found in the Kinsey sample have largely disappeared.