Ephebophilia is the primary sexual interest in mid-to-late Adolescence, generally ages 15 to 19 and showing 4 to 5 of physical development.[ It is one of a number of sexual preferences across age groups subsumed under the technical term chronophilia. Ephebophilia strictly denotes the preference for mid-to-late adolescent sexual partners, not the mere presence of some level of sexual attraction.][ It is not a psychiatric diagnosis.]
In research environments, specific terms are used for chronophilias: for instance, ephebophilia to refer to the sexual preference for mid-to-late adolescents, hebephilia to refer to the sexual preference for earlier Puberty individuals, and pedophilia to refer to the primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent .
Etymology and definitions
The term ephebophilia comes from the ephebos (from epi "upon" + hebe "youth", "early manhood") defined as "a youth of eighteen to twenty, particularly one who underwent his dokimasia and was registered as a citizen (Athens)", and φιλία]] -phil- .[Bernard, F. (1998). Selected publications of Dr Frits Bernard – An international bibliography. Rotterdam: Enclave.] crediting the origin of the term to Magnus Hirschfeld with no exact date given.[Servatius, V. (1960, March 15). Ephebophilie en wetenschap Ephebophilia. Vriendschap , 35-35.] The word was in fact first published in French (éphébophilie), from Georges Saint-Paul's 1896 book, Tares et Poisons: Perversion et Perversité Sexuelles.
The term was described by Frenchman Félix Buffière in 1980,[Buffière, F. (1980). Éros adolescent : la pédérastie dans la Grèce antique, Paris, p. 11.] and Pakistani scholar Tariq Rahman,[ The typical ephebophilic age range has also been given as ages 15–16.]
Although ephebophilia is not a psychiatric diagnosis,
Characteristics
Mid-to-late adolescents typically have physical characteristics near or identical to that of legal adults.
Ephebophilia is used only to describe the preference for mid-to-late adolescent sexual partners, not the mere presence of some level of sexual attraction.[ Generally, the preference is not regarded by as a pathology, as long as it does not interfere with other major areas of one's life. It is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5) or the ICD-10.]
Blanchard et al. stated that hebephilia, erotic interest which centers on young pubescents, has not come into widespread use, even among professionals who work with , and may have been confused with the term ephebophilia, which denotes a preference for older adolescents.[ They reasoned that "few would want to label erotic interest in late—or even mid—adolescents as a psychopathology, so the term hebephilia may have been ignored along with ephebophilia".][ Although Stephens and Seto argue that, in contrast to ephebophilia, "conceptually, hebephilia is a paraphilia, reflecting an atypical (statistically rare) sexual age interest in pubescent children", they also state hebephilia has not been widely accepted as a paraphilia or mental disorder and that there is significant academic debate as to whether it should be classified as either.]
See also
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