First ejaculation research is scant, but studies reveal a contradiction: The majority of males report positive reactions to the event, and they are curious and interested about it, but they also tell no one of the experience. These paradoxical reactions—interest and silence—can be explained by a first ejaculation taboo in contemporary America. The quantitative and qualitative results of the current study, the first to investigate the perspectives of parents of early adolescent sons, provide evidence for this taboo. For example, parents rarely reported that they had communicated with sons about first ejaculation, and when they were asked if they had future plans to communicate their most frequent response was neither “yes” (35%) nor “no” (12%), but “I've never thought about it” (54%). Because first ejaculation is closely linked with sexual desire, masturbation, nocturnal emission, and orgasm, parents and others may have difficulty considering its developmental implications.
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