Possibility of loving boy and girl: A study from the perspective of children

Abstract

We investigated the school children judgments about the possibility of loving a child of the opposite sex and same sex. We interviewed, individually, 40 children (6 and 9 years) equally divided by gender, belonging to a private school, using the clinical method. We verified that 85% of the participants considered the possibility of loving a child of the opposite sex, justifying it, mainly by ‘observation of lived experience’ and ‘positive feature of the beloved’, the latter having increased with age. However, 65% considered it possible to love a child of the same sex, basing their arguments on the ‘friendship’ and ‘positive result for oneself’, both of which increased with age. We emphasize that this issue, although very relevant, is poorly studied in the field of psychology of morality. Thus, more research and discussions on the subject is needed in order to provide new education proposals on moral values.