Overlap in erotic age preferences: Support for the chronophilia theory in a community self-report sample of males

Seto (2017) proposes sexual orientation not only varies as a function of gender, but also as a function of age. Few studies have examined the conceptualization of sexual age orientation. The current study evaluates the polymorphism of sexual interest in children (i.e., simultaneous attraction to multiple age categories), the exclusivity of sexual interest (i.e., attraction to children only or children and adults), and gender preference (i.e., preference for males or females) in the general population. Data were obtained through adult males (N = 170) using online self-reports (overlapping sample from Mundy & Cioe, 2019). Findings revealed that most individuals reporting sexual attraction to multiple age categories had a higher degree of preference for one age group over others. When looking at sexual interest in children among teleiophilic individuals, the concordance indices were higher between adjacent age groups compared to distant age groups. Specifically, among individuals who reported teleiophilic sexual interest, 36% were also reporting hebephilic sexual interest (adjacent category), while 17.7% reported pedophilic sexual interest (non-adjacent category). Finally, there was a significant positive correlation between pedophilic interest and hebephilic interest (τb = .602, p < .001). Together, results provide support for the chronophilia theory. Concordance indices in future studies may inform differences between exclusive and nonexclusive interest in children and aid the development of informed risk assessment tools and destigmatized prevention programs.