Think of the children!: Relationships between nudity‐related experiences in childhood, body image, self‐esteem and adjustment

Abstract

AbstractThere are widespread, strongly held beliefs that naturism has a negative impact on children. However, naturist groups advocate for including children and prior research has not clearly investigated how naturism affects children. Two pre‐registered, cross‐sectional studies (N1 = 411, N2 = 250) investigated how nudity‐related experiences in childhood predicted overall adjustment. In Study 1, adults reported their recalled experiences of nudity in childhood as well as their current levels of body appreciation, self‐esteem and overall adjustment. In Study 2, mothers reported on their children's current experiences of nudity and the children themselves reported on their current levels of body appreciation, self‐esteem and overall adjustment. Results for both studies were similar (though in Study 2, some associations only approached statistical significance): Experiences of naturism were associated with positive, not negative outcomes. These findings suggest that, despite the concerns some people express, naturism does not generally lead to negative outcomes for children.