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Article Excerpt
In contemporary United States, social nudity is not accepted by the majority of people. In all 50 states, strict laws prohibiting nudity in public places exist with very few exceptions. Those exceptions typically include when social nudity occurs on private property (e.g., privately owned "nudist resorts") or on slivers of well-delineated public land designated to be "clothing-optional," such as small sections of public beaches. Clinical psychologists generally view nudity within the family as "pathological" (Negy, 2004; Okami, 1995), and a recent analog study has found that college students tend to perceive an adult to have sexually malicious intentions in an ambiguous situation in which the adult is nude with an unrelated minor in a private swimming pool (Negy, Ferguson, & Orooji, in press).
Despite pervasive public concerns over social nudity, there is a dearth of studies on the consequences of social nudity or even on nudity within the family. Further, the handful of studies that have been done has failed to find demonstrable evidence of deleterious consequences for those who practice family or social nudity. For example, Story (1979) compared self-concepts related to body image between preschool children whose families self-identified as nudists and comparable preschool children whose families self-identified as non-nudists. Children in nudist families had significantly more positive self-concepts related to their physical appearance than children in non-nudist families, with boys from both types of families manifesting higher levels of self-concepts than girls.
Lewis and Janda (1988) surveyed college students on the frequency of seeing others nude during their childhood and sleeping in their parents' bed as children and on their parents' attitudes about sex. The results indicated that those who reported having slept in their parents' bed as children and who commonly were exposed to family nudity in childhood did not manifest higher levels of "sexual adjustment" concerns in young adulthood relative to those who either had not slept in their parents' bed as children or who were not exposed to family nudity. Moreover, exposure to parental nudity as a child was associated with increased comfort related to physical contact and affection with others, as well as an increased likelihood of engaging in casual sex as adolescents and young adults.
In a nonrandom survey with a nonequivalent control group of college students, Smith and Sparks (1986) surveyed 66 young adults who grew up in nudist households. The adult children of nudists and non-nudist college students completed a 100-item questionnaire to assess basic demographic information, nudity and sexual development experiences, indicators of "social pathology" (e.g., treatment for psychiatric conditions), family relations, current sexual functioning, and current nudist experiences. Overall, no significant markers of "pathology" were found to distinguish adult children of nudists from non-nudist college students. Most adult children of nudists described the intrafamilial relations during childhood in similar terms used by non-nudist college students, with one exception. Adult children of nudists reported having participated in "sex play" with siblings or playmates more frequently than non-nudist college students. In addition to a higher frequency of sex play participation among children of nudists, they also reported feeling less guilt about the sex play compared with non-nudist college students who also reported, though to a lesser degree, having participated in sex play as children.
In a review of clinical opinion and empirical studies, Okami (1995) examined childhood exposure to parental nudity, parent-child cosleeping, and exposure to parental sexuality as a child. Regarding exposure to parental nudity, Okami's review of the literature revealed how common psychotherapists and related professionals (e.g., protective service workers, legal professionals) consider nudity in the home to be pathological and a precursor to developmental problems. For example, among 255 psychotherapists and related professionals, Atteberry-Bennett (1987, as reported in Okami) found that 75% considered that intervention was necessary in situations in which a mother commonly appeared nude in front of her 5-year-old son. Fifty-one percent considered professional intervention was necessary in cases in which a father often walked into a bathroom while his 5-year-old daughter was bathing. Okami also documented the absence of empirical findings to justify concerns related to parental nudity.
Thus far, little if any evidence exists supporting the view that exposure to family nudity leads to any psychological or emotional harm. To the contrary, the available data suggest that exposure to family nudity has either no effect or potentially has positive effects such as higher self-concepts and fewer concerns over one's physical appearance. The tendency to engage in more sex play as children and to have casual consenting sex more frequently as older adolescents and young adults is open to debate on whether such behaviors are problematic. In this study, we examined college students' views of social nudity--nudity that goes beyond the family, but occurs in legally sanctioned, designated areas. Two specific questions served as the basis of this study. One, are individuals who are relatively more comfortable with social nudity more self-accepting both psychoemotionally and in regards to the physical appearance of their bodies than individuals who oppose social nudity? Two, are individuals who are relatively accepting of social nudity more open and accepting of culturally diverse groups of people compared with those who do not accept social nudity?
In the United States, the cultural fabric has diversified dramatically over the past three decades, leading to increased contact with culturally dissimilar others. Intercultural contact holds the promise of eroding social biases and mistrust, yet, thus far, it is unclear if intercultural tension along ethnic, religious, and other cultural group lines is subsiding or increasing. This research is important and timely, because as the United States struggles to accommodate diverse lifestyles and practices (e.g., gay marriage), those who are "pro-nudity" or who self-identify as social nudists often are ignored...
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