“I Walked in on Them”: Young Adults’ Childhood Perceptions of Sex and Nudity in Family and Public Contexts

Abstract

Children’s observation of sex and nudity among parents, peers, or strangers has received limited scholarly attention, mostly because research on sexuality in childhood is difficult or prohibitive to conduct. To address this topic, we conducted a secondary data analysis of 57 human sexuality students’ narratives regarding the emotional and situational contexts of the first sexual image they recalled. We examined those narratives where participants reported that they saw was a “real person” either nude or engaged in sexual behavior. These participants reported viewing three kinds of sexual behavior or nudity: parental, other family members, and nonfamily. In examining participants’ immediate reactions and long-term reflections, we found that many participants, especially females, were confused or upset by what they saw, but few reported a lingering discomfort. Our results indicate that children would benefit from immediate, nurturant, and clarifying parental responses, particularly when children walk in on parents having sex.

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

“…This confounding of very divergent variables erodes any confidence that nudity itself was the primary driver of the observed effects. More recent relevant research, such as a qualitative study by Allen et al (2018), also follows this trend. Nudity is considered only in the context of sexuality (e.g., walking in on parents having sex), making it difficult to extrapolate the findings to nudity of a non-sexual (or not necessarily sexual) nature, such as would be the case in most naturist environments.…”

Adolescent Sexual Development: A Family Perspective

“…Although many parents acknowledge their responsibility to communicate about sex to their adolescents and diverse groups of adolescents report that they want to hear from their parents (Flores et al, 2015;Frawley & Wilson, 2016;LaSala, 2015), there is substantial evidence that family discourse on sexuality is largely a discourse of silence. Qualitative studies of college students document that their parents are mostly silent about sex, including perceptions of sex and nudity (Allen et al, 2018), masturbation , and menstruation (Allen et al, 2011). These studies found that youth learned more from the media and peers than direct communication from parents (Malacane & Beckmeyer, 2016).…”

Innovation and Integration of Sexuality in Family Life Education

“…The increased ease of access and availability of pornography via computer and mobile devices is not trivial; exposure to sexuality‐related content and pornography via the Internet shapes attitudes about sexual behavior (Wright, 2013; 2018; Wright et al, 2016). Moreover, although many parents recognize that their children might access or be exposed to explicit content via the Internet, they are not always sure how to educate their children about it (Allen et al, 2018; Zurcher, 2017).…”