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Expert Q&A
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| By Paul Coleman Psychologist Family Therapist | ||
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Is it harmful for my daughters, ages 9 and 11, to be exposed to parental nudity. When they were toddlers, we were not too concerned about this and were quite casual about family nudity. Now I am concerned about it as they enter the pre-pubescent stage. I am particularly concerned about the effect of seeing their father. I am referring to casual family nudity. There is definitely no issue of abuse or anything sexual to be concerned about.
I would appreciate your thoughts, as I have not found any information about this on the Internet."
There is scant research on the effects of parental nudity on children. However, the findings that do exist indicate a neutral effect. (By the way, the research is usually conducted on college students who are asked to recall childhood memories of nudity.) Preteens or teens would not be traumatized if they accidentally saw a parent naked, even the opposite sex parent. The best advice is for parents to teach modesty -- all teens would benefit from such a lesson -- but be able to laugh off the embarrassment if a parent is caught unaware."
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