Research on Naturism tends to be both sporadic and fraught.
http://freebeaches.org.nz/information.htm
In 'the literature' there has been rather too much 'research' especially in America, which merely re-states others' prejudices - by authors who have never actually studied Naturists themselves.
This site offers summaries of a range of properly research material.
Actual research on Naturists indicates: that males are significantly less aggressive than the average; that children benefit from being brought up in a Naturist household; and that the Naturist experience gives non-Naturists an enduring four-fold lift in self-esteem.
Objective advantagesGraphic illustrations of the more significant discoveries about Naturists.
General: Fine detailThis page lists fine details and their sources of items related to the Naturist experience.
Children & YouthThis discusses four investigations asking: "Is children's exposure to nudity harmful?"
The ResearchersA detailed bibliography of many informative articles.
An ABC-TV program by Dr Dean Adelle, broadcast in January 1989; summarised the researchers thus
:"Increased exposure to nudity in the family fosters an atmosphere of acceptance of sexuality, one's own body and increased comfort in the arena". Seeing friends of either sex nude (in addition to members of one's family) has like results. The study also delved into the later impact on children's lives from sleeping in their parents' beds, and from their parents' attitudes to, and ability to discuss, sexuality. It appears that "the attitudes toward sex that the parents convey to their children may be more important to their subsequent sexual adjustment than any particular family practice". In other words, it's not so much what you do, as how and why you do it. If you as a parent are comfortable with your nudity (and do not pressure your children to also go un-clothed), it is likely that they will have better self-esteem and feel more comfortable with their sexuality than their friends who grew up in households where bodies were always carefully hidden from view.
Significant objective advantages in Naturism
To see the charts see
http://inkaboutit4u.com/?p=Children_Naturism_Significant_Objective_Advantages_in_Naturism
http://freebeaches.org.nz/rsnacademic.htm
http://inkaboutit4u.com/?p=Index_Children_in_Naturism
1 - Want to see your community a quarter to a third less aggressive?This 'Bell Curve' indicates the decrease in male aggression one may expect in society, when males are socially comfortable, naked. In other words: a community which accepts male nudity as normal, would be about a third to a quarter less violent than an equivalent one, for which the only difference is mandatory clothing.
These curves are derived from MMPI (psychological norm) data originally analysed by John P. Brantner PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of Minnesota Medical School. (Female Naturists were described as: 'completely normal - they would make excellent wives.')
2 - The 'Naturist experience' gives an enduring four-fold lift in self-esteem.Naturist novices show an enduring, four-fold improvement on the Body-Cathexis scale (self-esteem), over the control groups' average.
"Body-cathexis" is positively correlated to self-esteem. See the research (esteem) for details on how this experiment was conducted.
3 - Acceptance of Naturism is inversely proportional to the teen pregnancy rate.Using Naturist membership rates as a broad indicator of country's acceptance level for Naturism, a comparison of live births plus abortions in Europe, the UK and the USA, among women aged 15 to 19; shows a direct correlation with the inverse of the Naturist membership rates.
A study by Lewis and Janda offers an interesting background to these implications.
4 - Normal people are 10 times more interested in a naked body, than a clothed one.These two columns represent the numbers of viewings of a local website with unexpected nudity, at the end of their 10 page photo gallery.
The gallery (no longer 'live') included a count of how often each picture had been viewed (ie: a thumbnail clicked to see the 'full size' image). The first eight of the ten gallery pages contained only portraits and nowhere was there any mention of the nudity among the 35 images on last two pages. That suggests there would be none of the usual bias suspects among the viewers. So by categorising and averaging the viewing counts in each category, one may get a fair indication of the average person's interest in nudity.
The first column averages the number of viewings of those pictures in the last two pages with no nudity evident. The second column shows the average number of viewings of the pictures which include some nudity as specified in the 'subject seen from' categories -back, side and front. (Six pictures where the possibility of nudity was not clear in the thumbnails, were not included in the counts.)
That tenfold increase in interest in a naked picture by the 'average' person is evidence, I suggest, that most people are still seeking completion of the 'imprinting' of the form of his species: which is denied by mandatory clothing. I also suggest that this unmet need is aplausible cause of ills like child molestation (and is one explanation of why those molested seem to be of no particular gender).
http://freebeaches.org.nz/information.htm
In 'the literature' there has been rather too much 'research' especially in America, which merely re-states others' prejudices - by authors who have never actually studied Naturists themselves.
This site offers summaries of a range of properly research material.
Actual research on Naturists indicates: that males are significantly less aggressive than the average; that children benefit from being brought up in a Naturist household; and that the Naturist experience gives non-Naturists an enduring four-fold lift in self-esteem.
Objective advantagesGraphic illustrations of the more significant discoveries about Naturists.
General: Fine detailThis page lists fine details and their sources of items related to the Naturist experience.
Children & YouthThis discusses four investigations asking: "Is children's exposure to nudity harmful?"
The ResearchersA detailed bibliography of many informative articles.
An ABC-TV program by Dr Dean Adelle, broadcast in January 1989; summarised the researchers thus
:"Increased exposure to nudity in the family fosters an atmosphere of acceptance of sexuality, one's own body and increased comfort in the arena". Seeing friends of either sex nude (in addition to members of one's family) has like results. The study also delved into the later impact on children's lives from sleeping in their parents' beds, and from their parents' attitudes to, and ability to discuss, sexuality. It appears that "the attitudes toward sex that the parents convey to their children may be more important to their subsequent sexual adjustment than any particular family practice". In other words, it's not so much what you do, as how and why you do it. If you as a parent are comfortable with your nudity (and do not pressure your children to also go un-clothed), it is likely that they will have better self-esteem and feel more comfortable with their sexuality than their friends who grew up in households where bodies were always carefully hidden from view.
Significant objective advantages in Naturism
To see the charts see
http://inkaboutit4u.com/?p=Children_Naturism_Significant_Objective_Advantages_in_Naturism
http://freebeaches.org.nz/rsnacademic.htm
http://inkaboutit4u.com/?p=Index_Children_in_Naturism
1 - Want to see your community a quarter to a third less aggressive?This 'Bell Curve' indicates the decrease in male aggression one may expect in society, when males are socially comfortable, naked. In other words: a community which accepts male nudity as normal, would be about a third to a quarter less violent than an equivalent one, for which the only difference is mandatory clothing.
These curves are derived from MMPI (psychological norm) data originally analysed by John P. Brantner PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of Minnesota Medical School. (Female Naturists were described as: 'completely normal - they would make excellent wives.')
2 - The 'Naturist experience' gives an enduring four-fold lift in self-esteem.Naturist novices show an enduring, four-fold improvement on the Body-Cathexis scale (self-esteem), over the control groups' average.
"Body-cathexis" is positively correlated to self-esteem. See the research (esteem) for details on how this experiment was conducted.
3 - Acceptance of Naturism is inversely proportional to the teen pregnancy rate.Using Naturist membership rates as a broad indicator of country's acceptance level for Naturism, a comparison of live births plus abortions in Europe, the UK and the USA, among women aged 15 to 19; shows a direct correlation with the inverse of the Naturist membership rates.
A study by Lewis and Janda offers an interesting background to these implications.
4 - Normal people are 10 times more interested in a naked body, than a clothed one.These two columns represent the numbers of viewings of a local website with unexpected nudity, at the end of their 10 page photo gallery.
The gallery (no longer 'live') included a count of how often each picture had been viewed (ie: a thumbnail clicked to see the 'full size' image). The first eight of the ten gallery pages contained only portraits and nowhere was there any mention of the nudity among the 35 images on last two pages. That suggests there would be none of the usual bias suspects among the viewers. So by categorising and averaging the viewing counts in each category, one may get a fair indication of the average person's interest in nudity.
The first column averages the number of viewings of those pictures in the last two pages with no nudity evident. The second column shows the average number of viewings of the pictures which include some nudity as specified in the 'subject seen from' categories -back, side and front. (Six pictures where the possibility of nudity was not clear in the thumbnails, were not included in the counts.)
That tenfold increase in interest in a naked picture by the 'average' person is evidence, I suggest, that most people are still seeking completion of the 'imprinting' of the form of his species: which is denied by mandatory clothing. I also suggest that this unmet need is aplausible cause of ills like child molestation (and is one explanation of why those molested seem to be of no particular gender).