first peek to represent harm unequivocally, more attentive examination leaves these
findings somewhat ambiguous. In the instance of of increased cases of pregnancy among
these women, for example, it should be noted that over half of those who reported having
become pregnant (and nearly half of the guys who reported impregnating someone) rated
their experience as “great” rather than “bad.” Although it’s true that issues occasionally serious problems – may attend such pregnancies in U.S. society, some data
Additionally imply that these issues have been exaggerated (Furstenberg et al., 1987;
Stevens-Simon and White, 1991), and may often result more from low SES than from
Teen pregnancy itself (Trussell, 1988). Current treatment of adolescent pregnancy as
intrinsically pathological may in part have generalized from an overall tendency to view
Teen sexual behavior as problematic (see Willis, 1986, for a sharply satirical
characterization of this inclination).
Even findings of increased instances of STD transmission among the women in our study
need to be considered carefully. Symons (February 1995, private communication)
pointed out that increased cases of STDs and pregnancy among women exposed to
primal pictures might be more parsimoniously comprehended as reduced use of condoms
among these women. Regardless of problematic outcome, decreased use of condoms may
be prompted by heightened want (and ability) for intimacy or higher amounts of trust in
partners – along with by simple lack of sexual duty or self destructive inclinations.
In this regard it should be remembered that there was a (nonsignificant) trend toward higher
Degrees of self acceptance and improved connections with grownups among these girls.
Interactions by sex of participant were found for several outcome measures in the
direction of favorable correlates for lads, and impersonal or problematic correlates for girls.
Ever since I was a child I was interested in the naked body. may be interpreted in several ways. One interpretation would be
that human males and females process sexuality-related occasions otherwise as the consequence of
sexually dimorphic mental mechanisms that have evolved through natural and
sexual selection (cf. Symons, 1979; Buss, 1994).
the view of I thought I’d share my newbie first encounter, just had it this weekend in fact! in emotional mechanisms (cf. Buss, 1994; Ellis and
Symons, 1990). Moore (1995) has proposed the possibility that these mechanisms might
Start to appear reliably in childhood. Some evidence is, in addition, consistent with this
Other explanations of the gender interactions are also possible. For instance, lads and
girls are socialized differently through the entire world where sexuality is concerned, with
girls being socialized more restrictively (Mead, 1967). Although these socialization
procedures may also represent expressions of sexually dimorphic mental
adaptation by natural and sexual selection, it could be argued that they instead signify
temporally particular but worldwide sociocultural or socioeconomic forces related to
Thoroughly artifactual statistical sound. Truly, the effect sizes are small, and although
interactions by sex in an identical basic direction were noticed for several the outcome
correction, and one of them was reversed in direction – with girls, but not men,
exposed to primal scenes reporting less use of specific drugs.
Furthermore, while findings of beneficial outcomes are interesting, particular findings are
not called by any theory that we understand.
Consequently, one is maybe left with what may turn
out to be nonreplicable advantageous correlates of the predictors. As Scarr et al. (1990)
Discovered, nonreplicable results is the typical fate for long-term regression studies,
Especially when proximate, rather than distal, predictors are being examined. In our
Perspective, then, the significance of the current investigation, aside from the idea of
interactions by sex, lies not so much in positive findings as in the negative findings for
True, any one
set of negative results isn’t particularly enlightening. However, given almost no
Signs in this or any other empirical study that the behaviors examined in the current
study are unambiguously dangerous, the interesting question becomes: Why is it so widely
believed in America and certain European nations that these practices are
uniformly damaging to the mental health of children? (See Okami, 1995, for review of
professional and public opinion.) Such notions, definitely where exposure to parental
nudity is concerned, are maybe better conceptualized as myths. Whereas any of these
