Parental perceptions of children's modesty: a cross-sectional survey of ages two to ten years.

Modesty has been defined as decorum in relation to physical nakedness, and sexual and eliminative behavior (Newson and Newson 1968). The connection between nakedness, sexuality, and modesty with respect to family members dates back millennia. Leviticus prohibited incest with the phrase, "Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of .

Sleeping patterns in upper-middle-class families when the child awakens ill or frightened.

Prior research on whether parents and children ever share a bed is scanty. Some experts have written that if parents take their frightened child into bed with them, there will be "devil to pay." Using a questionnaire, we surveyed 415 upper-middle-class parents of 576 children.

The primal scene: a study of prevalence.

Although primal scene experiences have been implicated as causal agents in innumerable psychopathologic states, no study of their actual prevalence exists. The authors conducted five separate studies, in which parents reported that 9%-41% of their children had seen parental intercourse. If the times children see parental intercourse without the parents knowing it and the times children hear parents making noises during intercourse were included, the prevalence would be much higher.