Children’s Doctor Games and Nudity at Danish Childcare Institutions

The study addresses acceptance of children’s nudity and sexuality in Danish kindergartens. The purpose is to conduct an empirical study on attitudes towards children’s nudity and sexuality, as well as on the consequences of contemporary society’s focus on the sexual abuse of children. The authors believe that rules and discourses concerning games of doctors and nurses in kindergarten indicate that the fear of child sexual abuse has affected the understanding of what is normal and permissible in relation to children’s sexuality in Danish kindergartens.

The results indicate that there have been significant changes among both parents’ and employees’ attitudes to children’s nudity and games of doctors and nurses since the turn of the millennium.

The quantitative results from the questionnaire showed that 64% of the responding institutions had rules regarding children’s nudity and/or games of doctors and nurses. The qualitative results show a cultural shift at the institutions. The general pattern, indicated by rules and discourses, was that the child's body has been sexualised, not through the recognition of the child’s own sexuality, but through the perspectives of adult sexuality.

The authors believe that the most important cultural development, which has led to the shift in attitudes towards children’s nudity and sexuality, is society’s moral panic regarding the sexual abuse of children. The results show that a general cultural focus on the sexual abuse of children has caused the child’s body to become closely associated with sexual abuse. According to the authors, the cultural shift at the institutions seemed to be defensive rather than based on professional argumentation. 

The study is based on a questionnaire, which was answered by 2051 managers and teachers in 1457 Danish nurseries, kindergartens and pre-schools. The questionnaire was sent out to 74% of all childcare institutions in Denmark. This distribution was random, with the exception of adjustments to include both urban and rural areas. The questionnaire was sent to the managers of these institutions with a request to forward it to as many kindergarten teachers as possible. The response rate is 30.9% and represents 23% of all childcare institutions in Denmark. There is a somewhat lower response rate among kindergarten teachers than among kindergarten managers at the institutions.

The questionnaire takes a mixed-methods approach and includes required closed-ended questions and optional open-ended questions. Questions about both formal and informal guidelines for employees and rules for children to avoid sexual abuse were included in the survey. This article is based on the rules for the children and mainly the open-ended questions about these rules.

Leander, E. M. B., Larsen, P. L., & Munk, K. P. (2018). "Children’s Doctor Games and Nudity at Danish Childcare Institutions". Archives of Sexual Behavior, 47(4):863-875.