Media and American adolescent sexuality

Sexuality in the media

Some scholars argue that American media is the most sexually suggestive in the world. According to this view, the sexual messages contained in film, television, and music are becoming more explicit in dialog, lyrics, and behavior. In addition, these messages may contain unrealistic, inaccurate, and misleading information. Some scholars argue that still developing teens may be particularly vulnerable to media effects. A 2001 report found that teens rank the media second only to school sex education programs as a leading source of information about sex, but a 2004 report found that "the media far outranked parents or schools as the source of information about birth control."

Media often portray emotional side-effects of sexuality such as guilt, and disappointment, but less often physical risks such as pregnancy or STDs. One media analysis found that sex was usually between unmarried couples and examples of using condoms or other contraception were "extremely rare." Many of programs or films do not depict consequence for sexual behavior. For example, only 10% programs that contain sexual scenes include any warnings to the potential risks or responsibilities of having sex such as sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy. In television programing aimed at teens, more than 90% of episodes had at least one sexual reference in it with an average of 7.9 references per hour.

However, government statistics suggest that since 1991, both teen sex and teen pregnancy have declined dramatically despite the media generally becoming increasingly sexually explicit.

Effects of the media on beliefs about sex

Some scholars feel that adolescents may turn to the media as a "sexual super peer" when seeking information about sexual norms and adult roles given the lack of information about sexuality readily available to them. For example, in one study of 13-and 14-year-olds, heavy exposure to sexually oriented television also increased acceptance of non-marital sex. Another study found that teens overestimate how many of their peers are sexually active, a problem contributed to by the media.

Another study found that middle-school-aged boys who watch music videos or pro-wrestling one day a week are 10% more likely to have a higher acceptance rate for rape than boys who do not watch any. Boys who watch music videos four days a week and pro wrestling 1.7 days a week (the mean exposure rate for boys) have 70% higher odds of endorsing a greater level of rape acceptance. "Both music videos and pro wrestling shows are popular with youth, combine violent and sexual content, and glorify individuals who behave violently."

Pregnancy

Some researchers have found a correlation between the amount of television with high sexual content that teenagers watch and an increased likelihood of them becoming pregnant or fathering a child out of wedlock. Some studies suggest teens exposed to the most sexual content on TV are twice as likely as teens watching less of this material to become pregnant before they reach age 20.

These researchers believe that reducing the amount of sexual content adolescents watch on television could substantially reduce the teen pregnancy rate. "It's a cumulative effect," Brown believes. "It's probably not any one portrayal that makes the difference, but it's a consistent, and now unhealthy, sexual script that adolescents do see as a depiction of appropriate behavior."

Several complementary studies have found that television viewing can influence multiple aspects of reproductive health among youths and that "earlier sexual initiation is associated with negative health outcomes." Previous research has suggested two ways that glamorized perception of sex may contribute to teen pregnancy: by encouraging teens to become sexually active early in their adolescence and by promoting inconsistent use of contraceptives.

Early sexual activity

Some studies have also found that adolescents whose media diet was rich in sexual content were more than twice as likely as others to have had sex by the time they were 16. In a Kaiser Family Foundation study, 76 percent of teens said that one reason young people have sex is because TV shows and movies make it seem normal for teens. In addition to higher likelihoods that an adolescent exposed to sexual content in the media will engage in sexual behaviors, they are also have higher levels of intending to have sex in the future and more positive expectations of sex.

Some studies suggest that children who watch adult content on television are more likely to have sex earlier once they reach adolescence. For every hour of adult-targeted television or movies watched by children when they were 6 to 8 years old, there was a 33% increased risk of becoming sexually active in early adolescence.

"Children have neither the life experience nor the brain development to fully differentiate between a reality they are moving toward and a fiction meant solely to entertain," explained David Bickham, a staff scientist in the Center on Media and Child Health. "Children learn from the media, and when they watch media with sexual references and innuendos, our research suggests they are more likely to engage in sexual activity earlier in life."

Other research has suggested that linking sexuality in media with adolescent sexual behavior is premature. Steinberg and Monahan reanalyzed a dataset of teen sexual behavior (Collins et al.) using propensity score matching and discovered that with other risk factors controlled, viewing sexual media did not predict early onset of sexual behavior in adolescents. The authors concluded that links between media viewing and adolescent sexuality are more tenuous than previous believed.

Researchers on both sides of the debate acknowledge that assigning causality to correlations between media use and sexual behavior are difficult, given the lack of experimental research, and difficulty controlling for all potential confounding variables.

One study found that the relationship between exposure to sexual contact in the media and increased sexual activity among adolescents is more pronounced in white youths than black youths. Black teens are more likely to be influenced by their friends' sexual experiences and their parents' expectations than by what they see in the media.

Pornography

Between the 3rd and 10th grades more than 90% of children will be exposed to pornography. Psychiatrist Jerald says access, affordability and anonymity have made online sexual activity "extraordinarily common" among all ages, including adolescents. Adolescents who intentionally seek out pornography, both online and off, are overwhelmingly male. Older youth are more likely than younger youth to seek porn. Individuals who are already at risk of being attracted to sexual aggression are more likely to be influenced by pornographic exposure. This in turn explains that these individuals are more likely to believe in the various unusual sexual behaviors as common causing negative effects towards sexual experiences. However, it is important that once these negative attitudes have been formed, it was not easily reversed by education.