TAG | Sex on TV found to be foreplay for teens |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Thursday, 20 November 2008 | |
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Page 1 of 4 The journal Pediatrics published the paper “Does Watching Sex on Television Predict Teen Pregnancy? Findings From a National Longitudinal Survey of Youth” in their November 2008 issue. Its authors are research scientists from the non-profit think-tank organization Rand Corporation. They include Anita Chandra (Arlington, Virginia), Steven C. Martino (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), and Rebecca L. Collins, Marc N. Elliott, Sandra H. Berry, David E. Kanouse, and Angela Miu (all from Santa Monica, California). They state in the abstract to their paper, “There is increasing evidence that youth exposure to sexual content on television shapes sexual attitudes and behavior in a manner that may influence reproductive health outcomes." "To our knowledge, no previous work has empirically examined associations between exposure to television sexual content and adolescent pregnancy.” The Rand researchers used data from a national longitudinal survey of 2,003 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 years. The researchers surveyed these teens three times over the telephone between 2001 and 2004. They asked them questions about their behaviors, where they lived, and what television shows they watched. Based on the viewing habits of 23 TV shows, the researchers calculated the number of times they observed sexual or sexually based activity on these shows. They then monitored these teens from the ages of 15 to 20 years of age in order to determine whether the sexual content found on television shows (such as flirting, necking, sex scenes, discussion of sex, and other such sexually based activities) would predict pregnancy in girls or predict responsibility for pregnancy in boys. Page two presents the results of the Rand study. |
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