• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Download full size image

Link Between Sexy TV Shows And Teen Pregnancy Found

Posted on: Monday, 3 November 2008, 15:20 CST

Researchers said on Monday that exposure to some forms of entertainment has a corrupting influence on children, leading teens who watch sexy programs into early pregnancies and children who play violent video games to adopt aggressive behavior.

The three-year study is the first to link viewing of racy television programming with risky sexual behavior by teens, said researchers at the RAND research organization.

Anita Chandra, a behavioral scientist who led the research at RAND, said the findings suggest that television may play a significant role in the high rates of teenage pregnancy in the United States.

"We're not saying we're establishing causation, but we are saying this is one factor that we were able to prospectively link to the teen pregnancy outcome," Chandra said.

Adolescents, aged 12 to 17, were recruited and surveyed three times between 2001 and 2004, asking about television viewing habits, sexual behavior and pregnancy.

Amongst the 718 teenagers surveyed, there were 91 pregnancies.

The study published in the journal Pediatrics showed that the top 10th percent of adolescents who watched the sexiest programming were at double the risk of becoming pregnant or causing a pregnancy compared to the 10th who watched the fewest such programs.

Twenty-three television programs popular among teenagers were part of the study, including situation comedies, dramas, reality programs and animated shows. Comedies had the most sexual content and reality programs the least.

Chandra said the television content we see very rarely highlights the negative aspects of sex or the risks and responsibilities.

"So if teens are getting any information about sex they're rarely getting information about pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases."

Since 1991, teen pregnancy rates in the United States have declined sharply but remain high compared to other industrialized nations. The report said nearly 1 million girls aged 15 to 19 years old become pregnant yearly, or about 20 percent of sexually active females in that age group. Most of the pregnancies were unplanned.

The report also said young mothers are more likely to quit school, require public assistance and live in poverty.

"Television is just one part of a teenager's media diet that helps to influence their behavior. We should also look at the roles that magazines, the Internet and music play in teens' reproductive health," Chandra said.

The report noted that living in a two-parent family reduced the chances of a teen getting pregnant or causing a pregnancy. Black teenagers, and those with discipline problems, had higher risks.

Broadcasters were encouraged to provide more realistic portrayals of the consequences of sex and that parents limit their children's access to sexually explicit programming.

The journal published a second study adding to existing evidence that young people who play violent video games led to increased physically aggressive behavior. American children average 13 hours of video gaming a week.

U.S. and Japanese researchers evaluated more than 1,200 Japanese youths and 364 Americans between 9 and 18 years old and noted a "significant risk factor for later physically aggressive behavior ... across very different cultures."

Aggressiveness in children is also associated with violence later on, according to the study by researchers from Iowa State University in Ames, the National Institute on Media and the Family in Minneapolis and Ochanomizu University and Keio University in Tokyo.

---

On the Net:

• RAND
• Pediatrics

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

More News in this Category