- NEW YORK (Reuters Health)
- Some teens who watch television programs with high sexual content appear
to engage in sexual behaviors more often than those who watch other types
of TV programs, according to new research.
-
- Although the association was not very strong, Dr. Cheryl
L. Somers and a colleague at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan
found the link between sex and sexy TV was more solid within certain groups,
including Hispanic-American teens.
-
- But does sex on television influence teens' behaviors,
or are sexual adolescents more attracted to sexy shows?
-
- Unfortunately, this study only connects the two behaviors
and cannot explain which influences which, Somers told Reuters Health.
-
- "The question is: are the kids more sexual first,
and drawn to the media?" she asked.
-
- The study results are based on surveys of 672 US teens
in grades 9 through 12. The survey asked teens about the types of programs
they watch and their sexual behaviors, including age of first intercourse,
number of sexual partners and frequency of dating.
-
- Somers and her co-author, Joshua Tynan, determined the
sexual nature of different television shows by asking 114 undergraduate
students to grade the programs according to the amount of sexual dialogue
and content they contained. The highest rated--or most sexual--shows included
HBO's Sex and the City, MTV's Undressed, The Man Show, and Howard Stern.
-
- The investigators presented their findings at the recent
annual meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence held in New Orleans,
Louisiana.
-
- Overall, Somers and Tynan found that teens who watched
sexier shows tended to engage in sexual behaviors more frequently than
those who watched less sex on TV. The relationship appeared strongest in
Hispanic-American teens.
-
- Hispanic-American girls who watched sexier TV programs
reported an earlier age at first intercourse and Hispanic-American boys
who were frequent sexy TV watchers engaged in more sexual behaviors than
viewers of TV with less explicit content. The Hispanic-American teens surveyed
tended to be of low socioeconomic status and lived in urban areas.
-
- Somers found that among white, suburban middle-class
teens, girls who watched sexier television shows were more likely than
others to have more sexual partners, but frequent sex-watching in boys
was linked to the opposite finding: fewer sexual partners.
-
- "Boys are watching in place of acting, and girls
are watching and acting," she said.
-
- However, the results may not be true for all teens. For
example, there was no link between sexual behavior and TV watching among
African-American males, the team found.
-
- Although it is not clear which came first--the behavior
or the TV watching--parents may want to pay attention to what teens are
tuning in to, Somers said. For example, parents shouldn't necessarily restrict
television, but should explain to teens how the media can influence self-esteem,
she said, and never shy away from talking to teens about sex.
-
- "Biologically, their bodies and brains are ready
for sex," Somers said. "If parents don't talk about these things
to kids, where are they going to get it?" she added.
|
