CHICAGO, Nov. 3, 2008
Study Links Sex On TV To Teen Pregnancy
Girls Who Avidly Watch Racy Programs Have Higher Pregnancy Rates, Research Claims
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Play CBS Video Video Sexy TV And Teen Pregnancy New research shows that by 16 years old, those who watch a high level of sexy television are twice as likely to be pregnant or father an out-of-wedlock baby. Sandra Hughes reports.
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Participants were asked how often they watched any of more than 20 TV shows popular among teens at the time or which were found to have lots of sexual content. The programs included "Sex and the City." (AP)
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"Sex and the City," anyone? That was one of the shows used in the research.
The new study is the first to link those viewing habits with teen pregnancy, said lead author Anita Chandra, a Rand Corp. behavioral scientist. Teens who watched the raciest shows were twice as likely to become pregnant over the next three years as those who watched few such programs.
Previous research by some of the same scientists had already found that watching lots of sex on TV can influence teens to have sex at earlier ages.
Shows that highlight only the positive aspects of sexual behavior without the risks can lead teens to have unprotected sex "before they're ready to make responsible and informed decisions," Chandra said.
The study was released Monday in the November issue of Pediatrics. It involved 2,003 12- to 17-year-old girls and boys nationwide questioned by telephone about their TV viewing habits in 2001. Teens were re-interviewed twice, the last time in 2004, and asked about pregnancy. Among girls, 58 became pregnant during the follow-up, and among boys, 33 said they had gotten a girl pregnant.
Participants were asked how often they watched any of more than 20 TV shows popular among teens at the time or which were found to have lots of sexual content. The programs included "Sex and the City," "That '70s Show" and "Friends."
Pregnancies were twice as common among those who said they watched such shows regularly, compared with teens who said they hardly ever saw them. There were more pregnancies among the oldest teens interviewed, but the rate of pregnancy remained consistent across all age groups among those who watched the racy programs.
Chandra said TV-watching was strongly connected with teen pregnancy even when other factors were considered, including grades, family structure and parents' education level.
But the study didn't adequately address other issues, such as self-esteem, family values and income, contends Elizabeth Schroeder, executive director of Answer, a teen sex education program based at Rutgers University.
"The media does have an impact, but we don't know the full extent of it because there are so many other factors," Schroeder said.
The question of whether a child's viewing habits in general affected pregnancy rates, mainly the total number of hours spent watching television - not just racy programming - was also not covered, as pointed out on CBS' The Early Show.
But Bill Albert, chief program officer at the nonprofit National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, praised the study and said it "catches up with common sense."
"Media helps shape the social script for teenagers. Most parents know that. This is just good research to confirm that," Albert said.
Still, U.S. teen pregnancies were on a 15-year decline until a 3 percent rise in 2006, the latest data available. Experts think that could be just be a statistical blip.
And Albert noted that the downward trend occurred as TV shows were becoming more sexualized, confirming that "it's not the only influence."
Psychologist David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, cited data suggesting only about 19 percent of American teens say they can talk openly with a trusted adult about sex. With many schools not offering sex education, that leaves the media to serve as a sex educator, he said.
"For a kid who no one's talking to about sex, and then he watches sitcoms on TV where sex is presented as this is what the cool people do," the outcome is obvious, Walsh said.
He said the message to parents is to talk to their kids about sex long before children are teens. Parents also should be watching what their kids watch and helping filter messages sex-filled shows are sending, he said.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 119 Commentsteach *** education.
Call it a national experiment; I do think it would be worthwhile to see if it indeed had a positive impact.
On the other hand, those who think before they get pregnant probably look around at what the Republicans have done to the economy and think "Kids? In this economy? No way!", so maybe we need the accidental pregnancies to keep our births at population replacement levels.
1.)*** education no longer exists in schools, leaving abstinence only education to ''teach'' our children. This means that those teens who do not want to follow abstinence (a LARGE majority of teens and pre-teens), do not learn how to engage in safe ***, nor do they learn the full consequences of sexual conduct.
2.)Parents don''t seem to care what their children watch or participate in. Parents don''t want to ''snoop'' in their child''s life, and thus give these hormone driven teens a chance to have *** and to watch potentially inappropriate tv.
I was raised with little restriction on my tv habits, but I was well informed about sexual activity and how to have safe ***. I made the choice to not have *** until later in my teen years, because I knew I wasn''t ready. I can only hope my son will be able to hear real *** education in the classroom.... Instead of people blaming everything but parents and education for the lack of knowledge and caution in teens.
Posted by mumu11
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CBS is like any other business. They are afraid of litigation to the extent that they are not about to risk offending anyone by demonstrating any balls. In an attempt to avoid offending anyone, they offend everyone -- but just a little.
The other day it treated my mention of the famous author Philip K. "Richard" with the same overbearing hypocritical puritanism.
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It is not my responsibility to help you raise your kids. If you do not want them to be promiscuous, teach them not to be. Do not expect me or anyone else to watch I Love Lucy reruns just to make your job easier.
Trying to blame teen pregnancy on sexual content in media; or for that matter, obesity on food commercials is simply a form of responsibility-dodging. You see the image of a hamburger and you get hungry. That you lack the self control to avoid running out and getting one speaks of your own irresponsibility in life. Yet our society wants to assign blame to advertisers for using this basic principle.
Look at it this way. A fish is caught by a worm on a hook because it is beyond the fish to realize that it is being trapped. If you have no greater mental capacity than a fish, then accept your station in life and shut up. The rest of us will not.
This is why they want to read "King and King" to first graders- "to indoctrinate them at as early an age as possible." (words of a Mass. judge)
Posted by caliengineer
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Such a plan, if it really existed, still could not succeed without the cooperation of the parents. See my previous post about the job of child rearing being that of the parents and not of society.
The people running television know that. It is their plan to corrupt children.
Posted by patriotic9 at 09:55 PM : Nov 03, 2008
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"Definitely".
And I''m well aware of her situation. It is unfortunate. And, if you''ve read previous posts, I''ve hammered time and again and in many other related posts that there are issues outside of parental guidance afoot. That need of "acceptance"; media - especially when combined with ''peer pressure'' - makes a formidable foe.
Whatever; that''s their future.
Posted by Hypnotoad72 at 09:46 PM : Nov 03, 2008
I don''t know about the future, but it''s definately the present of Conservative Republican Sarah Palin''s daughter!
Whatever; that''s their future.
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