WATCHING SEX ON TELEVISION PREDICTS ADOLESCENT INITIATION OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR

The study showed that adolescents who viewed frequent sexual content on TV were twice as likely to initiate intercourse and progress to more advanced noncoital sexual activities during the subsequent year than adolescents that viewed much less sexual content on TV.

The conclusion was that watching sex on TV predicts and may hasten adolescent sexual initiation. Reducing the amount of sexual content in entertainment programming and reducing adolescent exposure to this content, while increasing references to, and depictions of, possible negative consequences of sexual activity, could appreciably delay the initiation of coital and noncoital activities.

Other factors in the study that were strongly related to the initiation of sexual intercourse were older age, having older friends, getting low grades, engaging in deviant behavior and sensation-seeking.

Factors associated with a lower probability of intercourse initiation were parental monitoring, parent education, living with both parents, having parents who disapprove if the adolescent had sex, being religious and having good mental health.

The RAND study revealed that parents watching TV with their teenaged children and discussing their own beliefs about sex and the behaviors portrayed reduced effects of sexual content. The RAND study’s recommendation is in line with the American Academy of Pediatrics, which suggests that pediatricians encourage family discussions of the media and its effect on sexual behavior. The RAND study clearly indicated the need for ameliorating the effects of TV sexual content on youth behavior.

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