Study links teen pregnancy to sexy TV shows

[onehandle]

Source: Reuters

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Exposure to some forms of entertainment is 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, researchers said on Monday.

Researchers at the RAND research organization said their three-year study was the first to link viewing of racy television programing with risky sexual behavior by teens.

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

"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 in a phone interview.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081103/us_nm/us_children_pregnancy_media

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Read the whole article. Something about it doesn't pass the sniff test. And yet it's a "top story" all over the place this morning.

[Ian David]

1. If your baby is square and has a face made of glass, blame the TV. n/t

[varkam]

2. It seems to me thatthere might be a reverse causation programs.

Just with violent video games, perhaps that people who are more given to sexuality prefer to watch racy programs.

[teach1st]

3. Ask a teacher or anybody who works with kids

We don't need a study. It's obvious.

That doesn't mean I'm for censorship. I am for parental involvement, discussion, and openness. Absent those, the media images and ideas that soak into kids' brains can have a negative effect.

How can progressives get so upset about the effects of negative campaign ads and hate radio, but be in denial about other negative media?

Edited to fix a spelling mistake..teachers can't do that!

[Oregone]

5. Correlation is not Causation

This is a common mistake in evaluating studies. There is not enough data here to make this kind of conclusion that you are making.

This study can present a behavioral indicator (attraction to "sexy" TV shows or violent video games) which signals that an individual may have a mutual attraction for real sexual activity. This is important for identifying and intervening to prevent risky behavior, but it is not proven to stop such behavior when removing the correlating factors. This behavior can merely be shared by personality types who are also likely to seek sexual contact. Young people who are driven to engage in high risk behavior may simply have the same intrinsic desires to seek out this type of entertainment. One does not always cause the other.

[teach1st]

8. No mistake

I didn't use the data in the study. After 20 years of experience with kids, it's more than obvious that without parental involvement persistent media messages do have a big effect on children.

Otherwise, why lobby so hard for the fairness doctrine? Why worry about Fox News and Limbaugh?

[Oregone]

10. This is an incongruent argument

One one hand, you are saying that intellectual education (found in political discourse) has an effect on people's political identity, knowledge, and views. Everyone is on board with this, for the most part.

Now on the other, you are stating that because of this, entertainment that involves high-risk behavior therefore causes high-risk behavior? That is a weak link, at best.

Please read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation


This same thing is used with Marijuana as a "gateway" drug for instances, simply because young groups that use pot also end up using other drugs in life, according to certain stats. But, what is neglected to be mentioned is that young people who are likely to use pot may be naturally less inhibited, less likely to follow authority, naturally more inclined to seek external chemical stimulus, etc, and who would, regardless of early pot use, have ended up doing drugs anyway. There are numerous other places people make these mistakes.

That is why it is important to never look at two behaviors, and without complete evidence, assert one causes the other. We know personality "types" may seek correlating behaviors. What you may be seeing in your real life, and experience, may have more to do with natural personality types, genetics and demeanors that cause high risk behaviors AND influence what types of entertainment these people seek. The real cause can cause both activities.

[teach1st]

13. It would be difficult...

..to rely on any study to conclusively show causality. Too many factors related and unrelated. I'm relying on common sense and experience. The kids with whom I have discussions consistently show misconceptions about sex and violence, misconceptions that are portrayed constantly in the media. Other factors - peer pressure, especially - come into play.

I do see that kids who claim to have open discussions about media and sex (I also teach media awareness) do better in later years and seem to have a more healthy viewpoint about these matters.

[Oregone]

14. "I do see that kids who claim to have open discussions about media and sex"

"do better in later years...."

But maybe such children are more incline to seek discussion (intellectual gratification), and less naturally inclined to seek sexual gratification. It is the intellectual gratification desire that may cause their rates of positive adjustment (not the actual specific sexual discussion).

You see, personal experience is even more deceptive in this regard than studies. Any such argument can be steered back to questions regarding personality types and other factors (like parenting, socioeconomic status). It is through studies that people try to eliminate one of the suspect variables to see if the other is in fact dependent upon it (and though it is very difficult to isolate such variables, many studies are effective at proving or disproving causation).

So far we also have no idea also if parents who do not properly teach/discuss about sexual responsibility also are not inclined to intervene in what their children watch. This is another variable I threw out there that we do not know the full answer to in both this study or personal experience, but it (parenting) could be an incredible factor which is the most influential of anything discussed (and could be root of both behaviors). There is just too little known to imply one causes the other, or vice versa.

Look, I have talked to a ton of early education teachers (5 year old and up) who say they can predict what children are going to grow up and have trouble and perhaps be in jail (and they aren't the type to create self-fulfilling prophecies). There are definitely natural personality types and inclinations that people have, which allow people to be grouped by behaviors at young ages. I think it makes early intervention incredibly important, and it is important to realize that some children may be more at risk than others naturally (or even environmentally). I am just saying that too often people come to the conclusion that A causes B when C, D, E is really causing both A and B. Eliminate "sexy" images all you want...you are still going to be seeing pregnant teenagers.

[all.of.me]

19. I'm with you.

They want to educate kids to protect or abstain, but then sex is all over the media - tv, magazines, books, etc. It's innuendo or just outright blatant. I don't watch much tv, but when I do, I am blown away by what kids are exposed to. Take Two and a Half Men, which I think is really funny. It is adult humor, though, and here, the reruns are on at dinner time when kids have access to it. Even the new episodes are on at 8. Too early, in my opinion.

Without parental involvement, who knows what your kid absorbs and believes?

[d_r]

21. yes extraneous correlations

it could also be that those who watched less "sexy" shows had parents who were more involved in monitoring their tv viewing at age 14 and monitoring their whereabouts/behavior at age 17. Or communicating/disscussing, etc.

[KittyWampus]

37. Please. Simple human psychology. "Mutual attraction"? Now discuss attitudes, how they are formed

and effected by marketing. And reinforcement and validation are certainly provided by television and marketing.

Which is what television is.

To say what you watch, consciously or UNCONSCIOUSLY, doesn't influence your behavior is ridiculous.

And that's not even mentioning desire formation and marketing.

Some people seem to need to ignore the fact that humans have impulse control. We have a higher brain which can direct our reptilian brain.

But it takes training and guidance.

[garthranzz]

6. I'm with you. Of course we're influenced by our environment

That's one reason we hang out at DU and not, oh, say, Limbaughland.

Infants mimic their environment - that's how they learn.

Children follow trends - that's the environment.

And yes, adolescents are influenced by what they watch and listen to. So are adults.

So, as Obama has said - as educators and parents have said - turn off the TV (or internet) and read to your children. When they're older, do things with them. Monitor their environment. That's the job of a parent. And a citizen.

Not censorship, free will. Exercise it.

[nomorenomore08]

7. Maybe because they don't consider portrayals of normal human sexual behavior "negative media."

How about instead of wringing one's hands over which TV shows the kids are watching, work on abolishing "abstinence-only" sex ed, and providing them with real, useful information about birth control? For Christ's sake, they show nudity in friggin' commercials in a lot of European countries, and you don't see those societies collapsing into late-Roman decadence.

[teach1st]

9. Nudity and love ain't the problem

Talk to kids about sex. I do during sex education. Many in fifth grade already have pretty warped ideas about women and violence. It's the unrealistic stuff I'm referring to. You apparently equate concern about negative media images with being anti-sex. Sex and love have little to do with the messages that most impact the kids.

[nomorenomore08]

11. Okay, then I (somewhat) misunderstood you. My apologies.

Still, I think anyone who tries parse out which "images" are to be considered "acceptable" or "unacceptable," and for whom, is walking a thin line. I don't have a problem with parents being concerned about what their kids are watching, nor even necessarily with the idea of a movie or video-game rating system, but I tend to be really sensitive to any hint of censoriousness, and your initial post raised a bit of a red flag for me. That's all...

[progressivebydesign]

45. my daughter took a class in jr. high on media influence/messages. She's savvy about it.

And she sees and comments daily on how they've sexualized girls as young as 11 in the media ALL to sell them stuff!! That's why the term "tweens" was invented, to create a new market for selling things. And the things being items to make them more attractive. The idea in entertainment and the ad biz that 16 year olds have to be "sexy" is wrong. I"m so grateful that both my girls see and understand the pressure the media, and the ads, are putting on her to act like she's 27 and look like she's 21.

[samplegirl]

4. I guess Sarah was not monitoring

what her daughter was watching all these years.

[Redwraithvienna]

12. This might be true for the US...

i am living in Europe. I can see nakes boobs on television from getting up to bedtime if i want. (but honestly ... i gets pretty boring over time)

But still i live in a country in which teenage pregnancies become increasingly rare.

So "sexy TV" is not a problem if it is combined with good sex education.

Maybe RAND should look into this and propose a better sex ed in schools.

[whathehell]

16. See post number nine. "Nudity and love are not the problem"

and not what the poster considers "sexy TV".

[ogminlo]

15. Here's a cause and a correlation for you:

Teen pregnancy is caused by unprotected sexual intercourse among teenagers. There is a strong correlation between teen unprotected sex and abstinence-only sex education programs.

http://www.yale.edu/ciqle/PUBLICATIONS/AfterThePromise.pdf

[Oregone]

17. Good point

:)

[whathehell]

18. It's likely not the only "cause and correlation". ..I grew up in a time

when there was NO sex education of any kind in schools..It was also a time when there was No "sexy tv" of any kind (unless you viewed The Donna Reed Show as such,lol)..and there were FAR fewer teen pregnancies.

Maybe we should listen to a teacher who works with kids...Even those of us who are phobic about any "judging of images".

[pipi_k]

27. Donna Reed!

Oh God, I used to watch that show all the time!

I think the sexiest thing that might ever have happened was Mary Stone accidentally leaving the top button undone on her Peter Pan collared blouse....

"Mary, you shameless slut!!!!!"

:rofl:

[Andy Canuck]

20. This is ludicrous.

In Canada we watch all the same shows and play the same video games and our rates of teen pregnancy and violence are proportionally lower than the US. The main difference is education. In Canada we have sex education and a culture of negotiation and diplomacy before violence. I can assure you Canada`s teenagers are as horny as American teens we just teach them about birth control. Canada is not big enough to be able to use gunboat diplomacy, and I hope we wouldn`t if we could, we know in order to survive we have to negotiate well so we don`t get caught in the fray.

[ogminlo]

22. Exactly.

Teens are biologically predisposed to crave sex (raging hormones). You can draw all the cultural correlations you want, but the one proven way to reduce teen pregnancy is truthful sex education.

I can use this article to "link" evangelical Christianity to teen pregnancy. Of course that misses the point, which is that teens will want to have sex, and if they are informed about contraception they are less likely to conceive.

[melody]

29. "We" teach "them" the same things "you" teach "yours", thank you very much

The difference is there is no difference. The problem with this assertion is that (1) there are plenty of sexy TV shows (it sells) and (2) young girls get pregnant but to draw a connection between these two things as cause and effect is irresponsible at best. There's no evidence for it. None.

[Mabus]

40. And if they're watching TV when are they having sex?

Seriously. Most of the kids around here spend more time with their iPods, computers or hanging out with their friends than they do with television. Besides, the few episodes of "Sex and the City" I watched the characters talked about birth control. There was on episode where condoms fell out of someone's purse and another time a character, who had just gotten married, said something about being out of the condom stage. And I watched "Friends" there was one than more episode where safe sex measures like condoms were talked about. If anything, these shows were giving kids the message about protected sex.

I agree with you. Unless they correlate their study with other variables, like unemployment levels among teenagers or what type (if any) sexual education program was offered to them than this research is as valid as a study predicting whether my husband will have a good day at work based on what color of socks he wears.

[comtec]

23. I'm not sure how much I buy this...

Education is always the key.
Here in Holland there is a H E L L of a lot more BLATANT sex in media here, and yet the Netherlands' teen pregnancy rate is MUCH lower than the us' probably because sex education IN SCHOOLS is FAR FAR better than in the US today.

The sex laws also have a hell of a lot more common sense to them (trust me, that's RARE over here). Sex begins at 16, but if ur 14, and your partner is NO OLDER than 18, that's ok too - assuming mutual consent of course.

Teens have magazines - especially girls - that have sex TALK in them. My wife - whose Dutch, of course - told me about a lot of the discussion, ACTUAL DISCUSSIONS, in school and these teen mags about sex.

Alternative to full on sex, condom use, and the availability OF condoms, is a HELL of a lot more prevalent here, than in the US.

You also have the de-mystification of the female form, because beaches in most of Europe are topless, some bottomless.

Overall you have kids growing up with a much HEALTHIER sense of sex, sexuality, and the responsibilities that go along with it.

France, with it's infamous topless, and bottomless public beaches, IIRC, has the LOWEST abortion, and teen birthrate in the world! And it's in more media than here - from what I understand.

EDUCATION, COMMUNICATION, KNOWLEDGE, DE-MYSTIFICATION, these more than JUST SAY NO (bullshit) work towards making kids and teens better able to deal with sexual situation when they happen.

Remember, under Clinton, during the boom, before the Internet was as tightly controlled as it is now, porn was MORE available than it is now (shocking but true), AND... teen rates were down because of sex EDUCATION!

[Scooter24]

24. So that's why every time I watch an episode of Gossip Girl

I get this uncontrollable urge to go have unprotected sex!

[Odin2005]

25. Baloney.

They even admit they didn't establish causation. :eyes:

This is just typical "the youth are being corrupted" BS whining that has gone on since the dawn of time. It's also indicative of American society's disturbed, Victorian-like views of Sexuality.

[pipi_k]

26. ONE of the factors....maybe, but

a very small one, I think.

Once again, people doing these studies must be neglecting to really talk to these girls, who would, I imagine, give them an earful of REALITY.

Why do so many teenagers end up getting pregnant? I've seen plenty of them say that they do it in order to have someone in their lives who "loves them unconditionally". Sad. They feel so little love from the people in their lives that they figure they're going to make themselves some real life baby dolls who will love them forever.

Then there are the girls who are probably ignorant of birth control. I know...hard to imagine in this day and age, but not all parents are comfortable discussing such things with their kids, and some of them (the parents) just don't want to admit their kids would ever DO such things...

Then there are the girls who rebel. Yah, that was me, back in 1970. It's a long an painful story, but in the end, I rebelled against the hypocrisy of my mom and allowed myself to be used in that way by boys who, for a few moments, anyway, gave me attention and what passed for (in my naive little 17 year old mind) admiration.


But the thing that really smells about the idea of "sexy" TV shows being one factor in teen pregnancy is the fact that teen pregnancy has been happening since long before TV even came out, let alone "sexy" programs.


Is the rate higher nowadays than way back when? Who knows...

Anyway, I just think it's pretty damned sad that huge amounts of time and expense go into studies that won't even solve the root problem...which is that many girls feel unloved...isolated...and taking care of that problem might help lower teen pregnancy rates better than taking "sexy TV programs" off the air would.


:shrug:

[Turbineguy]

28. That's why Fox has the racy shows

they want the stupid to propagate and breed out intelligence.

[Unvanguard]

30. Correlation is not causation.

The teenage desire for sex is not something artificially created by "racy television programming." Come on.

[Toucano]

42. Thank you. n/t

[juno jones]

31. Oh feer chrissakes people

It's RAND! A right-wing think tank spewing talking points to distract us from real issues. I'd say our violent and anti-sexual/misogynist culture, of which we have seen plenty these last few months, is far more responsible for sex and violence than games and TV shows which don't seem to have the same effect on the rest of the civilized world. TV blame is just another dimension of the 'blame everyone but yourself' culture that these consevative idiots embrace.

[Crowman1979]

32. As for violent video games, the US government is the biggest hypocrite.

The US congress complains all the time about violent video games being marketed. Yet have no qualms about using our tax dollars for violent video games used as recruiting tools (America's Army) or being sent in military care packages (Left Behind).

[whathehell]

44. Good..So let them drop the hypocrisy by dropping BOTH things.

[NoodleyAppendage]

33. MTV and VH1 Programming is pretty racy...not to mention stupifying.

But, I guess the "kids" like it so it must be benign, right? Come on, people. There is trash on TV.

J

[xchrom]

34. you could link teen pregnancy to the backseats of cars too. nt

[LisaL]

35. Sounds totally believable to me.

Why wouldn't it. Come one, people-when somebody wants some rare animals to breed, those animals sometimes are shown videos of other animals (of their species) mating. So why exactly wouldn't the same work on teens?

[customerserviceguy]

36. If we expect TV to teach values

such as integration of racial groups, why are we surprised when it teaches sexual "normalcy" as well? I'm all for teaching kids about conception control, but I have to say that there is a difference in the society I grew up in where Wally, Beaver, Patty Duke, the Brady kids, and even Eddie Haskell were not having sex, and one where essentially every TV kid is "doing it".

[Xenotime]

38. I did a study that links teen pregnancy to fucking.

[JJ]

39. I blame households where both parents have to work two jobs

just to put food on the table.

[TrogL]

41. How reliable is RAND?

I seem to remember them having right-wing connections.

[progressivebydesign]

43. My 16 year old daughter said "DUH!" She understand the influence of media on her peers.

If advertising in a billion dollar business, then how could anyone, with a straight face, argue that watching highly sexualized and glamorized shows would NOT influence what teens think.