FYI Research:
Researchers study teens, sex and the media

Initial results from a five-year study show that music may have more of an impact on teens' sexual behavior than television. For teens aged 12 to 14, "music is the most sexual of the media," with 40 percent of its content relating to sex and relationships, said Carol Pardun, associate professor of journalism and mass communication and co-investigator of the "Teen Media" study, which was funded with $2.6 million by the National Institutes of Health.

Overall, the most popular TV shows among the 2,942 North Carolina teens surveyed in the study did not contain a lot of sexy content. "They were most likely to watch "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "The Simpsons" and shows like that," Pardun said. "We have to really give credit to these kids that they're still trying to be kids." TUNED IN Jane Brown (left), professor of journalism and mass communication and Carol Pardun, associate professor of journalism and mass communication, are in the fourth year of a five-year study of how the media affects teens' sexual health.

Pardun and Jane Brown, professor of journalism and mass communication, asked the teens what music, movies and television shows they actually used. Then the researchers (with help from 12 graduate students and one undergraduate) analyzed the sexual content of those specific media. The teens' most-watched television shows consisted of 11 percent sexual content, and movies 12 percent.

Brown and Pardun shaped the research around the idea that, with as many as 500 cable channels and a steady stream of recorded music and movies available, teens today create their own unique "media diets." The researchers computed for each teen a statistical "sexual media diet score," -- a composite of the amount of sexual content in the media the teen used multiplied by how frequently the teen used each medium.

The researchers used those scores to get an idea of how the sexier media content might be affecting teens who do watch or listen to it. After taking the initial survey about media use, a sub sample of the adolescents also completed confidential surveys about their health and sexuality, using laptop computers in their homes. The researchers found that more frequent use of sexual content across all types of media was associated with increases in sexual behavior, even after controlling for age, race, gender and socioeconomic status.

"The teens who are using more sexual content are more likely to be sexually active," Brown said. That finding held true for both light (dating and kissing) and heavy (petting and intercourse) sexual activity.

Which comes first -- paying attention to sexy media or engaging in sexual behavior? "It's not clear from the first wave of the data," Brown said. "We think that it's actually a bidirectional process. As adolescents become more interested in sex, as their bodies mature, the sexual content in the media becomes more relevant. Then they either seek it out, or they pay more attention to it when they come across it, and what they see and hear may encourage them to be more sexually active."

The team will try to address that question further with the final part of the study. Two years after the first survey, the researchers surveyed the same teenagers again to find out how their sexual attitudes and behaviors had changed. The researchers are just beginning to analyze that data. They want to find out: Did the teens who used the sexiest media at ages 12 to 14 end up being the teens who, at ages 14 to 16, were the most sexually active?

It's not clear where the answer to that question will lead. But somehow, Brown and Pardun said, we have to start asking it. "The media can be important sex educators because the rest of the culture, including parents, is still so reluctant to talk about sex and relationships," Brown said. But, Pardun added, right now the media include almost no sexual health messages.

Brown, who has a 14-year-old daughter, said, "Especially in this age group, there's a wonderful kind of earnestness about kids: `Living is awesome, I want to figure out how to do it right.' Let's give them media that speak to that, rather than grow them up so fast."

The study also included analysis of the children's use of magazines and the Internet. Brown will speak about this work in October at "Ideas to Go" at the Friday Center for Continuing Education. For more information, refer to the Friday Center's web site.

Provided by Research and Economic Development.
Editor: Neil Caudle. Writer: Angela Spivey.

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