Study Links Racy TV with Teen Sexual Activity (Very Strong Relationship)

[Zynx]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5930891/

>>>CHICAGO - Teenagers who watch a lot of television with sexual content are twice as likely to engage in intercourse than those who watch few such programs, according to a study published Tuesday.

The study covered 1,792 adolescents aged 12 to 17 who were quizzed on viewing habits and sexual activity and then surveyed again a year later. Both regular and cable television were included.

“This is the strongest evidence yet that the sexual content of television programs encourages adolescents to initiate sexual intercourse and other sexual activities,” said Rebecca Collins, a psychologist at the RAND Corp. who headed the study.

“The impact of television viewing is so large that even a moderate shift in the sexual content of adolescent TV watching could have a substantial effect on their sexual behavior,” she added. <<<

Toxic culture alert!

[Sandpiper]

1. They talked about this today on KLSD

And wondered about the methodology of this study.

Did it take into account whether children who are sexually active to start with might be more inclined to watch programs with high sexual content?

[Democat]

2. If you were sexually interested wouldn't you watch more racy TV?

If you like motorcycles, then you are more likely to watch TV shows about motorcycles. That doesn't mean that you started liking motorcycles because of the TV shows you're watching.

These studies often assume cause because that's what they were looking for to start with.

[TahitiNut]

3. Here we go again..

Again we have this "correlation means causality" fallacy. I guess the situation comedies on TV are the cause of an increased sense of humor among teens? Is the sports programming the cause of increased athleticism?

This is such BULLSHIT. :grr:

This is the oft-repeated fallacy of "Questionable Cause" that has several varieties including "Post hoc, ergo propter hoc" and "Ignoring a Common Cause."

Correlation DOES NOT imply causality.

[Sandpiper]

4. Everyone who puts faith in statistics/studies

Should be required to take a class in research methods, so they can learn how easy it is to make numbers say exactly what you want them to.

[TahitiNut]

9. Courses in "Critical Thinking" that include logic and propaganda ...

... should be required in grade school, with a passing grade a prerequisite for graduation.

[Zynx]

10. Possible

However, I have a definite problem with things like MTV that run almost nothing but wall-to-wall sex, drugs and booze for an audiance that is overwhelmingly under legal age. These people spend so much $$$ on marketing research that they have to know that this has an effect.

[TahitiNut]

15. "marketing research" shows EXISTING demand/audience ...

... it doesn't CREATE it. If nobody wanted it, it wouldn't exist.

This is merely another "it's not my fault" claim on the part of clueless "family values," imho.

[telamachus]

21. From the article:

"12-year-olds who watched a lot of sexual content behaved like the 14- or 15-years-olds who watched the least amount."

You are incorrect that "Correlation DOES NOT imply causality"

If you had stated "a single correlation does not prove causality" you would have been more correct.

Correlations certainly do suggest relationships between variables that may or may not be cause and effect.

Like all statistical research, the resultant reported implications should be taken with a grain of salt.

At the very least there are multiple correlations within the study that ,at the least, indicates a need for further study. Unfortunately (actually very fortunately) we cannot test the theory that sexual TV leads to sex in teens through an experiment. .

Social science is imperfect but it may help identify the cause of things that society considers a problem.

Teen violence and Teen Sexuality was no problem during the course of cultural development but as cultures developed their rules may run up against our nature (violence and breeding)

It is a different debate altogether to judge what it 'correct' when it comes to teen sexual behavior. Always, opinions on the matter will be rife with bias.

[TahitiNut]

23. If B and C are correlated, it DOES NOT follow that B causes C.

Nor does it follow that C causes B. A may cause both B and C, either directly or indirectly (A causes D; D causes B; A causes E; E causes C).

Indeed, the correlation may be a statistical anomaly and no causality may exist. How long does it hold? How strong? What are the assessment controls?

12-year-old Latinas reach puberty at a higher rate than 12-year-old Canadian girls (or Asian girls). Do the populations assessed have identical demographics?


TV programming is driven (partly indirectly) by existing market demand. What the audience wants, the corporations will deliver - when there's a profit motive.

[telamachus]

28. Lots of assumptions

and never a straight response....maybe if posts were read more carefully .....

[DrWeird]

5. Kids who go through abstinence programs...

are just as likely to contract STDs.

This new study sounds like bullshit. Hasn't RAND become a socially conservative thinktank?

[Justitia]

6. uhhhh...when I was a sexually active teen, I watched very little TV -eom

[GoddessOfGuinness]

13. Who had time for TV?

We were too busy having sex. :eyes:

[yellowcanine]

7. Watching racing on TV causes teen sex? Who knew?

.

[Democat]

8. The liberals are trying to blame NASCAR!

:)

[SoCalDem]

11. Animal research has shown that "visual" accessibility

is sometimes NECESSARY for females to enter estrus.. In zoos, they sometimes have to show them "sexy animal films" so they have a clue about mating..

Scientists are just starting to figure out our brains.. Probably somewhere lurking in the "lizard parts" of our brains is a trigger mechanism, that kicks in after "so many" exposures to "sexualized viewings"..

Only since the 1920's or so, have YOUNG males and females had easy access to each other...In a rural society, people lived great distances from each other,in extended families and parents had much greater control/access to their kids.. Familiarity breeds contempt, so what the young ones saw in their own homes, was obviously not a "turn on"....Also, until very recently, people married very young, so they didn't spend a lot of time "dating"..

TV has always been titillating, and it just gets more so as time goes on..

Combine that with the hormones in food, and the extra hormones that fat cells produce, and it's not much of a stretch to see why kids are interested at ever-earlier ages..

[daleo]

17. Only since the 1920's?

"Only since the 1920's or so, have YOUNG males and females had easy access to each other..."

It is pretty sweeping statement, considering that there were plenty of centuries, even millenia, of human history before the 1920s. It is impossible to really say what the norm for humans is, as a species. I suspect though, that young people were having sex well before TV was invented.

[treepig]

20. indeed, maybe the 1920's info applied in the usa

but in other cultures sex on tv and teenage promiscuity has been an age old problem.

why, just the other day i was perusing the journal of heiroglyphics and the ancient egyptians and mesopotamians were masters of smut. even without the internet and dvd's - from what i could garner, they only had the "beta" format videos back in the 2000 b.c. era - but still, they had some pretty racy stuff!!

[SoCalDem]

22. Actually, I was referring to the whole "dating" thing that we Americans

embrace...

Before that, and in most cultures, the elders arranged and chaperoned.. The younger people did not have many opportunities to get together.. I know they managed sometimes.. and of course sex is not new, but there was also a time when there was a stigma attached to it.. The stigma has turned into a badge of honor..

I am so glad my kids are grown.. I sure don't envy you folks with young kids..:)

[noonwitch]

12. Is it sexuality on tv or teen characters who have sex on tv?

When I was a kid, only soap operas and adult dramas had any sex scenes, of course, this was in the world before cable. The last 15 years have featured shows geared toward teens with teen characters having sex (with few negative consequences). Shows like the zip code show, "Dawson's Creek", etc. could have more of that kind of effect on teens than "Sluts In The City".

I don't necessarily put all that much stock into these types of studies. They are tailor made with the purpose of scaring parents of teens into thinking their children are up to more trouble than they actually are.

[hansolsen]

14. Hollywood needs a good bombing

Sex is the rightful provence of adults. Hollywood's celebration of child sexuality is obscene. I would stop it if I could.

If I made a list of world cities that need a "good bombing" to clean them up, I guarantee you Hollywood would be higher on my list than Baghdad.

[Francine Frensky]

16. I believe it. Really wish Tipper Gore had been able to do more

about things like this, the negative impact of pop culture on kid's behavior.

The main problem with republicans is that they may talk to their base about "those bad Hollywood people" but they don't DO anything, even though they own all the networks and production companies.

Who has the raunchiest shows of all the networks? FOX!!!!!!

Perfect example of the hypocrisy -- conservative news, racy shows.

[bobbyboucher]

18. What are some of the raunchiest ads...Coors Light, which is

owned, at least in part, of course, by a conservative Repube who is running for the Senate.

Money trumps everything.

[xchrom]

19. the rand corporation did another study

and found people who hung with ME were VERY likely to fool around!
young, old and every one in between -- it's very alarming i'm told.

[zzapatista]

24. Statistics lie...

I presume they didn't think to check the percentage of kids NOT watching "racy" TV (and thus not having sex) and the kids raised in strict religious households or other such groups who demonize sex?

[NoBorders]

25. waaaaiiit a minute

there's nothing in the article at least that shows a causal relationship, merely an association. Isn't it possible that kids who are more sexually active also tend to watch more explicit TV?

[shanti]

26. riiiiight

what about the 60's "free love" generation? we were watching the brady bunch! :eyes:

[truthbetold]

27. What TV program...

ISN'T of a sexual nature these days? Even sitcoms have sexual situations in them, this is nothing new.
I'm sick of everyone blaming everything but themselves for the way they behave. You make your own decisions and that's the bottom line- the TV has no say over whether you're going to have sex or not. YOU DO.
BTW, I'm 18 and a virgin, and I've NEVER seen anything sexual on TV.
Ridiculous. :eyes:

[MAlibdem]

29. Yeeehaaawwww...

sex is fun