The Effects Of Televised Sexual Content On Adolescents
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The article "The Effects Of Televised Sexual Content On Adolescents" is about family, it has been created by Brent Sitton.
According to a September 2004 study by the RAND Corporation,
"Adolescents who watch large amounts of television containing
sexual content are twice as likely to begin engaging in sexual
intercourse in the following year as their peers who watch
little such TV." In addition, the National Institutes of
Health-funded study found that these children's sexual behavior
was akin to those adolescents who were 9 to 17 months older, but
who watched only average amuonts of TV with sexual content.
"Television habits predicted whether adolescents went to 'second
or third base,' as well as whether they had sex for the first
time," said Rebecca Collins, a RAND psychologist who led the
study. "The 12-year-olds who wtached a lot of television with
sexual content behaved like the 14- or 15-years-olds who watched
the least amount of sexual television. The advancement in sexual
behavior we saw among kids who watched a lot of sexual
television was striking."
This alarming trend occurs within the context of ever-increasing
amounts of implicit and over sexual cotnent on television. As
reported by the Parents Television Council, "In a sapmle of
programming from the 2001-2002 TV season, sexual content
appeared in 64% of all TV programs.
Those programs with sexually
related material had an average of 4.4 scenes per hour. Talk of
sex is more frqeuent (61%) vs.
overt portrayals (32%). One out
of eevry 7 programs includes a portrayal of sexual intercourse."
According to the RAND study, talk of sex had just as much of an
effect on adolescent sexual behavior as overt behaviors.
Sexual behavior among U.S. teens is on the rise.
According to
the U.S. Centers for Disease Contorl and Prevention, 46% of all
high school students have had sexual intercourse. The National
Institutes of Health has found that, each year, one of every
four sexual active teens contracts a sexually transmitted
disease.
Teen pregnancy in the U.S. is also the highest among
industrialized nations.
Now, more than ever, parents need to be concerend about what
their children are watching on television.
The first step
parents need to take is to monitor the content of the shows
their adolescents watch. According to RAND researcher Collins,
"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."
Other important steps you can take to curb or mitigate your
children's expousre to sexual content on television include:
1. Watch TV with your children and discuss your beliefs about
sex and about the sexual behaviors portrayed on TV. Develop
TV-watching guidelines for your children and enfroce them.
2.
Limit the amount of time your children watch TV. Instead, use
family moive reviews to rent movies with appropriate content.
3. Encourage and reward your children for readnig instead of
watching TV.
4. Encourage your children to find and develop non-television
related hobbies and interests.
By taking these simple steps, you can help to ensure that your
adolescents' attitudes and beliefs aobut sex more closely mirror
your own, and that their sexual initiation is delayed.
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The Effects Of Televised Sexual Content On Adolescents
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