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ABSTRACT
Research on the influence of media on youths’ sexual behavior in sub-Saharan Africa has focused almost entirely on the effects of multimedia health communication campaigns and edutainment programming. Scholarly literature is nearly silent about the influence of the multiple hours that young people in many sub-Saharan nations spend immersed in increasingly sex-heavy entertainment programming. We surveyed a stratified cluster sample of 437 Nairobi public high school students about motivational and parental mediation factors associated with their exposure to sexual radio and TV content. Watching sexual content in the bedroom predicted higher intake of both sexual radio and TV content. Believing that parents were successful in their efforts to limit media use predicted lower intake of both sexual radio and TV content. A friend/companion motive for watching was associated with taking in higher levels of sexual TV content. For day school students, watching sexual content in the sitting room also predicted higher levels of exposure to sexual TV content.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Dr. William Kinnally and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful critiques of earlier versions of this manuscript.