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Abstract
Little research has been conducted to examine the influence of exposure to televised sexual content on adolescent sexuality or how parental intervention may reduce negative effects of viewing such content. This study uses self-report data from 1,012 adolescents to investigate the relations among exposure to sexually suggestive programming, parental mediation strategies, and three types of adolescent sexuality outcomes: participation in oral sex and sexual intercourse, future intentions to engage in these behaviors, and sex expectancies. As predicted, exposure to sexual content was associated with an increased likelihood of engaging in sexual behaviors, increased intentions to do so in the future, and more positive sex expectancies. Often, parental mediation strategies were a significant factor in moderating these potential media influences.
Notes
This study was supported by Grant Number HD038906 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The contents of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NICHD or NIH. An earlier version of this research was presented at the 113th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in August 2005. The authors would like to thank Nielsen Media Research for providing the television rankings data. The authors also thank the coders who worked on the content analysis: Alicia Cohen, Ivette Hernandez, Kenneth Herrell, Jennifer Nitkowski Hill, Jennifer Kuhlman, David Lerner, Richard Lyght, Moira McCauley, Roshni Patel, Benjamin Pulz, David Salinger, Haniya Silberman, and Amanda Sole.
*p < .05
**p < .001.
*p < .05
**p < .001.
*p < .05
**p < .001.