Exposure to semi-explicit sexual television content is related to adolescents' reduced fear of AIDS

Abstract

Objective To investigate the relationship between adolescents' frequency of watching semi-explicit sexual television content and their fear of getting AIDS.

Methods A longitudinal cohort study was conducted to test whether fourth grade students (N = 733) who regularly watched sexually semi-explicit content at baseline were less likely to be afraid of getting AIDS one year later at follow-up.

Results Regression analyses indicated that adolescents who were frequently exposed to semi-explicit sexual TV content at baseline were less likely to be fearful about getting AIDS one year later.

Conclusion Watching semi-explicit television is related to reduced fear of getting AIDS.

KEYWORDS:

• AIDS
• Fear
• Adolescents
• Television

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Flemish Ministry of Health (Belgium).

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.