Does Television Exposure Influence College-Aged Women's Sexual Self-Concept?

Abstract

The present study examined whether television exposure shapes female emerging adults' sexual self-concept, defined as self-perceptions of one's qualities in the sexual domain. Results from two-year panel data collected from undergraduate women suggested that Time-1 exposure to soap operas, prime-time dramas, and amount of television viewing predicted a deflation in college women's Time-2 sexual self-concept. In addition, Time-1 sexual self-concept negatively predicted Time-2 prime-time drama exposure and Time-2 television watched per day. The results are interpreted in light of the cognitive information processing model (Huesmann, 1997) and the selective exposure hypothesis (Festinger, 1957).

Notes

¹ T-tests were conducted comparing the two incentive groups on all sexual self-concept variables. No significant differences were detected. Type of incentive was not controlled in later analyses.

²At α = .05, the sample (N = 149) had sufficient power to estimate r = .30 (power = .96).

³The sitcoms included the following (in alphabetical order): According to Jim, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Becker, The Bernie Mac Show, The Drew Carey Show, Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, Friends, Girlfriends, The Jamie Foxx Show, Just Shoot Me, The King of Queens, Malcolm in the Middle, Reba, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Scrubs, Sex in the City, Spin City, The Steve Harvey Show, That 1970s Show, Watching Ellie, and Will & Grace.

⁴Action series (e.g., 24, Alias) were not classified as dramas. Dramas included the following (in alphabetical order): 7th Heaven, Boston Legal, Charmed, Crossing Jordan, CSI, Dawson's Creek, Ed, ER, Felicity, Gilmore Girls, Judging Amy, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, NYPD Blue, The Practice, Providence, Roswell, Six Feet Under, Smallville, The Sopranos, Third Watch, and The West Wing.

⁵All participants were asked to respond to the sexual self-concept variables, regardless of their sexual experience. Separately, participants were asked whether they had ever engaged in sexual intercourse or manual or oral stimulation of genitals, and 26 participants reported no experience with any of these activities. Still, they were retained in the main sample because the items did actually include parenthetical notations that were intended to instruct participants to imagine what their feeling would be, e.g., ”I am (would be) a good sexual partner”.

⁶All control variables were measured at Time 1.

∗p < .05

∗∗∗p < .001