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MASS MEDIA USE AND TEEN SEXUALITY:
FINDINGS FROM THE NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF
ADOLESCENT HEALTH













by
Myra Gregory Knight
Assistant Professor
School of Communications
Elon College









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Submitted for review for AEJMC National Convention
WASHINGTON, DC
August  5-8, 2001
                Mass media use and teen sex

Abstract

        This study examined the cultivation of sexual attitudes and behaviors among adolescents based on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a representative sample of U.S. high school students. The study found that television viewing alone was not linked with any of the sexual attitudes tested but that sexually suggestive media use and overall media use were. Both television viewing and sexually suggestive media use were associated with an increased risk of sexual debut.








































Mass Media Use and Teen Sexuality:
Findings from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health


        Does mass media use among adolescents contribute to their attitudes about sexuality and their sexual behaviors? Since the earliest days of moving pictures, many parents and educators have worried that it does. That worry, however, is based more on assumption than science. Few correlational studies have examined relationships between general media use and sexual attitudes or behaviors. Among those, findings have been inconsistent. In addition, most of the studies were based on small samples from a limited geographic area collected in the 1980s or before. It is not clear that the findings would extend to a larger, more diverse population in a substantially different media environment.
        Unlike teens of previous generations, today's adolescents are exposed to a variety of potentially influential media. Most U.S. teens watch television, listen to music and read publications tailored to their specific age group. Teens from more privileged circumstances also may have access to commercial films, cable television, rental videos, video games, and the Internet. Studies tracking film and television content over several years have indicated that films and television shows of the 1990s contained an even greater propoprtion of sexually suggestive content than those of previous decades. This increase in sexually suggestive content has coincided with an increase in teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Between 1960 and 1992, the birth rate among unmarried teens rose from 15 per 1,000 15- to 19-year-olds to about 45 per 1,000 (Bachrach, Newcomer, Mosher & Ventura, 1997). By 1998, teens accounted for 2.5 million new sexually transmitted disease infections each year
(Krowchuk, 1998).
        Cultivation theory would point to television as a major source of such adverse effects. Developed in response to the civil unrest of the 1960s, the technique was used throughout the late 1960s and the early 1970s to demonstrate linkages between television viewing and conceptions or actions related to violence. George Gerbner, the technique's developer, attributed such relationships to television's unique qualities:  its pervasiveness, repetition of patterns, and daily, ritualized use by most viewers. "Television has become the primary source of socialization and everyday information (mostly in the form of entertainment) of otherwise heterogeneous populations," he and his collaborators wrote (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1994, p. 18). Cultivation studies also have linked television viewing with audiences' perspectives on topics other than violence, including sex roles (Signorielli, 1989), families (Gerbner et al., 1980), and health (Gerbner, Morgan & Signorielli, 1982).
        Despite the theory's successes and longevity, it often has sparked criticism. At least one author has expressed doubt that audiences interpret television messages uniformly (Newcomb, 1978). Also at issue is the origin and direction of cultivation effects (Hawkins & Pingree, 1990, Hirsch, 1980a, 1980b; Hughes, 1980; McQuail, 1987). Attitudes and behaviors attributed to cultivation effects, for example, could in fact originate with religious, business or governmental institutions or with viewers themselves, who may gravitate toward media that reflect their predispositions. Still other criticisms have focused on cultivation theory's lack of breadth. Potter (1998) has noted that cultivation theory fails to explain a variety of effects that have been observed in connection with media use, including emotional and physiological effects such as fear or lust. Bandura's social cognitive theory (1994) emphasizes the importance of various factors, including mass media, in shaping human behavior.
        Cultivation analysis has been applied to the study of adolescent sexuality, but the findings have been less consistent than in the case of violence. Two studies have linked general television viewing with beliefs or attitudes related to sexual behavior. Courtwright and Baran (1980) found that frequent television viewing was associated with more negative views about remaining a virgin. Signorelli (1991) found a positive relationship between overall television viewing and a desire to get married, have children, and remain married to the same person.
        A variety of studies, however, have linked specific types of television programming with sexual beliefs or attitudes. Studies of this type have involved soap operas (Buerkel-Rothfuss & Mayes, 1981; Buerkel-Rothfuss & Strouse, 1989; Larson, 1996; Walsh-Childers, 1990), sexually suggestive television shows (Bryant & Rockwell, 1994; Buerkel-Rothfuss & Strouse, 1989) and music television or videos (Calfkin, Carroll & Schmidt, 1993; Greeson & Williams, 1986; Strouse & Buerkel-Rothfuss, 1987). Buerkel-Rothfuss & Mayes (1981), for example, found that frequent viewers of soap operas were more likely than less-frequent viewers to overestimate the pervasiveness of extramarital affairs among men, abortions among women and illegitimate births in the population. More recently, Larson (1996) found that teens who were frequent viewers of soap operas were more likely than other teens to believe that teen mothers have male friends, hold better-than minimum-wage jobs, do not live in poverty, and w
ork in settings that allow on-the-job child care. Strouse and Buerkel-Rothfuss (1987) found that among young women, frequent viewing of music television was predictive of permissive attitudes about sexual behavior, including agreement that virginity is not important before marriage.
        Whether television viewing is linked with sexual behavior remains in question. Several studies have found no relationship between general television viewing and various measures of adolescent sexual permissiveness (Brown & Newcomer, 1991; Peterson, Moore & Furstenberg, 1991; Strouse & Buerkel-Rothfuss, 1987). The same and other studies, however, linked sexually suggestive television viewing or the use of other sexually suggestive media with variables such as sexual debut, premarital coitus and number of sexual partners (Brown & Newcomer, 1991; Peterson & Khan, 1984; Peterson, Moore & Furstenberg, 1991; Strouse & Buerkel-Rothfuss, 1993).
        Little attention has been directed toward possible relationships between media use and contraception or teen pregnancy. One study (Soderman, Greenberg & Linsangen, 1993) found a positive relationship between general television viewing and teen pregnancy. The same study also linked soap opera viewing with teen pregnancy. Few, if any, studies have examined questions about relationships between media use and contraceptive behavior.
        Inconsistencies among the findings are complicated by the age of the studies. Most previous studies were based on data collected before 1990. The only study employing a national sample (Peterson, Moore, & Furstenberg, 1991) relied on data gathered in the mid-1970s. Part of the problem lies in the difficulty of collecting data from adolescent media users. As has been noted, many school systems today shy away from the controversy associated with allowing studies of teen sexual attitudes and behaviors (Strasburger, 1997).
        The passage of time also has brought changes in the media environment. Alternatives to television have taken on characteristics that once made television unique, and teens have more control over their media choices. Music has become more portable--and thus more prevalent--through compact discs, lightweight earphones and tiny, battery-operated radios. Videos and video games offer images as compelling as television's without the interference of network censors. Although network television remains popular, it is not as omnipresent as it was. Older adolescents in particular are drawn to other media (Wartella, 1994; Robinson & Bianchi, 1997). These include popular music, which since the 1950s has placed progressively greater emphasis on physical love as opposed to emotional love (Fedler, Hall & Tanzi, 1982), and music videos, half to three-quarters of which deal with love or sexual intimacy (Brown & Campbell, 1986; Sherman & Dominick, 1986). Movies, a favorite entertainment option for
 many teens and accessible through many video rental stores without proof of age, often include depictions of sexual intercourse. In one study of films popular among teenagers, sexual intercourse among unmarried partners occurred on average eight times per film (Greenberg, Siemicki, Dorman, Heater, Stanly, Soderman, & Linsangen, 1993). Perhaps responding to the competition, television networks have spiced up their programming (Greenberg & Busselle, 1996; Rideout & Hoff, 1996). Although explicit sexual behaviors still are rare on the shows teens watch most frequently, today's sitcoms and soap operas contain more sexual innuendo than those of previous decades, when most cultivation research took place. Talk shows, found on both television and radio, have provided a new source of sexually suggestive material (Greenberg, Sherry, Busselle, Huilo & Smith, 1997).
        This study examines questions related to the cultivation of sexual attitudes and behaviors in view of these inconsistencies and changes. Specifically, the study asks: (1) Does general television viewing among adolescents correlate with attitudes about sexual debut, contraceptive use and teen pregnancy? (2) Does general television viewing correlate with sexual behaviors, including sexual debut, contraceptive use, and teen pregnancy? and (3) Is sexually suggestive media use or general media use more closely associated with sexual attitudes and behaviors than is television viewing alone?
Method
        Sample. The cross-sectional data employed in this study were obtained through the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Bearman, Jones, & Udry, 1997). Participants included 12,118 adolescents in grades 7 through 12 drawn from 80 high schools plus their associated middle schools. The public use sample on which this analysis is based included 6,504 cases, though questions about sexual attitudes and some sexual behaviors were asked only of participants age 15 and older. Each case was weighted so that the sample is representative of adolescents attending grades 7 through 12 in the United States at the time of the survey. The weighting scheme included adjustments for non-responses and for race-ethnicity based on Census Bureau estimates of each grade-sex-race population. Interviews were completed in the adolescents' homes, between April and December 1995, using laptop computers to encourage candor and protect confidentiality.       Measures.  Media variables available from the s
urvey included self-reported hours of television viewing, radio listening, video viewing and video-game playing. These were used both singly and in combination. For the measure of general media use, the four media variables were summed to produce total media hours. For the measure of sexually suggestive media use, radio and video hours were summed to produced sexually suggestive media hours. Based on previous content analyses of sexual content in various media, radio, a traditional medium for popular music, and videos, with their frequent depictions of sexual intercourse among unmarried partners, were deemed to be more sexually suggestive than television or video games.
        The dependent variables included three perception variables, perceived benefits of sexual activity, perceived obstacles to contraceptive use, and perceived consequences of pregnancy, which were composites of several questions asked in the survey. The other dependent variables reflected sexual behaviors:  sexual debut, effective condom use with first/last intercourse, and pregnancy. A more detailed description of these measures is contained in Table 1.
        Control measures varied according to the dependent variable. They consisted of demographic variables such as age, race, and gender, and domain-specific variables (See Table 1). The inclusion of these measures in each model was based on their association with the dependent variable as identified in previous studies of sexual attitudes and behaviors (e.g., Resnick, Bearman, Blum, Bauman, Harris, Jones, Tabor, Beuhring, Sieving, Shew, Ireland, Bearinger, & Udry, 1997). Variables entered as controls in the equation testing the relationship between media use and the perceived benefits of sexual activity, for example, were the following demographic variables:  gender, age, appearance, race/ethnicity, family structure, and poverty status. Domain-specific controls were:  parent-family connectedness; family suicide attempts/completions; parental regulation of television; perceived parental disapproval of adolescent sex; perceived parental disapproval of contraception; peer connectedness;
school connectedness; grade point average; paid work greater than or equal to 20 hours a week; religious identity; perceived risk of untimely death; and virginity pledge.
        Analysis strategy. Responses to questions about perceptions were analyzed using standard multiple regression. After screening the data to ensure that the data met assumptions for regression analysis, the analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 8.0 (Windows). Responses to questions about behaviors, which were posed in a yes-or-no format, were analyzed using logistic multiple regression and Stata, version 5.0.
        Variables were entered in the following order:  (1) dependent variable; (2) demographic variables; (3) media variables; and (4) domain-specific variables.
        In addition, to test the possibility that attitudes about sexuality might function as mediators of sexual behaviors, three logistic regressions involving sexually suggestive media hours were rerun with the addition of related attitudinal variables: perceived benefits of sexual activity, perceived obstacles to condom use, and perceived consequences of pregnancy, respectively. The attitudinal variables were entered in the regression equations after the domain-specific variables. If mediation occurred, perceptions about sexuality would account for the relationships between media use and sexual behavior. This would be demonstrated statistically if a significant relationship between media use and sexual behavior failed to remain significant after the perception variable was added to the model. If the variables behaved independently, media use and perceptions about sexuality would have direct and largely unrelated effects on sexual behavior. Independent effects would be indicated stati
stically if media use and perceptions were significantly associated with sexual behavior both with and without controlling for the other.

Findings
        Sexual attitudes.  The multiple regression results for attitudes about sexuality are presented in Table 2. Results are presented for three measures of media use that were tested:  television viewing hours; sexually suggestive media hours; and video game hours. Television viewing hours was not significantly associated with perceived benefits of sexual activity (t = 1.565, p < .118), nor with perceived obstacles to contraceptive use (t = -.258, p < .796), nor with perceived consequences of pregnancy (t = -1.113, p < .266).
        However, sexually suggestive media hours was significantly associated with perceived benefits of sexual activity (t = 2.632, p < .01). The association held despite controlling for a wide range of other potentially important explanatory variables, including demographics, perceptions and influences of families, peers and communities. This finding suggests that the more adolescents use sexually suggestive media, the more they perceive benefits of sexual activity. The converse also could apply, because these data are only cross-sectional, and thus, it is not possible to say with conviction whether media use or perceived benefits occurred first. Sexually suggestive media hours was not associated with attitudes about either contraceptive use (t = 1.568, p < .117) or the consequences of pregnancy (t = .005, p < .996).
        Total media hours (hours spent using television, radio, videos or video games) was significantly associated with perceived benefits of sexual activity (t = 4.480, p < .001) but not with perceived obstacles to contraceptive use (t =1.697, p < .090) nor perceived consequences of pregnancy (t = -1.275, p < .202). This finding suggests that the more adolescents use media in general, the more they perceive benefits of sexual activity. It also may suggest that the more adolescents perceive benefits of sexual activity, the more they use the media.
        Sexual behaviors.  Regression results for sexual behaviors are presented in Table 3. Television viewing hours contributed significantly to the model for sexual debut (z = -2.912, p < .01) but was associated with a decreased odds (.73) of sexual debut. Television viewing hours did not contribute significantly to the models for either effective contraceptive use (z = -.461, p < .644) or pregnancy (z = 1.703, p < .089).
        However, sexually suggestive media hours contributed significantly to the model for sexual debut (z = 3.947, p < .001) and was associated with an increased odds (1.5) of sexual debut. Sexually suggestive media hours also contributed to the model for pregnancy (z = -1.981, p < .05) but was associated with a  decreased odds (.60) of pregnancy. Again, the relationships held despite controlling for a wide variety of other potential explanations for the behaviors. These findings indicate that television viewing is associated with a decreased risk of sexual debut during high school. Sexually suggestive media use is associated with an increased risk of sexual debut during high school, but a decreased risk of pregnancy.
        No significant relationships were detected between the use of sexually suggestive media and effective contraception. Neither was total media hours associated with any sexual behavior.
        Mediators.  The analysis provided little evidence that perceptions about sexuality mediate relationships between media use and sexual behavior. When perceived benefits of sexual activity was added to the regression equation for sexual debut, the odds ratio for television viewing decreased only slightly, to .71 from .73, p < .01. The odds ratio for sexually suggestive media hours remained at 1.5, but the level of significance declined to p < .01 from p < .001. Thus, the evidence is stronger that media use and perceptions about sexual activity contribute independently to sexual debut.
        In the case of teen pregnancy, the odds ratio for sexually suggestive media hours lost significance after perceived consequences of pregnancy was introduced into the model. More specifically, sexually suggestive media hours modestly increased the odds of teen pregnancy in the absence of the perception variable (.60, p < .05), but was nonsignificant as a factor in the full model (.68, p < .159). This result supports the contention that sexually suggestive media hours is associated with a reduced risk of pregnancy after controlling for perceptions. However, in the absence of a significant association between sexually suggestive media hours and perceived consequences of pregnancy (see sexual attitudes section, above), this finding provides no evidence that the perception variable mediates the relationship between sexually suggestive media use and teen pregnancy.
        In the case of effective contraceptive use with first/last intercourse, neither television viewing nor the use of sexually suggestive media contributed significantly to the behavior variable either before or after controlling for perceived obstacles to contraceptive use. Thus, there was no evidence that media use contributes to effective contraception either independently or through the perception variable.
Limitations
        The findings discussed below are limited by several aspects of the data. First, the data are representative of adolescents who were present in class at the time of the initial school survey. They do not include absentees, runaways or incarcerated teens, who may be more likely than their peers to engage in sexually risky behaviors. In addition, the media variables do not include several of the most sexually suggestive media that teens enjoy. In particular, exposure to teen magazines, movies, and the Internet is not reflected. The wording of the question about video use is potentially ambiguous. Respondents were simply asked to report the number of hours they "viewed videos each week," without specifying type. Consequently, the use of exercise videos, for example, may have been included with music videos.
        Also, media use hours are based on self-reports. In a small percentage of cases, more hours of media use were reported than hours in a week. However, in some homes, television and radio remain on throughout the day, and family members listen to them and use other media concurrently. Also, all reports for use of individual media fell within reasonable limits and were consistent with previously reported figures. Finally, because the second wave of Add Health survey data was not available to the public at the time of the analysis, this study is based on cross-sectional data. Cross-sectional data allow only for interpretations about relationships between variables; the direction of causality cannot be firmly established.
Discussion
        Keeping these limitations in mind, several findings related to relationships, mechanisms, and measures merit discussion. A summary of the findings is provided in Table 4.
        This study examines a premise suggested by cultivation theory, the idea that general television viewing helps to shape adolescents' views of sexuality. Based on a large sample and employing extensive control measures, this study offers little evidence that television alone cultivates sexual attitudes in the same way that it cultivates attitudes related to violence. Based on these data, the amount of time that adolescents spend viewing television each week is not related to their sexual attitudes. Neither is television viewing associated with increased sexual risk. Television viewing relates to one type of sexual behavior--sexual debut--but the association is negative rather than positive, indicating decreased risk. One possible explanation for this finding is that adolescents who spend long hours watching television forgo opportunities for social involvement with their peers.
        Important to the interpretation of these findings is the unequal distribution of sexually suggestive material in television programming. Soap operas, for example, contain more references to sexual relationships and pregnancy than do quiz shows or sports programs, which also are popular among teens. Other media, especially rock music and popular films, contain more frequent and graphic references to sexual relationships than does television.
        Thus, it remains possible that specific types of television viewing or media use may be related to sexual attitudes and behaviors. This possibility is supported both by this study and by previous studies of sexual behaviors involving sexually suggestive media (See, for example, Strouse & Buerkel-Rothfuss, 1993). This study links sexually suggestive media use--here defined as radio and video use--with perceptions that sexual activity is beneficial to young people. Moreover, total media use--television, radio, video, and video games--also is linked with such perceptions. Sexually suggestive media use and total media use are not associated with attitudes about contraception or pregnancy. This finding is not surprising, given that references to either subject rarely occur in these media. Because linkages do not occur in the absence of sexual content, this finding bolsters the argument that sexual content rather than some other attribute of media contributes to attitudes about sexuality. Sexually suggestive media use is associated with a decreased risk of pregnancy, a finding that is unexpected in light of the linkages between sexually suggestive media use, perceptions about the benefits of sexual activity, and sexual debut. However, this finding is consistent with a smaller, previous study indicating that pregnant teens view fewer sexually suggestive television shows than non-pregnant teens (Soderman, Greenberg, & Linsangen, 1993).
        This study also examined mechanisms through which media may influence sexual behaviors. These data demonstrate that sexually suggestive media can contribute directly to sexual behavior. In the case of sexual debut, sexually suggestive media contributed independently, as did television viewing hours. In the case of teen pregnancy, sexually suggestive media use was linked with behavior, but there was no evidence that sexually suggestive media contribute to teen pregnancy through a mediator. In terms of theory, the findings provide no evidence of a causal path connecting the use of sexually suggestive media with teen pregnancy. However, the study does provide evidence that television viewing and sexually suggestive media contribute independently to sexual debut. That is, each media variable contributes directly to sexual debut rather than through adolescents' perceptions about the benefits of sexual activity. Considered with the findings about relationships, the mediator tests suppo
rt the work of theorists such as Potter (1998), who has contended that effects of media can extend beyond the cultivation of beliefs and attitudes. The findings conflict with cultivation theory, which suggests that if media influence behaviors at all, they influence through perceptions.
        Overall, these findings provide greater support to social cognitive theory than to cultivation theory. As Bandura maintained, behavior adoption or change is facilitated by modeling or demonstrating a behavior. Thus, sexually suggestive media, with more graphic depiction of sexual behaviors and occasional references to contraception, are linked with attitudes about sexual activity and in some cases with sexual behaviors. As Gerbner argued, attitudes may well be shaped by consistent messages conveyed repeatedly through a compelling medium. However, television's depiction of sexuality is less graphic than its depiction of violence, which has been the focus of most cultivation research. Sexual activity is more often implied than shown explicitly, contraception rarely is mentioned, and pregnancy is a focus primarily of afternoon soap operas. In addition, television is not necessarily the medium of choice among many of today's adolescents.
        In practical terms, these findings suggest that future studies of the media's effects on adolescent sexuality should include measures of other kinds of media and specific television genres rather than television viewing hours alone. Television suggests rather than depicts many sexual behaviors and seldom mentions others. The best measures would most likely reflect the media use patterns of the study's participants. An ideal measure of sexually suggestive media use among teens, for example, might include not only radio and video use but also teen magazines,"skin" magazines, and R- and X-rated movies. The content of the media also should be considered. The content should relate to the beliefs or attitudes being investigated. For example, it makes little sense to seek relationships between television viewing and sexual behavior among teens whose television viewing is limited primarily to sports. By the same token, it is unreasonable to expect relationships between television viewing and condom use if television never depicts or mentions condoms.
        In summary, this study suggests that media use can be linked with attitudes about sexuality among adolescents, but that the sexual content of the media matters. Television, which contains less frequent and graphic references to sexual behavior, is not associated with attitudes congruent with sexual risk. However, more sexually suggestive media are. This study also links sexually suggestive media use with early sexual debut, a behavior that increases adolescents' likelihood of contracting sexually transmitted diseases or of becoming pregnant. At the same time, the study highlights the potential of media to reduce sexually risky attitudes and behaviors. If media convey messages conducive to sexual risk, it seems reasonable that those same media can carry messages conducive to less-risky behavior. More attention should be focused on prosocial uses of media in the realm of sexual risk. Such uses include not only public service announcements but also the presentation of youthful model
s who practice safer sex.


























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