There was a 2008 study which establishes a confirmed connection between young people watching sex on TV and teen pregnancy. The conclusion reveals that the more hours these teenagers spend watching those sexy TV shows, the greater is the probability or chance that they will either be pregnant (for girls) or impregnate someone else (for boys).
This is the conclusion of several medical and scientific journals on teenage pregnancy including Pediatrics – an American medical journal who published this study in its November 2008 issue. In fact, they’re the first one who established this theory.
Observations
The mentioned study was conducted by Rand Corporation. Its independent researchers monitored over 2,000 teens (between 12-17 years old). For 3 years (2001-2004), the researchers oversee their TV-watching habits as well as the sexual content of the 23 shows during the 2000-2001 seasons.
Then, they calculated how much sex those teens saw on TV. Out of the 2,000, about 718 were sexually active.
So researchers discovered that “teen pregnancy can be predicted by the teen’s exposure to TV’s sexual content.” Those who were exposed to most sex (25% of the teens) were twice more likely to be involved in early pregnancy than those with lower levels of exposure (12% of them). These facts can be found in medical and scientific journals on teenage pregnancy.
Does Abstinence-only Education Work?
Those who believe in abstinence-only sex education took this conclusion as proof that the American popular culture has damaging effects. They campaign that students should be taught abstinence in school, and it’s the only way to avoid the negative consequences of sexual activity. Eventually, it could also avoid early pregnancy.
Furthermore, National Abstinence Education Association’s executive director Valerie Huber claims, “Our culture is highly sexualized and it glamorizes sex. What we need is to encourage our schools to give priority to abstinence-centered programs.”
However, there is little evidence that sex education on abstinence-only programs really work. Government Accountability Office’s evaluation (2004) has found many scientific inaccuracies in the curricula. Also, abstinence studies published in medical and scientific journals on teenage pregnancy did not prove a decrease in pregnancies, STDs, or sexual activities of teens who have participated in this program.
Conclusions
According to a FOX News contributor and psychiatrist, Keith Ablow, “The reason why there was a reported pregnancy pact made by some girls in Gloucester High School (where pregnancy rate quadrupled in 1 year) was because teen pregnancy is glamorized by media.”
The abstract of the study published in several medical and scientific journals on teenage pregnancy concludes that if you will limit the adolescents’ exposure to portrayals of sex in media or sexual content on television, this might reduce their risk of teen pregnancy.