Safer Sex

So, of all these sexy scenes, how many portray characters taking safe-sex precautions?

2%

This number is unacceptable.

Accordingly, popular culture has the potential to put youths at risk and is an important part of sexual health research.

What do researchers say?

Young people are more likely to take cues about safe sex from popular culture than educational programming.

So, why is this so important?

...because the number of hours spent watching television, the incidence of sexually transmitted infections, and the number of unplanned pregnancies among young people in the United States are extremely high!

We can safely conclude that safe-sex practices are among the many behaviors influenced by popular culture.

...and that American youth would surely benefit from an increased media portrayal of safe-sex practices

The End.

According to Communications Theory...

There are three ways we are affected by the media:

1. Cultivation

Viewers tend to assume that what happens on TV represents the average of what happens in our culture.

For example, college students who watch soap operas tend to overestimate divorce rates in the U.S.

2. Agenda Setting

By selecting which stories to cover, the media dictates what is and isn't important.

When the media neglects to portray safe sex practices, it undermines the importance of such behavior.

1. Cultivation

2. Agenda Setting

3. Social Learning

3. Social Learning

Television characters can serve as models whom we imitate

Many ideas young people have about sexual and romantic scripts are learned from hours spent viewing television

In a typical week in 2005, 35% of TV shows portrayed sexual behavior.

Kunkel, D, Cope, K. M, & Colvin, C. (2005). Sex on TV 4. Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation. www.kff.org.

Teen Pregnancy:

an Important Issue in the US

This number has increased by 12% just since 1998

Kunkel, D, Cope, K. M, & Colvin, C. (2005). Sex on TV 4. Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation. www.kff.org.

The United States continues to have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the developed world—more than twice as in Canada (27.9 per 1,000 women aged 15–19 in 2006) or Sweden (31.4 per 1,000).

McKay A et al., Trends in teen pregnancy rates from 1996–2006: a comparison of Canada, Sweden, USA and England/Wales, Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 19(1–2):43–52.

Abstinance Good, Information Great

"The majority (86%) of the decline in the teen pregnancy rate between 1995 and 2002 was the result of dramatic improvements in contraceptive use ... Just 14% of the decline could be attributed to a decrease in sexually activity."

Just

Santelli JS et al., Explaining recent declines in adolescent pregnancy in the United States: the contribution of abstinence and improved contraceptive use, American Journal of Public Health, 2007, 97(1):1–7.

Researchers at Ohio State and the University of California found that women (18-25) were more likely to use birth control after watching a fictional TV drama than after watching an educational news report.

Belkin, L. (2010). Teaching safe sex on TV. New York Times. Retrieved from http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/teaching-safe-sex-on-tv/

The other group watched an episode of the popular television drama "The OC" where two teen characters were shown were shown facing those same consequences.

One group was shown a "public-service news program developed by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and intended for forums like high-school health classes" that profiled real teen parents discussing the difficulties of unplanned pregnancy.

Two weeks later...

Those who watched the educational program showed no change in their intentions to use birth control.

whereas...

Those who watched "The OC" reported feeling more vulnerable to unplanned pregnancy and felt more compelled to use birth control.

TV Time

Sexual Safety

• Only 1/3 of sexually active students use condoms consistently.

Noar, S. M., Morokoff, P. J., & Redding, C. A. (2001). An examination of transtheoretical predictors of condom use in late adolescent heterosexual men. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 6, 1–26. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9861.2001.tb00104.x

• American adolescents spend 7.5 hours per day viewing media--over 10 hours when accounting for multiple media being used simultaneously.

• In a recent study of girls (14-19), nearly 40% of those who were sexually active tested positive for sexually transmitted infection.

Rideout, V. J., Foehr, U. G., & Roberts, D. F. (2010). Generation M2: Media in the lives of 8- to 18-year-olds. Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation.

Forhan, S. E., Gottlieb, S. L., Sternberg, M. R., Xu, F., Datta, S. D., McQuillan, G. M., Berman, S. M., & Markowitz, L. E. (2009). Prevalence of sexually transmitted infections among female adolescents aged 14 to 19 in the United States. Pediatrics, 124, 1505–1512. doi:10.1542/peds.2009-0674