Sexual Messages on Television: Comparing Findings From Three Studies - Statistical Data Included

Journal of Sex Research, August, 1999 by Dale Kunkel, Kristie M. Cope, Erica Biely

Sexual socialization is influenced by a wide range of sources, including parents, peers, and the mass media (Hyde & DeLameter, 1997). In trying to understand the process by which young people acquire their sexual beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, the study of media provides information about potential socializing messages that are an important part of everyday life for children and adolescents (Greenberg, Brown, & Buerkel-Rothfuss, 1993). The significance of media content in this realm stems from a number of unique aspects surrounding its role in the lives of youth, including its early accessibility and its almost universal reach across the population.

Electronic media, and television in particular, provide a window to many parts of the world, such as sexually-related behavior, that would otherwise be shielded from young audiences. Long before many parents begin to discuss sex with their children, answers to such questions as "When is it OK to have sex?" and "With whom does one have sexual relations?" are provided by messages delivered on television. These messages are hardly didactic, most often coming in the form of scripts and plots in fictional entertainment programs. Yet the fact that such programs do not intend to teach sexual socialization lessons hardly mitigates the potential influence of their portrayals.

While television is certainly not the only influence on sexual socialization, adolescents often report that they use portrayals in the media to learn sexual and romantic scripts and norms for sexual behavior (Brown, Childers, & Waszak, 1990). Indeed, four out of ten (40%) teens say they have gained ideas for how to talk to their boyfriend or girlfriend about sexual issues directly from media portrayals (Kaiser Family Foundation, 1998).

Just as it is well established that media exposure influences social behaviors such as aggression and social stereotyping, there is a growing body of evidence documenting the possible effects of sexual content on television (Huston, Wartella, & Donnerstein, 1998). For example, two studies have reported correlations between watching television programs high in sexual content and the early initiation of sexual intercourse by adolescents (Brown & Newcomer, 1991; Peterson, Moore, & Furstenberg, 1991), while another found heavy television viewing to be predictive of negative attitudes toward remaining a virgin (Courtright & Baran, 1980). An experiment by Bryant and Rockwell (1994) showed that teens who had just viewed television dramas laden with sexual content rated descriptions of casual sexual encounters less negatively than teens who had not viewed any sexual material.

Another important aspect of sexual socialization involves the development of knowledge about appropriate preventative behaviors to reduce the risk of infection from AIDS or other sexually-transmitted diseases. When teenagers begin to engage in sexual activity, they assume the risk of disease as well as the risk of unwanted pregnancy, and it appears that many lack adequate preparation to avoid such negative consequences.

Two Americans under the age of 20 become infected with HIV every hour (Office of National AIDS Policy, 1996). Almost one million teenagers become pregnant every year in the United States (Kirby, 1997). In the face of these sobering statistics, it is important to consider the extent to which media portrayals engage in or overlook concerns such as these, which are very serious issues in the lives of young people today.

In summary, media effects research clearly suggests that television portrayals contribute to sexual socialization. And despite the increasing availability of media options, young people still devote more time to television viewing than to any other type of mass communication (Nielsen Media Research, 1998). Thus, if television is an important source of information about sex, then it is important to identify the prevailing patterns used for presenting sexual messages on television.

In this report, we present a summary view across three independent studies of sexual content on television that we and our colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara have recently conducted (Cope, 1998; Kunkel, Cope, & Colvin, 1996; Kunkel et al., 1998). All of the studies share the same conceptualization and operational definition of sexual content, and employ many of the same measures assessing the context surrounding sexual messages on television. Comparing the pattern of findings across these three studies affords a unique opportunity to identify clear patterns in the portrayal of sexual messages on television.

METHODOLOGY

The three studies examined in this report include the Family Hour Study (Kunkel, Cope, & Colvin, 1996), which evaluated the programs aired on broadcast networks during the first hour of prime time; the Teen Study (Cope, 1998), which assessed three episodes each of the 15 most popular TV series viewed by adolescents aged 12-17; and the V-Chip Study (Kunkel et al., 1998), which compared the V-chip rating assigned to TV programs with the actual levels of violence, sex, and adult language found in each show.