A Model of Adolescents’ Seeking of Sexual Content in their Media Choices (RESEARCH)

The sexual health and development of adolescents in the United States is often compromised by risks for a sexually transmitted infection, HIV infection, and/or unplanned pregnancy. Exposure to sexual media is one of several factors that promote risky sexual behavior. Public opinion (Hennessy et al., 2008) as well as scientific evidence (Bleakley et al., 2008;Brown et al., 2006; Collins, 2005; Hennessy et al., 2009; L’Engle et al., 2006; Somers & Tynan, 2006) suggest that exposure to sexual content in media is associated with early sexual initiation and/or progression of sexual activity as well as the extent and timing of sexual intercourse (Aubrey et al., 2003) and a range of other sexual behaviors. (Bleakley et al., 2008; Brown et al., 2006; Collins, 2005; Hennessy et al., 2009; L’Engle et al., 2006; Somers & Tynan, 2006). Exposure to sexual content on television (e.g., sexually oriented genres or specific programs) is also associated with expectations about sex, perceptions about peer sexual behavior, and permissive attitudes about sex (Annenberg Media Exposure Research Group (AMERG), 2008; Ashby et al., 2006; Brown & Newcomer, 1991;Brown et al., 2006; Collins et al., 2009; Pardun et al., 2005; Ward, 2002;Ward & Friedman, 2006).

Little is known about the factors that influence exposure to sexual content. Bleakley et al. demonstrated that the relationship between exposure to sexual content and sexual activity can be characterized by a feedback loop: the more sexual activity adolescents engage in, the more likely they are to be exposed to sex in media and the more they are exposed to sex in media, the more likely they are to have progressed in their sexual activity (Bleakley et al., 2008). Focusing on the simultaneity between behavior and exposure shifts research attention from estimating exposure effects on behavior, the more conventional “media effects” perspective, to the treatment of exposure to sexual media content as a behavior in its own right (Slater, 2007). Thus, exposure to sexual media content is a dynamic process under the control of individuals.

The “uses and gratifications” paradigm in communication research provides an appropriate framework for understanding how sexual activity and/or experience affects exposure to sexual content and how seeking sex in media choices affect adolescent behavior (Katz et al., 1974; Ruggiero, 2000). One of the assumptions of the uses and gratifications approach is that media use is purposive and motivated: people are active audience members who select specific media and use it to satisfy their needs, interests, and preferences. From this perspective, the dependent variable of interest is a communication behavior (i.e., media use) as opposed to a health behavior (i.e., sexual behavior). Although uses and gratifications is not so much an explanatory theory as much as it is a research paradigm, there is a body of literature that supports the incorporation of its tenets into media effects research (Rubin, 2002). An early review (Katz et al., 1973) and research reports on the uses of religious television (Abelman, 1987), the internet (Ko et al., 2005), reality television shows (Papacharissi & Mendelson, 2007), and radio (Albarran et al., 2007), all highlight the reality of an active audience selecting from an array of media.

As applied to sexual content, the uses and gratifications paradigm assumes that some adolescents intentionally seek out sexual content in their media choices, resulting in increased exposure to media sex. Several research studies demonstrate that young adults report getting information about sex from media sources. For example, Bradner et al. looked at data from the National Survey of Adolescent Males when the respondents were 22-26 years of age (Bradner et al., 2000). Ninety-two percent reported getting information about AIDS from the media (defined as television, magazines, or radio), 59% reported using the media to get information about STIs, and 78% reported using the media to get information about condoms. However, it is unclear how much of the information received from the media sources was from active seeking or passive exposure. In another study, 57% of adolescents from a convenience sample in the Philadelphia area (N = 459) reported learning about sex from the media (Bleakley et al, 2009). Among those who reported using the media as a source of information about sex, television and movies were cited as the most informative.

Only two studies predict adolescent exposure to sexual content in the media. A study by Kim et al. found that increased exposure to sexual content was positively associated with such variables as friends approval of sex, noncoital sexual experience, having a television in the bedroom, unsupervised time after school, participation in sports, active viewing of television, average television viewing, motivation to learn from television, and several demographic characteristics such as age, race, and gender (Kim et al., 2006). Findings from the second study that also used psycho-social variables as predictors were consistent with these results, although not all of the findings were replicated (Bleakley et al., 2008). Other than these two studies, researchers know very little about the determinants of exposure to sexual media content as a behavior and even less about specifically seeking out sexual content as a predictor of total sex content exposure.

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