Pregnancy rates higher for teens who watch lots of sex on TV

PREGNANCY rates are much higher among teenagers who watch a lot of TV with sexual dialogue and behaviour, compared with those with tamer viewing tastes.

The study is the first to link those viewing habits with teen pregnancy, said lead author Anita Chandra, a behavioural scientist with Rand Corporation, which operates in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

Teenagers who watched the raciest shows were twice as likely to become pregnant over the next three years as those who watched few such programmes.

Previous research by some of the same scientists had already found that watching lots of sex on TV could influence teens to have sex at earlier ages.

Shows that only highlight the positive aspects of sexual behaviour can lead teens to have unprotected sex “before they’re ready to make responsible and informed decisions,” Ms Chandra said.

The study was released yesterday in the November issue of Paediatrics.

It involved 2,003 12 to 17-year-old girls and boys across the US being questioned by phone about their TV viewing habits in 2001. Teens were re-interviewed a year later and again in 2004, and asked about pregnancy.

Among girls, 58 became pregnant during the follow-up, and among boys, 33 said they had got a girl pregnant.

Participants were asked how often they watched any of more than 20 TV shows popular among teens at the time or which were found to have lots of sexual content.

These included Sex And The City, That 70s Show and Friends.

Pregnancies were twice as common among those who said they watched such shows regularly, compared with teens who said they hardly ever saw them.

There were more pregnancies among the oldest teens interviewed, but the rate of pregnancy remained consistent across all age groups among those who watched the racy programs.

Ms Chandra said TV- watching was strongly connected with teenage pregnancy even when other factors were considered, including grades, family structure and parents’ education level.

Bill Albert, chief programme officer at the non-profit National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy in the US, praised the study and said it “catches up with common sense”.

“Media helps shape the social script for teenagers. Most parents know that. This is just good research to confirm that,” he said.

Mr Albert noted that the downward trend occurred as TV shows were becoming more sexualised.

Psychologist David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, said problems arise when: “A kid who no one’s talking to about sex... watches sitcoms on TV where sex is presented as this is what the cool people do.”