Opinion Piece Skeptical Of Study Linking Teen Pregnancy And TV Viewing

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;  IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 27 Nov 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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"We should all raise a skeptical eyebrow whenever any research claims that there's a direct cause-and-effect relationship between one thing, such as television viewing, and something as complex as teen pregnancy," Elizabeth Schroeder -- executive director of Answer, a national organization that promotes comprehensive sex education -- writes in a New York Daily News opinion piece. Responding to a study published this month in Pediatrics that linked teen pregnancy rates with television viewing time, Schroeder writes that although teens are affected by the media, "[w]hat we don't know for sure ... is the extent to which each of us is affected by the media." She continues, "While some teens who watch 'Sex and the City' become pregnant or cause a pregnancy, many others don't."

Schroeder writes that adults must educate young people earlier about sexual health, "[r]egardless of what is in the media." She adds that it is "shocking" that many studies -- such as a survey promoted by model Tyra Banks that asked 10,000 teen girls about their sexual behavior -- only question girls, "not girls and boys -- once again holding girls responsible for setting the limits in sexual relationships and blaming them when these limits are not maintained." Schroeder writes, "It is also shocking that with nearly 20 years of failed abstinence-until-marriage sex education programming in schools, the federal government continues to fritter away money to support these plans ... despite the lack of research showing the effectiveness of the programs." Another "shocking" issue is that "with the vast majority of young people saying they want to talk with their parents or caregivers about sex, parents still hesitate to do so. Yet the results of parents and young people not speaking are clear," she says.

Schroeder writes that teen pregnancy and sexuality are "complicated issues that involve very abstract, difficult-to-measure factors, such as self-esteem, family involvement, socioeconomic status, racism and ethnocentrism, homophobia and much, much more." She adds, "The bottom line is, if every television in American were to shut off tomorrow, teen pregnancy would not go away." Likewise, rates of sexually transmitted infections "would not plummet." Schroeder concludes, "We need to spend more time talking with young people, at home, at school, in religious communities -- and yes, even in the media -- about sex and sexuality in ways that help them understand and believe that they have a choice: the choice to be teens before becoming teen parents" (Schroeder, New York Daily News, 11/26).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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