| This study examined various social and behavioral correlates of sex as presented on television programming most viewed by adolescents and teenagers. More specifically those prime-time programs identified by Nielsen as most popular among 12–17 year old Americans were content analyzed both episodically and longitudinally (along a programming season) to discover those practical or moral consequences—often implicit—of sexual behavior so as to assess what might be interpreted as the sexual moralizing to which teenagers (and other viewers) are exposed. Three central research questions were examined. First, what is the general (non-sexual) landscape of the television “world” on programming most popular among adolescents and teenagers? Second, how does character demography interplay with sexual behavior portrayed on these programs? And third, what are the social and behavioral correlates and consequences of sexual behavior on television programming most popular among adolescents and teenagers? That is, in what ways may the sexual activity of characters be said to relate to successful and happy relationships, friendships, domesticity, self-realization, intellectuality and professional life, as well as to religious and moral actions?; The data from this study suggest that characters don't engage in relatively much sex: even if one includes in the count the least intimate forms of physical relations, such as kissing, less than 15% of characters were shown to engage in any sexual relations.; In addition to this relatively low amount of sexual activity, the data also show that of those characters who did engage in any form of sexual interaction, most are not teenagers. Moreover, the majority of romantic relationships dramatized (with or without sex) were stable and abiding: most couples were monogamous, maintained their partnerships and had basically smooth or untroubled interaction. While certain positive correlations (e.g. with duplicitousness and/or psychological disturbance requiring therapy) might well be interpreted as showing that unmarried sex is also stigmatized in these dramas, the data more compellingly suggest that this sort of “conservativeness” is provided in these programs more by positive rather than negative example. That is to say, as popular material on which social-modeling may be based, these shows most popular among adolescents and teenagers simply do not seem to concentrate overly on the sexual part of relationships—particularly with respect to teen-aged characters. |
