TEEN PREGNANCY

Does Watching Sex on Television Predict Teen Pregnancy?



Does Watching Sex on Television Predict Teen Pregnancy?

Introduction

Teen pregnancy refers to pregnancy that occurs during teen age; World Health Organization WHO defines it as the situation that occurs between 10 and 19 years of age (Bailey & Brown, 2004). Teenage pregnancy occurs in age period before the young girl attains sufficient emotional maturity to take on the complex task of maternity (Elfenbein, 2003). The physical condition of a teenage girl is not ready for pregnancy, which leads to higher rates of maternal mortality, considering the deaths of women during pregnancy or up to 42 days after birth (Hilary & McDermott, 2005). In developed countries, it is an indicator of around one case per thousand, but this problem is increasing remarkably in third world countries. The article that has been selected for evaluation in this paper examines the impact of watching sexual content on television on teen pregnancy.

PART 1

Center for Disease Control and Prevention highlights that teenage pregnancy in U.S. decreased significantly to its lowest level since 1991 (Kim & Collins, 2006). Over the past 20 years the birth rate among teenagers has fallen by 37% (Henshaw, 1998); child and teenagers watch TV up to 3 hours per day. In this case, the content of TV is rich in scenes of sexual context, including the intimate touching, kissing, talking about sexual acts, and direct image of the act. On television sex is often described as "a fun pastime," not involving any impact and results (Stueve & O'Donnell, 2001). The article that has been selected for evaluation in this part is “Does Watching Sex on Television Predict Teen Pregnancy? Findings from a National Longitudinal Survey of Youth”, published by American Academy of Pediatrics in 2008. The research has been conducted by Anita Chandra et al. who are working for Rand Corporation in United States.

Main purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of sexual content exposure on TV on the pregnancy level during adolescence age in girls (Mayor, 2004). Research conducted by RAND Corporation researcher shows that TV scenes with a sexual context accelerates sexual development of adolescents and increases the chances of early sexual activity that contributes to teen pregnancy. Teen pregnancy rate is still high in many industrialized nations. Data reports that around 76.4 per 1000 girls become pregnancies during the age of 15 to 19 years (Chandra et al., 2008). Past researches have focused on the dimensional factors that relate to teen pregnancy in women. These include peer norms regarding sexual behavior, environmental factors, lack of school attachment, and influence of parental attention to children. Impact of television content on orientation to engagement in sexual activities was not empirically investigated in the past (Chandra et al., 2008).

Type of research design selected in the study is longitudinal survey. The research was continued in three phases with difference of one and three years with the same participants who participated in the research earlier. Telephonic interview were conducted from respondents of 12-17 years of age in baseline phase ...