Year In Review: Study Shows Sex-Laden Lyrics Catalyst for Teens Having Sex
December 29, 2006
(AgapePress) - - It might have an academic-sounding title, but the findings of a study about the effects of lyrics in teens' music might accurately be summed up in a phrase found in the common vernacular -- "garbage in, garbage out."The study out of the RAND Corporation and the University of California, Los Angeles, is titled "Exposure to Degrading Versus Nondegrading Music Lyrics and Sexual Behavior Among Youth." It contains reference to such things as "multivariate regression analyses" and "sexual-script theory" -- but concludes with a simple, straightforward statement to which many concerned parents might likely say "Amen!" That statement? "Reducing the amount of degrading sexual content in popular music or reducing young people's exposure to music with this type of content could help delay the onset of sexual behavior."
Simply put: stop listening to sexually suggestive lyrics and you decrease the likelihood that a teenager will hop into bed to engage in premarital sex.
Over a three-year period almost 1,500 adolescents (ages 12-17) were interviewed for the study, the results of which were published in the August 2006 issue of Pediatrics. Roughly 85 percent of them reported on their sexual behavior three times during the study: at the onset of the study (when most of them were virgins), one year later, and three years later. They also indicated the how often they listened to more than a dozen musical artists who represented a variety of musical genres. Researchers found that the influence of lyrics with sexual overtones on teens' behavior apparently depends on how the sex is portrayed.
The study found, says Associated Press, that songs depicting men as "sex-driven studs," women as sex objects, and with explicit references to sex acts "are more likely to trigger early sexual behavior than those where sexual references are more veiled and relationships appear more committed." In addition, teens who reported they listened to substantial amounts of music containing degrading sexual messages were almost twice as likely to begin engaging in sexual activities within two years as were those who listened to little or no such music.
Lead author Steven Martino tells AP that exposure to lots of sexual degrading music sends "a specific message about sex" to listeners. For example, boys hear they should be relentless in pursuit of women -- and girls learn to view themselves as sex objects. The result, says Martino, is that the music lowers teens' inhibitions and makes them "less thoughtful" about sexual decisions.
And while some might argue that other factors besides "degrading" musical lyrics could account for the increase likelihood of sexual activity among teenage listeners, at least one psychologist tells Associated Press that the results make sense. David Walsh, head of the National Institute on Media and the Family, explains that at the same time teens' hormones start to kick in, their brain's impulse-control center undergoes "major construction."
Says Walsh, if you add sexually arousing lyrics to the mix, "it's not that surprising that a kid with a heavier diet of that ... would be at greater risk for sexual behavior."
Indeed, says the study. Even after controlling for 18 other factors that might otherwise explain the onset of sexual activity -- and comparing the sexual behavior of those exposed to "non-degrading sexual content -- the researchers found that teens who had listened to more degrading sexual content over the first year of the study were more likely to "subsequently initiate intercourse" and to progress to more advanced levels of "non-coital" sexual activity.
