Sex & Lyrics

[MotherRussia]

Thursday, Feb 26 (Psych Central) --

A new research study discovers teenagers who preferred popular songs with degrading sexual references were more likely to engage in intercourse or in precoital activities.
The issue is important as 700,000 teenage pregnancies occur annually in the United States -– as well as reports of sexually transmitted infections among 25 percent of female adolescents.

As a result, researchers and public health officials are looking for those factors that might increase sexual activity in teens.

Writing in the article, Brian A. Primack, M.D., Ed.M, M.S., Center for Research on Health Care at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said the study demonstrated that “among this sample of young adolescents, high exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex in popular music was independently associated with higher levels of sexual behavior. In fact, exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex was one of the strongest associations with sexual activity…These results provide further support for the need for additional research and educational intervention in this area.”

Surveys were completed by 711 ninth-grade students at three large, urban high schools. These participants were exposed to over 14 hours each week of lyrics describing degrading sex. About one-third had previously been sexually active.

Compared to those with the least exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex, those with the most exposure were more than twice as likely to have had sexual intercourse. The relationship between exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex and sexual experience held equally for both young men and women.

Similarly, among those who had not had sexual intercourse, those in the highest third of exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex were nearly twice as likely to have progressed along a noncoital sexual continuum compared to those in the lowest third. Finally, the relationships between exposure to lyrics describing nondegrading sex and sexual outcomes were not significant.

Students reported the number of hours per day that they listen to music and their favorite musical artists. Through a detailed content analysis, the percentage was calculated of each artist’s most popular songs containing lyrics describing degrading sex. An exposure score for lyrics describing degrading sex was then computed by multiplying each student’s hours of music exposure by the percentage of his or her favorite artists’ songs that contain lyrics describing degrading sex.

Dr. Primack comments that these findings build on those of previous studies suggesting that exposure to sex in media messages may be a risk factor for early sexual progression.

Source: Elsevier Health Sciences








By RICK NAUERT, PH.D.
Senior News Editor

[Kasnia]

Hm.. In a way, I can see how this makes sense. BUT! I don't like the idea that they did this because now they have something to "blame it on." Kind of like when some kid goes crazy and shoots everyone, they have to blame it on some heavy metal group.

[ramalamafafafa]

Speaking of teen-fuckups being blamed on minor elements of popular culture, as opposed to their upbringing and society: This bullshit popped up in the West Australian (biggest newspaper in WA):

"I was distressed to see the images of young students brawling and to learn that they then proudly exibit thier fights on Youtube. Incidentally, i do hope that cage fighting doesn't become and acceptable sport for 'grown ups'.
Hello...

-Wendy Charnell, Scarborough


This is what i'm talking about. Fights happen at high-schools, get filmed and posted on the internet, and it's Cage Fighting's (a fringe sport) fault? As opposed to social factors, gang mentality, apparent fame associated with internet exposure. And the biggest (the only) daily newspaper in the state (famous for it's right-wing, Liberal party bias) saw fit to publish this shit!


A little off topic, but it's an example of the witch-hunt mentality and Scapegoating attached to older-people attempting to diagnose teenage social problems. Or avoid blame for problems they cause or choose to ignore.

[ItsAPoorlyKeptSecret]

Thats retarded, they surveyed 9th graders, of course when they get to high school theres gonna be more sexual activity, its fuckin high school!

So if they were to have done the same thing with 3rd graders, do you think there would really be the same outcome? No.

Its just music not entirely some kind of mind control, Cause if that was the case I'm sure we'd all be drones for the government already.

[A Deo et Rege]

This study was conducted on a very small scale, so I would suggest not taking any of the stated outcomes too seriously. It does hold some validity in that if you are immersed in a certain environment for a long enough period of time you will eventually begin to mimic it. However, this does not mean that, as said in previous post, you will feel the need to go on a killing rampage just because you play a lot of violent games. If the subject is brought up in a good, stable environment then the act of committing anything witnessed in a game or heard in a song would be on their own accord; this is to say that it would be a conscious decision, and not an involuntary action, so anything they do would be their fault. Furthermore, in most cases, or so I believe, anyone that commits a crime or some other immoral act and proceeds to blame it on a game, or some other type of media is just looking for an easy way out; it's sad to think that parents actually blame the media their children are exposed to for all their shortcomings. It has come to a point where if you have a bad kid, "just blame it on the media" because we all know it couldn't possibly be your fault you raised a complete imbecile......


..)/\(
<Deo>
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[MotherRussia]

because we all know it couldn't possibly be your fault you raised a complete imbecile...


completely agreed. that's what i got out of all of this hahaha just more proof that we are blaming media too much