New study on teens and sex

This isn't really any big surprise, but now it's official.

Study Links Explicit Music, Teenagers' Sexual Activity

"Teenagers who regularly listen to music lyrics with explicit references to casual sex are more likely to initiate sexual intercourse and take part in other sexual activity, compared with those who do not listen to such music, according to a study being released today."

"Large numbers of sexually active teenagers told researchers that they wished they had delayed sexual initiation.."

"About 900,000 U.S. teenagers get pregnant each year, which translates to one in five sexually active teenage girls."



Raunchy music gets kids tuned into sex earlier

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 behaviour than those where sexual references are more veiled and relationships appear more committed, the study found.

Among heavy listeners, 51 per cent started having sex within two years, versus 29 per cent of those who said they listened to little or no sexually degrading music. Exposure to a lot of sexually degrading music "gives them a specific message about sex", said the lead author, Steven Martino, a researcher for Rand Corporation in Pittsburgh.

Boys learn they should be relentless in pursuit of women and girls learn to view themselves as sex objects, he said.

"We think that really lowers kids' inhibitions and makes them less thoughtful" about sexual decisions, he said.



I have a friend who was very involved at her son's middle school. The school sponsored some sort of carnival event with a live deejay . The deejay played songs with explicit lyrics. She made a beeline to the the DJ and put a stop to it. The next day she mentioned the incident to the principal. She was surprised by his response. He reported that he knew about the incident because so many students complained about it to him.

The principal thought my friend was overreacting. She got the lyrics off the internet and showed the principal, at which point he backed down. I think the deejay was banned from performing in any schools in the district after that incident. By the way, the deejay played those explicit songs because the middle school girls hanging around the deejay's booth asked for them.

My friend also reported that at a different middleschool event with music, the students were dancing with a "bump and grind" style. This time an administrator shut down the music for the rest of the event.

This is one of the risks of public education. Parents must be hypervigilant to prevent and control this sort of thing. Yet another benefit of homeschooling is that it is relatively easy to monitor and control the type of music available at home.

For more on teens and sex, see Effectiveness of Sex Education, Parents in the Dark- part 2 and take the Sex Ed Quiz.


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Related Tags: teen music, teen sex, public school, middle school, homeschool, rap music, explicit lyrics