Two thirds of all television shows contain sexual content, and rarely do these shows make reference to sexual responsibility issues such as HIV, other STDs, and pregnancy. Our recent work indicates that exposure to these portrayals is prospectively related to intercourse initiation and advances in non-coital behavior over the course of a year. The proposed research tests the bounds of these relationships, determining whether they have implications for sexual health and formation of sexual partnerships, testing whether they are lasting and cumulative, and attempting to conceptually replicate them using experimental methods. To do so, we propose collection of a third wave of data from a national sample of 1,493 adolescents enrolled at ages 12-17 and followed to ages 15-20. Data concerning television viewing, sexual attitudes and behavior, and background factors are collected at each wave. These data are combined with findings from three state-of-the art content analyses conducted over the same period. We also propose a pair of experiments in which youth are randomly assigned to view two hours of mainstream entertainment television varying in its sexual content and the manner in which this content is portrayed. Sexual attitudes, perceived norms, and intentions will be compared across groups after viewing these programs. Results will illuminate the nature of the relationship between television sexual content and adolescent sexual behavior, as well as its consequences for sexual health and sexual partnerships. ? ? ?
