According to the American Academy of Pediatrics and a new published study, teen pregnancy can be linked in some ways to the TV watching habits of teens and other young viewers. Ultimately, the result of the study showed that those teens - 12- 17 years old - who watched the most TV programming that included casual sex and casual sexual relationships were twice as likely as peers who didn’t watch the programming to become pregnant.

Among the conclusions of the study was the assessment that those teens who were left to choose what they watched without conversations about sexuality with their parents and without an equal amount of information about the possible consequences of sexual experimentation were most likely to become pregnant before the age of 20. Specifically, one conclusion that was drawn was that if parents were to create a balance and to engage in additional conversations with their teen aged children, it would be possible to shift their thinking.

According to an Associated Press article,

Shows that highlight only the positive aspects of sexual behavior without the risks can lead teens to have unprotected sex “before they’re ready to make responsible and informed decisions,” Chandra said.

The study was released Monday in the November issue of Pediatrics. It involved 2,003 12- to 17-year-old girls and boys nationwide questioned by telephone about their TV viewing habits in 2001. Teens were re-interviewed twice, the last time in 2004, and asked about pregnancy. Among girls, 58 became pregnant during the follow-up, and among boys, 33 said they had gotten a girl pregnant.

Participants were asked how often they watched any of more than 20 TV shows popular among teens at the time or which were found to have lots of sexual content. The programs included “Sex and the City,” “That ’70s Show” and “Friends.”

Pregnancies were twice as common among those who said they watched such shows regularly, compared with teens who said they hardly ever saw them. There were more pregnancies among the oldest teens interviewed, but the rate of pregnancy remained consistent across all age groups among those who watched the racy programs.

Chandra said TV-watching was strongly connected with teen pregnancy even when other factors were considered, including grades, family structure and parents’ education level.

Of course, in response to the released information and the details about the study, it’s been argued that the effect of the media is not the only point to be considered.

While I agree that self-esteem issues, family values and other elements have an impact on the behavior of teens and I believe that the media can shape the choices that others make, I also suspect that it’s important to look beyond the statistics at the finer points: once again, the study shows that parents need to be sure that they are talking with their kids and that, if the parents are not going to provide information to their kids (including before they are teens) it’s essential to add sexual education programming to school curriculum and to ensure that there are trusted adults who teens will be able to talk with.