Contact Name
Barbara Dietsch
562-985-9488

Contact Email
bdietsc@WestEd.org

Kirstie M. Cope, M.A.
Dale Kunkel, Ph.D.
Dept. of Communication
University of California, Santa Barbara

Discussion and debate about the impact of television programming on young people has focused mainly on violent content. However, television also includes a substantial amount of sexual content according to a study recently released by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Media portrayals surround children and adolescents, and young people are naturally interested in learning about romance, relationships, and sexuality. Given the amount of sexual content found on television, it is likely that these messages are an important part of adolescent sexual socialization.

The purpose of this study was to examine the amount and nature of sexual messages on television today. Because how sex is shown on TV is just as important as how often sex is shown, the study was not limited to counting the number of sexual situations, but rather examined as well the context in which sex is presented on television. The findings presented here are based on a representative one-week sample of all genres of television programming other than sports, newscasts, and children's TV. Using content analysis techniques to measure and assess these messages, a total of 1351 programs across ten channels were analyzed, offering the most elaborate evaluation of sexual messages on television yet produced by research.

More than half (56%) of all shows on TV contain sexual content, including either talk about sex or depictions of sexual behaviors. Two-thirds (67%) of all network prime-time shows include sexual content, with those shows averaging more than five scenes with sex per hour. The majority of shows in all genres except reality programming contain sexual material, including more than eight out of ten soap operas (85%) and movies (83%), three out of four talk shows (78%) and more than half of dramas (58%), news magazines (58%) and sitcoms (56%). About one out of every four (23%) reality shows features sexual content.

In terms of the type of sexual content shown on television, talk about sex appears far more often than the portrayal of any sexually-related behaviors. About half of all programs include some talk about sex (54%), while only about a quarter of them (23%) present any physical behavior. In programs with sexual material, scenes with talk (average of 3.0 per hour) outnumber the scenes with any sexual behavior (average of 1.4 per hour) by a ratio of slightly more than two to one.

The most common form of talk about sex involved comments to others that convey people's interest in sex (66%), for example mentioning to friends the specific targets of one's sexual attraction. Most behaviors presented were labeled as precursory, or not directly related to any actual sexual intercourse. Physical flirting (26%) and passionate kissing (50%) collectively accounted for three-quarters of all sexually-related behavior shown on television. However, scenes involving sexual intercourse accounted for 15% of all sexual behavior (12% were intercourse strongly implied, and 3% intercourse depicted). Just half (53%) of these interactions were among characters who had a prior romantic relationship with one another. Nearly three-quarters (73%) were among adults over 25, 23% were among young adults ages 18-24, and 3% were among teenagers. Well over half of the programs in which characters were engaging in intercourse (59%) showed no clear consequences as a result of such sexual behavior, at least within the confines of that particular episode. When consequences of intercourse were clearly portrayed in the programs sampled, they tended to be much more positive (27%) than negative (7%).

Also rare throughout television's landscape is the treatment of any topics related to the risks or responsibilities of sexual activity. This study focused on three specific categories within this realm: sexual patience (abstinence or waiting for sex), sexual precaution (e.g., condoms), and the depiction of the risks and/or negative consequences of unprotected sexual behavior (e.g., unwanted pregnancy or transmission of AIDS). However, despite the widespread presence of sexual content on television, less than one out of every ten shows (9%) containing sexual scenes included any reference to these topics.

References to safer sex issues would seem most relevant in those scenes with advanced sexual behaviors. However, an even more sobering finding is that only 7 out of 70 programs in the study that either depicted or implied intercourse included any mention of sexual risks or responsibilities, and none emphasized these issues in the program as a whole. The predominant pattern for portrayals of sexual intercourse on television is likely to convey the message to viewers that there is little to worry about and that people rarely take any steps to protect themselves against such possible harms as sexually-transmitted disease.

One of the more positive findings of the study was that prime-time network programming does a slightly better job (11% of shows) of including risk and responsibility topics within its programs containing sexual content, as compared to television as a whole. Taking a closer look at those shows with sexual content involving teen characters, the study found that nearly one out of five (18%) make some reference to waiting to have sex, safer sex, or the risks of sexual activity, twice the rate of such references across the television landscape as a whole. Overall, eight percent of all shows have some sexual content involving teens.

This study confirms that sexual messages are a frequent part of the television landscape, but also makes clear that such messages follow a pattern that poses cause for some concern. When television presents sexual content, there is scant attention devoted to sexual health issues that are essential considerations in weighing one's options for sexual activity today. By providing more balance in addressing these concerns, television could be helping young people make more informed-perhaps even life-saving-decisions about sex in their own lives.

This study was conducted for the Kaiser Family Foundation by Dr. Dale Kunkel, Kirstie M. Cope, Wendy Jo Maynard Farinola, Erica Biely, Emma Rollin and Dr. Ed Donnerstein all of the University of California, Santa Barbara.