It Only Happens Once: Adolescents’ Interpretations of Mediated Messages About Sexual Initiation

Abstract

The current study examines adolescents' interpretations of a televised scene narrative describing a sexual initiation encounter. The study uses the media practice model (MPM) as a theoretical framework. Two hundred and ninety three 10 th -12 th graders suggested possible endings to the narrative, reflecting their outcome expectancies for sexual initiation. The adolescents' suggested scene endings were divided into ten different categories, including emotional, physical, and relational outcomes. A thematic analysis of their outcome expectancies revealed some shared themes. But important individual differences based on gender and sexual experience also were identified, consistent with MPM assumptions. Males were more technical and less emotional than women in their scene interpretations. Adolescents without sexual experience suggested more simplistic and deterministic outcomes than more sexually experienced teens. The study contributes to the understanding of adolescents' interpretation of mediated narratives in the context of sexual initiation and supports their complex, active, and developmentally-consistent understanding of this topic.

Sexualization of Girls: Addressing Criticism of the APA Report, Presenting New Evidence

“…In addition, in a study of adults, media was found to continue to portray a sexually objectified and unrealistically thin body ideal (Greenwood & Lippman, 2010). While adolescents consume, interact with, and make their own media, they are still shaped by and rely on it for messages about sex, gender roles, and relationships (Eyal & Ben-Ami, 2017; Hartley, Wight, & Hunt, 2014; Len-Ríos et al, 2016). In particular, one study found that 57% of adolescents, ages 14 to 16 years, identified media as an important source of sexual knowledge (A.…”