Perceived Realism Moderates the Relation Between Sexualized Media Consumption and Permissive Sexual Attitudes in Dutch Adolescents

Abstract

This study examined whether the development of sexualized media consumption and permissive sexual attitudes would be more strongly interrelated when adolescents perceived sexualized media images as highly realistic. We used data from a three-wave longitudinal sample of 444 Dutch adolescents aged 13-16 years at baseline. Results from parallel process latent growth modeling multigroup analyses showed that higher initial levels of sexualized media consumption were associated with higher initial level of permissive sexual attitudes.Moreover, increases of sexualized media consumption over time were associated with increases of permissive sexual attitudes over time. Considering the moderation by perceived realism, we found these effects only for those who perceived sexualized media as more realistic. Findings for male and female adolescents were similar except for the relations between initial levels and subsequent development. Among male adolescents who perceived sexualized media images to be realistic, higher initial levels of permissive sexual attitudes were related to subsequent less rapid development of sexualized media consumption. For male adolescents who perceived sexualized media to be less realistic, higher initial levels of sexualized media consumption were related to a subsequent less rapid development of permissive sexual attitudes. These relations were not found for female adolescents. Overall, our results suggest that, in male and female adolescents, those with a high level of perceived realism showed a correlated development of sexualized media consumption and permissive sexual attitudes. These findings point to a need for extended information on how to guide adolescents in interpreting and handling sexualized media in everyday life.

Associations Between Croatian Adolescents’ Use of Sexually Explicit Material and Sexual Behavior: Does Parental Monitoring Play a Role?

“…The conceptually assumed influence of SEM use on sexual initiation and sexting was partly mediated by the assessment of pornography realism. Corroborating the findings from a couple of Dutch studies (Baams et al, 2015;Peter & Valkenburg, 2010), the significant effects of perceived SEM realism point to the importance of young people's interpretations of media content. Making sense of the media they use is essential for adolescents' identity (Steele, 1999).…”

“…Taken together, the findings confirm the importance of dispositional (sexual permissiveness) and social aspects (parental monitoring) of adolescent susceptibility to media effects, as well as the mediating role of cognitive response states (perceived pornography realism). The observed similarity of structural associations among the key constructs in male and female adolescents points to the need of moving beyond the oft-reported differences in mean levels of media exposure to explore commonalities in the process of media-affected sexual socialization-as recently demonstrated in several studies (Baams et al, 2015;Van Ouytsel, Ponnet, & Walrave, 2014;Vandenbosch & Eggermont, 2013).…”

“…In this study, parental monitoring was systematically related to the behavioral outcomes, as well as to the reported SEM use and the acceptance of sexually permissive attitudes (the two have been repeatedly shown to correlate; Baams et al, 2015;Lo & Wei, 2005;Wright, 2013).…”

“…Perceiving SEM as realistic-particularly if one believes that the perception is shared by his or her peers-may increase the likelihood of accepting SEM-promoted sexual scripts and lead to their reenactment (cf. Wright, 2011;Baams et al, 2015). Although the belief that SEM can realistically depict human sexuality does not easily translate into using it as a central source of information about sexuality (Löfgren-Mårteson & Månsson, 2010;Matthiesen, 2013), the fact that pornography realism was positively associated with the frequency of SEM use corroborates the importance of media response states in understanding adolescent media use and its effects (Steele, 1999;Valkenburg & Peter, 2013).…”

“…Building on previous research (Peter & Valkenburg, 2010;Baams et al, 2015), the model also included an important element of the cognitive response to SEM-perceived pornography realism or a degree to which users believe that SEM portrays common or everyday sexual interactions (Peter & Valkenburg, 2016). More precisely, we examined if perceived realism mediated the association between SEM and the target behaviors (i.e.…”