Adolescents’ Sexual Media Use and Casual Sex: An Investigation of the Prototype-Willingness Model

• In Event: From Hook Up to Pregnancy: Sex, Sexuality, and Media

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship between sexual media use and adolescents’ willingness to engage in casual sex. Furthermore, based on the prototype-willingness model, having favorable prototypes of peers engaging in casual sex was investigated as an underlying mechanism of this relationship. A longitudinal three-wave panel study among 1,467 adolescents (aged 13-17, 50% female) showed that exposure to sexually explicit internet material and sexually oriented reality TV had a direct influence on adolescents’ willingness to engage in casual sex, but did not influence adolescents’ prototypes of peers engaging in casual sex. Exposure to sexy self-presentations of others on social network sites, in turn, influenced willingness to engage in casual sex indirectly, through increasing the favorability of prototypes of peers engaging in casual sex.

Authors

• Johanna M.F. van Oosten, U of Amsterdam

• Jochen Peter, U of Amsterdam

• Laura P. Vandenbosch, ASCoR - University of Amsterdam