Poster #184 - Life as “The Bachelor/ette”: Contributions of Traditional Media and Perceived Realism to Teens’ Courtship Beliefs

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Sex, Gender

Integrative Statement

Background. Analyses demonstrate that television portrayals of sexual relationships remain somewhat limited, centering on traditional sexual scripts that construct men as active sexual agents and women as sexual objects and gatekeepers. This pattern of behavior has been labeled “The Heterosexual Script” and has been noted to appear 15.5 times per hour in primetime programming (Kim et al., 2007) and in 11.5% of the interactions in teen-oriented programming (Kirsch & Murnen, 2014). Because prior research has linked endorsement of these scripts to riskier sexual experimentation, greater acceptance of dating violence, and diminished sexual agency (Ward et al., 2013), understanding the source and transmission of these scripts is critical. Might regular exposure to these media portrayals contribute to adolescents’ acceptance of these gendered sexual scripts?

We sought to expand on prior research in several ways. First, we examine the contribution of diverse traditional media to the endorsement of these problematic courtship beliefs among a sample of US teens. Second, we investigate potential direct and moderated effects of perceived realism on these gendered attitudes. Finally, we examine contributions of television exposure and perceived realism to the enjoyment of sexualization. We examine these questions separately for girls and boys in order to understand how different types of media may differentially impact their courtship and body beliefs.

Method. Participants were 559 high school students aged 13-18 (M=15.65; 54% female; 73.9% White) who completed survey measures assessing their viewing of 20 popular reality programs and 13 TV dramas, their weekly consumption of music videos, and their perceived realism of TV content (6 items). Support of gendered sexual scripts was assessed via five established scales: the Heterosexual Script Scale, the Attitudes Towards Women Scale, the Adolescent Masculinity Ideology in Relationships Scale, the Adversarial Sexual Beliefs Scale, and the Enjoyment of Sexualization Scale.

Results. Participants were regular media consumers and reported watching 18.22 hours of TV and 8.27 hours of music videos a week. Girls reported more hours than boys of reality TV and drama exposure; boys reported greater endorsement than girls of the gendered sexual scripts (GSS). Regression analyses were run to determine which media variables best predict these outcomes for each sex (see Table 1 and 2). Two media effects were consistent across gender: a strong positive association between reality television consumption and endorsement of GSS, as well as no effect of dramas on endorsement of GSS. Music videos predicted some of the gender outcomes for girls, but none for boys. Regarding the moderating effect of perceived realism, there was a significant interaction of music video consumption and perceived realism for boys’ endorsement of the heterosexual script and of their attitudes towards women. whereby boys who watched fewer music videos but perceived them to be more realistic reported greater endorsement of GSS. For boys who watched more music videos, perceived realism was unrelated to GSS.

Implications. These findings demonstrate the potent effects of reality television on adolescents’ gendered sexual scripts and the importance of including moderating variables such as perceived realism in media models.

Authors

• Petal Lucienne Grower, University of Michigan
  Presenting Author

• L. Monique Ward, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lauren Reed, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author