Watching sexy TV shows could make teens pregnant

It's bad news for parents of teens who watch current TV series! A recent study by the RAND research organization has shown that viewing sexy TV shows can lead to risky sexual behavior and early pregnancy to teens.

"Our findings suggest that television may play a significant role in the high rates of teenage pregnancy in the United States," said Anita Chandra, a behavioral scientist who led the research at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.

"We're not saying we're establishing causation, but we are saying this is one factor that we were able to prospectively link to the teen pregnancy outcome," Chandra said in a phone interview.

The researchers recruited adolescents aged 12 to 17 and surveyed them three times between 2001 and 2004, asking about television viewing habits, sexual behavior and pregnancy.

In findings that covered 718 teenagers, there were 91 pregnancies. The top 10th of adolescents who watched the most sexy programing were at double the risk of becoming pregnant or causing a pregnancy compared to the 10th who watched the fewest such programs, according to the study published in the journal Pediatrics.

The study focused on 23 popular television programs that included dramas, comedies, reality programs and animated shows. Out of these, comedies were the ones that had the most sexual content (and reality programs the least).

What's more concerning is that in these shows, we almost never get to see the risks, responsibilities and negative aspects of sex. So it's no wonders that teenagers are rarely getting information about STDs or pregnancy.