13) Does listening to popular music and watching music videos with explicit sexual lyrics and actions increase the likelihood that teenagers will become sexually active? Why or why not?

It depends on the person itself wether or not sexually explicit imagery or literature will trigger a sudden gush of their hormones that will make them sexually active because one thing to consider about this is the mindset that a person possesses, or perhaps his/her own perception regarding such matters. This is because everyone is raised differently and therefore perceive certain aspects of life differently from one another. Some teenagers may find themselves to be hormonally-charged when presented with such material, others may feel disgusted, or perhaps some may just feel neutral or apathetic. So, we can say that a green-minded person will most likely be wanting to go off and, well... have a happy time after watching that sexy video while a more wholesome person won't have such a reaction.

In an article written by LINDSEY TANNER, an Associate Press Medical Writer, which was entitled Sexual Lyrics Prompt Teens to Have Sex, it was found out through a study conducted via telephone interviews, that teens who said they listened to lots of music with degrading sexual messages were almost twice as likely to start having intercourse or other sexual activities within the following two years as were teens who listened to little or no sexually degrading music. Furthermore, among heavy listeners, 51 percent started having sex within two years, versus 29 percent of those who said they listened to little or no sexually degrading music. Also, according to lead author Steven Martino, a researcher for Rand Corp. in Pittsburgh, exposure to lots of sexually degrading music "gives them a specific message about sex,". Boys learn that they should be relentless in pursuit of women and girls learn to view themselves as sex objects.

Source:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/08/06/national/a215010D94.DTL
august 6, 2006