Social Output produced by Media Input 1

The Rise of Teen

Pregnancy
Social Output produced by Media Input

Stefanie Suriel

Youth At Risk

Prof. Wendy Chabon

A Decade of Change
 Along with the advent of grunge rock and rise of MTV, the 1990s ushered in the age of

seemingly heightened teen sexuality and more widespread teen pregnancy. As these problems

became more widely recognized, social and political groups began taking action through various

sexual education programs aimed at teaching young people about their options regarding sexual

activity as well as the potential consequences of it. Programs like Teen Outreach, which

consisted of small supervised peer group discussions and volunteer community service, started in

select cities and states and once they proved to be effective in the rate of pregnancies and

increase of contraceptive use became more widespread (Webster, Weeks, 1995). Reducing the

Risk was another measurable successful sex education curriculum which emphasized on

avoiding unprotected sex, and stressed the immediate and long term consequences of STDS as

well as pregnancy (Webster,Weeks,1995) . Each of these programs proved to be effective in not

only allowing teens to have more knowledge to protect themselves and sexually inexperienced

teens were then more likely to remain abstinent longer.

These initiatives slowly began to push back and helped to address the problem. While it

did not come close to eliminating the problem, it did apparently serve to control or mitigate those

factors as teen pregnancy rates declined steadily according to a study done by the Guttmacher

Institute. There was a decline of 41% from the peak seen in 1990 at which time there was 116.9

pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15-19 down to 69.5 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15-

19. Research by Guttmacher Institute concluded that almost all of the decline in the pregnancy

rate between 1995 and 2002 among 18-19 year olds was attributed to increased contraceptive

use, while women 15-17 had reduced sexual activity as well as increased contraceptive use

(Guttmacher, 2010).
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Recently, however, this trend began to reverse. Guttmacher Institute released a report in

January 2010 showing that in 2006 an increase in teen pregnancies, birth and abortion rates after

a decade of a steady decline with the reason for the increase not yet clear but are very concerning

due to the socioeconomic burden it creates (Guttmacher, 2010). Prior to this, such social ills were

commonly seen as having a direct relationship to socio-economic status and race. The

Guttmacher report showed an alarmingly universal quality as the increase of pregnancies took

place without regard to race or income. Non Hispanic whites still showed the lowest increase the

average pregnancy per 1,000 increased from 43.3 to 44 while Hispanic's and Blacks had an

increase from 124.9 to 126.6 and 122.7 to 126.3 respectively (Guttmacher, 2010). The obvious

implication is that class status no longer dictates the probability of teen pregnancy as it is now

happening in middle class families just as often as it occurs with inner city youth and that the

problem has grown in scope.

In order to know how to address these challenges it is worth considering what is causing

this sudden increase. The President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Cecile

Richards blames an increase in abstinence only sexual education funding for the upward trend,

"This new study makes it crystal clear that abstinence-only sex education for teenagers does not

work," (Lewin, 2010) however those programs had begun receiving funding while there was still

a steady decline in teen pregnancy during the Clinton administration, therefore it is important to

note other changes during the decade. Sarah Brown of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen

and Unplanned Pregnancy realistically stated,

"We had over a decade of progress on a very serious problem, and I worry that

we've ground to a halt. I think there are a lot of different factors at play, from less
 use of contraception, maybe because of less fear of AIDS, to our anything goes

culture, where's it's O.K. to get pregnant and have a baby in your teens" (Lewin

2010).

Simple observation of our society yields some truths which definitely enter into the equation.

One such issue that deserves serious consideration is the effect that the media has on the

portrayal of families, sexual relationships and pregnancy. Many people tend to downplay the

effects of artistic representations on the reality of everyday life but even Plato wrestled with this

very issue, thousands of years ago in The Republic where he decried the impact of art imitating

real life and in turn affecting changes in society that may be very detrimental. While the focus of

this discussion is not on Greek philosophy, some of the basic principles of creating an ideal

society have certainly been in play for millennia and are very applicable in examining our social

issues of today.

Generation Plugged In

Stanford University psychology professor Phillip Zimbardo was quoted as saying "The

media is the gatekeeper between psychology and the public"(Schwartz, 2001). The downside to

this paradigm is the fact that the public is not acutely aware of their sensitivity to the media in

which they immerse themselves. Humans naturally adapt to the environments they are in; they

mimic and replicate behaviors that they see around them. Albert Bandura conducted one of the

earlier, foundational studies in behavioral outputs from children based on what they have seen

their elders do.

"The Bobo Doll Studies" were experimental studies in which children of nursery school
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age observed a playroom in which an adult was hitting, punching, kicking and throwing a large

inflatable doll (Bandura, Ross & Ross 1961). Particular actions were used which children would

be unlikely to perform spontaneously. The children were then observed as they played alone in

the playroom with the doll for 10 to 20 minutes. A control group of children was allowed to play

with the doll without observing the aggressive adult behavior. As one might expect, the children

who witnessed the adult aggression performed similar acts; the others did not. In a series of

studies, Bandura and his colleagues showed that children display novel acts of aggressive

behavior which they have acquired simply through observing someone else engaged in these

acts.

A subsequent version of this experiment featured other children in place of the adults

used in the original study; the idea was to have a model with which the children more readily

identified with on a personal level. As this study progressed, three control groups were tested.

One control group witnessed the model child acting violently towards the doll and in some cases

being punished for their bad behavior. The second control group saw the model acting violently

with no obvious punishment. The third and last control group saw the model rewarded for their

actions. The net result was that the second and third control groups acted much more

aggressively than the first (Bandura, et. al 1961).

The results of Bandura's studies establish a baseline argument that what children see

ultimately translates into what they will do. While there have been many studies and counter-

studies done since the 1960s when Bandura performed these experiments, it seems fairly

accurate to boil a great deal of research down to the old witticism: "monkey see monkey do". In

light of this, how many parents think of the psychological input of television programming as
they might on a dietary level? A steady diet of bacon and ice-cream will lead to obesity, diabetes

and hypertension to name just a few maladies, and few people would consider this "news". What

sort of conditions will likely arise from a consistent diet of "reality TV" and popular culture?

Blurring the Lines of Reality

One does not need a laboratory with control groups to demonstrate cursory observations

of the steady increase in the role of media in the lives of young people over the last several years

It would be overly simplistic to place all of the blame at the proverbial feet of the media but it

would be foolish not to factor in their role in this process. On a skeletal level, media informs us

of what other people are doing and how their actions affect them and those around them. This

utilitarian application has given rise to entertainment-media which has little useful function and

serves as more of a mental dessert that is now widely overindulged without let or hindrance.

Entertainment media (specifically reality TV programming) allows people to break from

observing actual events and experience "penalty-free" the actions and rewards of socially

unacceptable behavior. The very real downside of this seemingly innocuous escape is the

normative influence of television; its ability to take fringe behaviors and bring them into the

median range simply through repeated exposure. While this may not align exactly with

Bandura's studies, the facts that it established certainly lend themselves to the idea that visual

input alone, can promote certain negative behaviors.

Kaiser Family Foundation has conducted research over the last decade of media exposure

in the lives of children and teens of all ethnic backgrounds in America; 15 to 18 year old were

found to have an average of 11.5 hours of total media exposure (television, music, cell phone and
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internet) approximately 6.5 of these hours per day is spent watching television specifically

(Rideout, Foeher, & Roberts 2010). Since these hours per day watching television have not

increased dramatically over the last decade, the type of programming is more likely to be a

culprit than the simple quantity of time spent watching. The most obvious and recent media

culprit that has imbedded itself in our society is that of "so-called reality television" which began

gaining popularity in 1992 with the MTV show The Real World and has since been credited with

pioneering and popularizing the modern reality genre. The impact of this change is multifaceted

and is significant aside from the contents of the messages presented via such shows as Jersey

Shore or Teen Mom.

Traditional programming, started actively pursuing sexual liberation with shows like Sex

and the City on HBO; this niche theme has spread the message of promiscuity and disposable

relationships to widely consumed teen oriented dramas like Gossip Girl, 90210 and Degrassi.

Sexuality and sex becoming more casual in TV, music and movies indicates that the culture as a

whole is becoming much more relaxed about sexual relationships and that certainly has a role in

increased teen pregnancies.

Despite these unsettling trends, traditional programming still acknowledges the process

of suspended disbelief, where viewers confront the fact that they are watching actors portraying

roles that were scripted for them. Consequences that were seen (or not seen) were filtered

through this barrier which does not exist with reality shows. The idea of viewing someone with

whom the audience more readily identifies themselves allows a more exciting and engaging

show in a similar manner to listening to a live performance over CD or MP3. As viewers no

longer experience the dissociation of watching actors portray sexually illicit scenes but rather
watch amateurs go about their "real" life, the normative quality of the media increases. One need

only to spend a short amount of time with middle school students who can recount in startling

clarity, the events of a show filled with adult content and overt sexual promiscuity like Jersey

Shore, one of the more recent and popular reality shows. Beyond this simple awareness, these

shows and their characters have become part of the lives of these young people since they are not

actors but are simply "real" people who happen to be on TV.

As implied by Bandura studies, the consequences or rewards have that much greater an

impact on viewers when the participants are seen as "real" people and not as actors. In such a

way we must consider the consequences of reality TV stars lives (at least as far as the public eye

can commonly see).

In 2008 MTV premiered a reality series called 16 & Pregnant where each week they

introduced a teen mom to be, of varying ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds and varying

home lives. Each episode would follow the girl around her school and would attempt to portray a

day in the life of a teen mom. While this could be seen as reinforcing responsible sexual

practices through a clear display of the consequences of others failure to do so, the immediate

success of the show created a spin off aptly entitled Teen Mom, where they follow a select few

"fan favorites" from the season and show how their lives are now that they are moms. Fighting,

broken relationships, support from parents and the difficulty of letting go of the single care free

life is shown through a carefully edited entertainment framework which inevitably sugarcoats the

actuality of life as a teen mom. The girls featured on this show have become celebrities; by

appearing on the cover of US weekly, People and Life & Style are portraying a huge personal

and social burden as being a stepping stone to fame. No longer is it seen as abnormal to have a
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child at a young age and not marry the father of the child or at least have him equally involved in

the responsibilities that are part and parcel; moreover it's now a way to 15 minutes of fame for a

select few girls.

In 2009, MTV debuted one of its current top sellers, Jersey Shore which follows the

uninformed bumbling of several metropolitan youths from the New York City area as they live

together and promote rampant hedonism and promiscuity. Alcohol consumption is almost always

shown preceding sexual activity which is almost never monogamous and which never (in two

seasons running) gives any sort of consideration to possible physical or emotional consequence

of such behavior. One "character" in the show, Ronnie, even remarks in one episode how he is

not smart and basically failed out of college to devote his time to partying. Indeed, this show has

skyrocketed a group seemingly unintelligent pleasure seekers into the limelight with very little to

contribute other than the entertaining train wreck that has been their last two summers.

Rather than rewarding hard work, talent or skill with fame, these shows are breeding

narcissistic behavior in teens, as more people are becoming famous for how wild a life they can

lead, who they are dating or if they can simply catch the public eye--even by dubious means.

Paris Hilton's sex tape scandal of 2004, catapulted her from an unknown party girl heiress to

instant celebrity status, soon after staring in her own reality show, followed by releasing an

album then a perfume. Clearly there is money to be made through these "reality stars" but at

what cost to the individuals involved and more importantly, to what cost to society as a whole

which on some level emulates those that they see on TV and magazines.

Kim Kardashian was also a barely recognizable model and socialite until a private sex
tape was "leaked" to the media and she has since been able to trump that by creating her own

entertainment empire, all revolving around just her appearance and the idea that her physical

allure makes her socially relevant. Along with that she catapulted her whole family to fame as

they have all been featured on a popular reality series "Keeping up with the Kardashians" which

shows another sugar coated single parent scenario with Kim's sister, Kourtney delivering the

child of her off again on again boyfriend without many of the accompanying hardships which

would be faced almost universally by any of her adoring fans, should they find themselves in a

similar predicament. Our culture has lowered the standards as to what qualifies an individual as a

celebrity; we celebrate vacuous mediocrity so long as it is fully outfitted with sexual trysts, flings

Cause and Effect

The trends of increasing promiscuity and teen pregnancy are not hard to miss. The weight

of a single parent is often felt by family members and friends who are called upon to help by

being a support network; worse yet are the long term social complications of a child who has

been raised without those support networks, whose young parent or parents simply had to fend

for themselves. This only scratches the surface of the problem due to its cyclical nature; young

parents must leave their children to their own devices which usually translate to an increase in

TV time and so it goes. The simplest method to solve most problems is to eliminate the cause. In

the case of recent teen pregnancy trends the situation is complicated to the point that one cause is

not the sole culprit, but one would have to be in complete denial to turn a blind eye to the effects

of reality TV and the "stars" it creates.

Which came first--the chicken or the egg? Perhaps reality TV is simply an expression of
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what lies hidden beneath the veneer of social acceptability and eradicating all such programming

would not solve the problem. Controlling the problem is really the first step to eliminating it

altogether and that at least can be done by television viewers by considering the input as being

directly related to the output. If we fixate and dwell on those negative aspects of human nature, it

is just as likely that while telling ourselves that we mean to learn from mistakes of our peers that

we will follow our innate predisposition, as shown by the research of Bandura and others over

the last several decades, down the path of imitation. Where conscious concern is not present,

unconscious reflexes take over and they do not always produce healthy results.

References

Bandura, A., & Ross, D., Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of

aggressive models. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63(575-582), doi:

10.1037/h0045925.

Guttmacher, Inst. . (2010, January). U.s. teenage pregnancies, births and abortions: national and

state trends and trends by race and ethnicity. Retrieved from

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/USTPtrends.pdf.
Lewin , T. (2010, January 26). After long decline, teenage pregnancy rate rises. The New York

Times .

Rideout, V.J., M.A., Foeher, U.G., Ph.D., & Roberts, D.F., Ph.D.,(2010, January). Generation

m2: media in the lives of 8-18 63 year olds. A Kaiser Family Foundation Study,

Retrieved from http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/8010.pdf.

Schwartz, M. (2001, May 01). Psychologist put the 'real' into reality TV. Stanford News Service,

Retrieved from http://news.stanford.edu/pr/01/zimbardo52.html

Webster, Weeks, C., G. (1995, January ). Teenage pregnancy: a summary of prevention program

evaluation results. Retrieved from http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/rptfiles/95-01-3901.pdf .