Sexual Socialization Messages in Mainstream Entertainment Mass Media: A Review and Synthesis

Results of recent research on the effects of the mainstream entertainment mass media on youth sexuality indicate that studies that do not take care to link particular types of media content to conceptually related outcomes are likely to yield results inconsistent with theoretical expectations. The purpose of this article is to facilitate content sensitive research by providing a review of the literature that researchers can use as a reference point when considering which questions to pose in their efforts to assess the effects of sexual entertainment media content on young people. Key results of content analyses of sexual portrayals in programs popular with adolescents across the entire television landscape, in prime-time programming popular with adolescents, soap operas, music videos, talk shows, feature length films, and magazines targeting adolescent and young adult females and males are presented, differences and similarities across genres are highlighted, and implications for future research are considered.